Irena Bond

Evaluation of the Four Most-used Alternative Medicine Databases to Answer Common Herbal Information Questions

ABSTRACT Selecting the right tool to answer herbal product questions is essential for medical and information professionals. This studys objective was to compare and evaluate the four most-used alternative medicine databases in terms of adverse reactions, therapeutic use, interactions, and dosage of specific herbal products. MICROMEDEX (AltMedDex and POISINDEX), The Review of Natural Products (eFacts), Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database, and Natural Standard were compared for their completeness in answering patient questions related to garlic, Echinacea, saw palmetto, ginkgo, and cranberry. The results of this study will be helpful in making better database usage or purchasing decisions by librarians, pharmacists, and other medical professionals.

Improving Health Information Literacy of Early Adolescents Using a Lead Poisoning Curriculum

The purpose of this community outreach project was to improve health information literacy skills and lead poisoning knowledge in underserved early adolescents. An interactive curriculum focusing on one website (MedlinePlus) and one health issue (lead poisoning) was developed and used at an inner city school. Pre- and post-program surveys were used to assess the effectiveness of the curriculum. Results showed statistically significant improvements in both health information literacy skills and lead poisoning knowledge of 42 sixth graders. University-led community outreach collaborations to deliver an interactive curriculum in the school setting is a successful model for teaching health information literacy skills to early adolescents.

Virtual Reference: Chat with Us!

Virtual chat services represent an exciting way to provide patrons of medical libraries with instant reference help in an academic environment. The purpose of this article is to examine the implementation, marketing process, use, and development of a virtual reference service initiated at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences and its three-campus libraries. In addition, this paper will discuss practical recommendations for the future improvement of the service.

Assessing the Effectiveness of an Evidence-based Practice Pharmacology Course Using the Fresno Test.

Objective. To assess the effectiveness of an evidence-based practice (EBP) pharmacology elective course to teach EBP skills using the Fresno Test (FT). Methods. Pharmacy faculty members and medical librarians developed the elective course and offered it to two cohorts of doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) students. A pre/post intervention study design was used. Seven of 12 FT items were chosen to measure specific EBP skills: Ask, Access, Appraise and Apply. Pre/postcomposite and FT item mean scores were compared using Student’s t test with p<0.05 set as significant a priori. Results. Composite FT mean scores increased significantly for both cohorts. Mean scores for both cohorts increased significantly in four of the seven FT items but on different FT items. Conclusion. As a profession that commonly uses evidence-based guidelines, developing and integrating an EBP course in the PharmD curriculum is worth considering.