The Fluoride Debate: The Nuance You May Be Looking For - from Your Local Epidemiologist

This question comes up every so often in my  medical library, and I appreciate Katelyn Jetelina, aka Your Local Epidemiologist (YLE) writing about "the real deal" best evidence with fluoridated water and public health.   

Fluoride has sprung into the national spotlight in the past few weeks, and many people have great questions. Here’s the nuance to equip yourself for evidence-based discussions.

Fluoride is important for our teeth

Fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral found in water, soil, air, and some foods. Our bodies need minerals for many things, including strengthening our bones and teeth. Just like our bones need enough calcium, our teeth benefit from getting enough fluoride. Specifically, fluoride strengthens enamel—the thin, hard layer that covers our teeth—which helps prevent bacteria from causing cavities. Preventing cavities is good for many things, including cardiovascular health.

The value of fluoride isn’t controversial—it’s good for our teeth. This is why toothpaste contains fluoride, and dentists apply it directly to teeth, too. The question being debated is whether we should add it to our public water supplies.    

Read more ... 

 

Book Arts and Paper Folding

Mercy Library Volunteer Nancy Wilms in Oshkosh, WI

with her Dog Paw Book Folding Creation

While recycling old books in our Ascension Wisconsin Medical Libraries, we saved a few to be transformed with the art of book folding. 

Mercy Library Volunteer, Nancy Wilms, has been learning to master this artform.

It starts with choosing a suitable book.  The best books for book folding contain thicker paper (not onion skin pages, and not the glossy/shiny paper.  The thicker paper poofs up and gives the folded designs body and life.

There are many patterns and support groups devoted to this artform available online, with varying degrees of complexity.  Nancy started with a heart, then moved onto a star, and finally the dog paw print.

These artworks are currently on display in the Mercy Library.

Book Folded Heart by Nancy Wilms.

If you would like to get started in this artform, Nancy recommends the following website: 

• How to Create a Basic Heart Book Fold

She says, "This link leads to a free book folding pattern for the heart.  It is probably the easiest to start with since it gives the free pattern and a tutorial.   It gives immediate satisfaction without scaring off people new to the art. There are many book folding groups on Facebook and also many tutorials on YouTube.  Patterns to download are available for a modest price on some sites and Etsy."

You Cannot Search the Literature Using AI, and This Is Why

 

Before you use AI to search the literature, read this ... (It's only 1 page)

Oermann MH. You Cannot Search the Literature Using Artificial Intelligence, and This Is Why. Nurs Educ Perspect. 2024 Nov-Dec 01;45(6):337. doi: 10.1097/01.NEP.0000000000001344. Epub 2024 Oct 12. PMID: 39400193.  Link to article.

The Problems:

• ChatGPT and similar tools do NOT have access to the fulltext articles in MEDLINE, CINAHL, and other content behind paywalls.  This content is not part of the training data for AI.
• AI may miss potentially important studies
• AI may produce false information or misinformation 
• and frequently produces fake (hallucinated) citations.
• When AI was used for the literature review, up to 70% of the references cited were inaccurate or not relevant)
• extensive time was needed for fact checking
• current articles were missing
• and the draft included plagiarism.

What AI is good for:

• Use it to explore a topic
• Brainstorm ideas and potential questions to guide your search
• Generate additional key words for a search
• Use it for general editing
• If you use AI for drafting and revising content for a manuscript, you must review the text for accuracy and plagiarism and check every reference.

Pets of WHSLA: Scout & Rudy

Scout & Rudy

Owner: Rita Mitchell, Librarian Sr. Advocate Midwest Library, Aurora Sinai Medical Center

 

Scout and Rudy are two boys rescued from two different shelters in the Milwaukee area.  Scout is the grey cat, 9 years old.  He meows a lot – but with inflections.  You can have a conversation with him. His favorite thing to do is play fetch with any human – sometimes he plays well enough to say, “he plays fetch like a dog”.  Seriously, he runs after the stick, puts it in his mouth and brings it back to you. Rudy is the buff or blondie cat, 6 years old.  Rudy loves chin rubs and begs for pets all the time.  If you are lucky, you might see Rudy tap Rita’s shoulder during an online meeting.

NNLM Discovery: Becoming a Medical Librarian

NNLM Discovery Podcast: Becoming a Medical Librarian

From The National Library of Medicine

In this episode of NNLM Discovery, we follow the educational journey of someone who aspires to become a medical librarian, Kristi Torp, who has worked for multiple NNLM Regions and is currently part of the NLM Associate Fellowship program. 

The NLM and NNLM offer many opportunities for aspiring librarians. If you or someone you know is thinking about librarianship, share this episode with them! And please remember to reach out to your NLM office to learn more about the resources they may have to help you.

The NNLM is the outreach arm of the National Library of Medicine with the mission to advance the progress of medicine and improve public health by providing all U.S. health professionals with equal access to biomedical information and improving the public's access to information to enable them to make informed decisions about their health. The seven Health Sciences Libraries function as the Regional Medical Library (RML) for their respective region. 

To learn more about Region 5 visit: https://www.nnlm.gov/about/regions/re... 

All of the artwork for this podcast series has been created with a generative AI text-to-image tool! The text prompt for the episode's artwork was “silhouetted diverse medical librarians working on computers helping doctors.”

Piecing Together Systematic Reviews - Phases 5-8: Preservation, Promotion, Impact and Update

Piecing Together Systematic Reviews ; Phases 5-8: Preservation, Promotion, Impact and Update

NNLM Webinar from October 23, 2024

The recording, slides and handout have been posted to the event page.

The recordings and materials for all the previous sessions are also available. 

     >  Scroll to the bottom of the series page to locate each of the sessions.

This session will cover phases 5-8 of the PIECCESS review cycle, Preservation, Promotion, Impact. and Update. 

Margaret Foster, MS, MPH, is the Evidence Synthesis and Scholarly Communication Librarian and the Head of the Center for Systematic Reviews and Research Syntheses at the Medical Sciences Library, Texas A&M University. She is the co-author of the first book written on systematic reviews for librarians- Assembling the Pieces of a Systematic Review: A Guide for Librarians (2017) and recently Piecing Together Systematic Reviews and Other Evidence Syntheses (2022). She received the Presidential Impact Award from Texas A&M University in 2018 and the Lucretia W. McClure Excellence in Education Award in 2024 from the Medical Library Association.

This presentation meets the NNLM goal to work through libraries and other members to support a highly trained workforce for biomedical and health information resources and data, improve health literacy, and increase health equity through information.

 This class is for educational and informational purposes in alignment with NNLM goals and does not offer medical advice.

Class Resources:

Phases 5-8 Handout (PDF)

Phases 5-8 Slides (PPT)

Objectives:

At the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• Describe the tasks after the review is published including preserving the report, its data and tracking its impact
• Detail potential role of librarian in promoting the review and determining when to update a review
• Describe how to set up a consultation service for reviews

Piecing Together Systematic Reviews - Part 4: Paper

Piecing Together Systematic Reviews - Part 4: Paper   

An NNLM Webinar from Sept. 25, 2024

This session will cover the fourth phase of the PIECCESS review cycle, the Paper phase, during which the report is written. This will cover updating searches, selecting the journal, writing search reports, and other potential support.

Speaker Information

Margaret Foster, MS, MPH, is the Evidence Synthesis and Scholarly Communication Librarian and the Head of the Center for Systematic Reviews and Research Syntheses at the Medical Sciences Library, Texas A&M University. She is the co-author of the first book written on systematic reviews for librarians- Assembling the Pieces of a Systematic Review: A Guide for Librarians (2017) and recently Piecing Together Systematic Reviews and Other Evidence Syntheses (2022). She received the Presidential Impact Award from Texas A&M University in 2018 and the Lucretia W. McClure Excellence in Education Award in 2024 from the Medical Library Association.

This presentation meets the NNLM goal to work through libraries and other members to support a highly trained workforce for biomedical and health information resources and data, improve health literacy, and increase health equity through information.

 This class is for educational and informational purposes in alignment with NNLM goals and does not offer medical advice.

Class Resources:

Handout from Previous Sessions (Word)

Phase 4 Slides (PPT)

Handout for Phase 4: Paper

Objectives:

At the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• Describe standards for reporting searches
• List potential options for librarian input into written reports of reviews
• Describe when and how to update searches

The Evidence Pyramid Problem [ NNLM Webinar]

The Evidence Pyramid Problem  : NNLM Webinar from October 2024

This recent NNLM webinar made me re-think the EBP Pyramid.  We know there are multiple PICO-type models for different types of questions.  It only stands to reason that different questions might require different EBP Pyramids, too.   

In 2022, The Journal of PeriAnesthesia Nursing launched a series focused on revolutionizing processes for evidence-based practice (EBP). This series aims to identify longstanding EBP-related traditions that may be outdated or unsupported by evidence, or may simply add confusion, poor scholarship, and workload burden. 

In this webinar, the authors of the latest article in this series will join us to discuss the evidence pyramid. They will provide an overview of how the traditional evidence pyramid can mislead students and clinicians, and propose a different method to determine evidence strength and applicability – the evidence funnel. Join us for an engaging session that will feature a live discussion, with ample opportunity for questions and dialogue.

Guest Speakers

Laura Cullen, DNP, RN, FAAN leads Evidence-Based Practice at University of Iowa Health Care. Laura is internationally recognized for her expertise in EBP and implementation. Among her many accomplishments, she is most proud of the many clinicians she has mentored and staying application oriented. Laura’s work has led to innovation in practice; improved patient safety; reduced nosocomial events; improved patient, family and staff satisfaction; reduced hospital LOS and costs; and transformation of many organizations’ EBP infrastructure.  She has over 100 publications and presents nationally and internationally. Laura is on the editorial board for and has a regular EBP column in the Journal of PeriAnesthesia Nursing, and is on the editorial board of the American Journal of Nursing, and has been on the grant review panel for the DAISY Foundation.  She has received multiple awards and her work supported numerous awards for the nursing department.

Dr. Stephanie Edmonds is the Nurse Scientist at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis and an Associate Adjunct Faculty at the University of Minnesota School of Nursing. She currently leads evidence-based practice programs at Abbott Northwestern, with over five years of experience leading nursing teams in healthcare improvement work. Dr. Edmonds’s research centers on healthcare improvement with a particular interest in implementation science, patient engagement, and patient-centered communication.

Jennifer DeBerg, OT, MLS,  is a User Services Librarian at the Hardin Library for the Health Sciences at the University of Iowa Libraries. In this role, she leads a user services team for ongoing assessment and quality improvement of library services and provides regular direction to the reference team. She also serves as liaison to nursing, orthopedics, rehabilitation therapies, and communication sciences. Prior to obtaining her MLS in 2008, Jennifer worked as an occupational therapist for 15 years, and has a passion for providing support/education to clinicians with an interest in evidence-based practice. Research interests include nurse practitioner use of EBP, library user experience, and healthy library workplace design. 

Objectives:

1. Stimulate critical thought about evidence base-practice and provide a forum for a thoughtful discussion.

MedEd Podcast: The Future of Medical Libraries: Evolving Roles in Research, Education and Clinical Support

Michelle Kraft recently shared the following Cleveland Clinic MedEd podcast and encouraged fellow Librarians to share it with anyone who may not realize the benefits of having a medical librarian in their institution:

“The Future of Medical Libraries: Evolving Roles in Research, Education and Clinical Support” (23 min.) where we talk about the rapidly evolving field of medical library science. No longer keepers of information, the librarian’s role has shifted to that of enablers of research and education in a digital age. Dr. Tizzano and I discuss trends such as artificial intelligence, hospital mergers and the challenges of funding and access in medical libraries. We also dive a little into the problems of fake medical information/news, the importance of systematic reviews and the critical support librarians provide to healthcare professionals.

Share your comments:

• What do you think?  
• What other ways can medical librarians be involved in the future of healthcare, medicine, biomedical research? 
• What are some barriers as well as opportunities to our involvement?  

WHSLA Election Recap - new faces coming to the WHSLA Executive Board in 2025

Three new faces are coming to the WHSLA Executive Board in 2025. Congratulations to our newly elected representatives who will be starting their positions in January 2025. 

• Hayley Severson, MCW Libraries, 2025 President-Elect
• Michelle Harrell, MCW Libraries, 2025-2026 Member-at-Large
• Will White, UW-Milwaukee, 2025-2026 Member-at-Large 

We are also looking for a person to represent WHSLA as the Midwest Chapter/MLA State Representative. Contact Kathy Koch for more information.