Health & Wealth: A Graphic Guide to the US Health Care System

The Center for Cartoon Studies presents

Health & Wealth: A Graphic Guide to the US Health Care System

The goal of this concise and engaging 32-page [digital] comic is to provide a baseline understanding of the healthcare system so people can feel a little less intimidated by its complexity and cruelty, and more empowered to advocate for themselves and those they care for. 

 

We hope Health and Wealth will generate discussions around healthcare and healthcare reform.

With a Richard Scary aesthetic that will be familiar to many, Health & Wealth includes: 

• Resources for Further Reading (page 27)
• An Engagement Guide (page 28) with 
• Questions for Personal Reflection
• Group Discussion Questions
• Activities
• What's Your Game
• Personal Healthcare Directory
• Glossary (page 29)

WHO MADE THIS COMIC?

The Center for Cartoon Studies (CCS) and the Harvard Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University are supporting this project. CCS director/co-founder and 2020-21 Radcliffe Fellow James Sturm is leading a team that includes scholars, healthcare professionals, cartoonist Kazimir Lee ’16, and Harvard and CCS students.

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Unlocking the Mysteries of Long Covid

 

 

Wondering about the long term implications and sequelae of Long Covid?

The Atlantic published an article that delves into this very topic.

Read it here for free at The Atlantic.

O’Rourke M. Unlocking the Mysteries of Long COVID. Atlantic. 2021;327(3):28-39. Accessed July 26, 2021. Link to article via Badgerlink / EbscoHost.    

Addressing the vaccination gap

Recently, we've been hearing a lot about how this is becoming a "pandemic of the unvaccinated."  But why are there still so many unvaccinated people?  It's tempting to believe they're all anti-vaxxers, and dis/misinformation are still a problem.  But a bigger problem is access.  Yes, the vaccines are free, but what about time off work, childcare, and transportation to and from the vaccine site?

Atlantic writer Ed Yong interviewed Rhea Boyd, MD, MPH, a pediatrician and public health advocate for this excellent article that takes a deeper look into this issue.

Dr. Rhea Boyd, photo from https://rheaboyd.com/about/

PubMed Update: Clinical Queries Usability Study and Interface Updates

 

PubMed Update: Clinical Queries Usability Study and Interface Updates

The PubMed Clinical Queries interface has been updated following a usability study to support user-friendly, efficient searching on clinical and disease-related topics. Clinical Queries currently includes filters for Clinical Studies and COVID-19 articles; the search strategies for these filters did not change in this update.

Clinical Queries Usability Study

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) recently conducted a usability study of the PubMed Clinical Queries interface to:

• Explore user goals for conducting searches with Clinical Queries
• Identify strengths and weaknesses of the original interface
• Recommend improvements to help users search more confidently and efficiently when using PubMed Clinical Queries
• Create a flexible page design that can adapt to and support emerging needs in the future, such as the addition of COVID-19 filters in fall 2020 (see PubMed Clinical Queries Update Coming Soon)

The usability study gathered input from librarians, clinicians, researchers, and other PubMed users through video interviews, hands-on testing, survey responses, and web analytics. Many thanks to the participants for sharing their time, feedback, and expertise to help improve PubMed!

Searching with PubMed Clinical Queries

Based on user feedback, the Clinical Queries interface (see Figure 1) has been streamlined to focus on one search category at a time, facilitate quick access to the full results in PubMed, and make supporting information about the filters and results more readily accessible. Please note, the Clinical Queries filters have not changed in this update; these filter search strategies are documented in the PubMed User Guide.

Figure 1: The PubMed Clinical Queries interface has been updated to support user-friendly, efficient searching.

To search using Clinical Queries:

1. Enter your search terms in the search bar.
2. Adjust the Filter category and selected Filter(s) as needed.
3. Changing filter settings will automatically search with the new filter applied, or you can use the Search button to manually run your search.
4. Preview the first five results for your search on the Clinical Queries page.
5. To view all results, click the link to "See all results in PubMed."

NLM is continuing to enhance the PubMed user experience based on usability testing, analytics, and feedback from users. Please write to the Help Desk with your comments and suggestions.

By Jessica Chan
National Center for Biotechnology Information

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This article first appeared in the NLM Technical Bulletin on July 20, 2021.  It is reprinted here courtesy of the US National Library of Medicine.

Chan J. PubMed Update: Clinical Queries Usability Study and Interface Updates. NLM Tech Bull. 2021 Jul-Aug;(441):e3.   Link to article.  

How you log into NCBI accounts is changing this summer

This may be old news for some of us, but in case you missed it last spring, here's another chance to update your NCBI Login.  

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Do you log into NCBI to use MyNCBI, SciENcv, or MyBibliography? Do you submit data to NCBI? Beginning in June 2021, there will be changes to how you log into these and all other NCBI accounts. Read below for the details.

What’s happening?
NCBI is transitioning from using local account passwords (the password you created at NCBI) for logging into NCBI to using only 3rd-party logins (your username and password from Google, Login.gov, ORCiD, your university or research institution account, etc).

What about my account data?
This change will NOT affect the data in your account, such as your MyBibliography, SciENcv, or submission data. You will also keep your NCBI Username, you just won’t be able to log in with it anymore.

Why is this happening?
NIH, NLM, and NCBI take your privacy and security very seriously. Transitioning to 3rd parties who have industry-standard security practices ensures that you have the highest level of security and enables us to focus our resources on improving your experience once you log in.

Which 3^rd party logins can I use?
We have over 4000 3rd-party options for you to choose from, including Login.gov, ORCiD, Google, Microsoft, and InCommon and EduGain affiliated organizations. See:

Choosing the Best 3rd-Party Option for You

What is happening when?
Summer 2021 - As of June 22, users are no longer be able to create an account with an NCBI-managed password. Shortly afterward, we will be launching a software tool (“wizard”) to walk you through the process of disabling your NCBI password and linking a 3rd-party login. We are rolling out the wizard gradually this summer, so you may not see it right away.

June 2022 - Any accounts without valid 3rd-party logins linked to them will no longer be accessible through NCBI login pages. The data in the accounts will be preserved and procedures will be available for data recovery.

What do I need to do?
We suggest linking at least one 3rd-party login to your account now and starting to use it to log into NCBI. By acting now, you will ensure no difficulties or delays in accessing your accounts come June 2022 when special procedures will be required to access accounts without linked 3^rd-party logins. For directions, see:

How do I link 3rd-party logins to my NCBI account?

We are here to help!
Read our NCBI Account Login FAQs for more information. If you have any questions or encounter issues, you can always write us at the Help Desk or email us at info@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.

The Librarian Reserve Corps

I've been fascinated with The Librarian Reserve Corps ever since I first heard about it sometime last year.  It showed the value and solutions Health Science Librarians brought to the pandemic.  It made me proud to be part of this profession!

The Librarian Reserve Corps formed as a volunteer organization in response to the Covid pandemic and the World Health Organization (WHO) needing the expert skills of Librarians to help search, organize, and manage the unprecedented onslaught of new data that was coming out on the topic.

2 recent articles have been published about The Librarian Reserve Corps:

Librarian Reserve Corps: Literature indexing and metadata enhancement (LIME) observations from a year in the field

Jessica Callaway

Journal of Health Information and Libraries Australiasia; April 2021: 2(1); 35-45.

The Librarian Reserve Corps: An Emergency Response.

Callaway J.    Med Ref Serv Q. 2021 Jan-Mar;40(1):90-102. doi: 10.1080/02763869.2021.1873627.PMID: 33625329.  

If you want to learn more, check out the following webinar, and find out how you can get involved and be part of The Librarian Reserve Corps, too!

Evidence-Based Librarianship: Building the Base as We Respond to the COVID-19 Pandemic / Infodemic.  

Webinar for IFLA posted to YouTube on June 11, 2021.  

The Librarian Reserve Corps is an international volunteer network of over 140 medical and public health librarians from 14 countries, working in partnership with the World Health Organization in response to public health emergencies.

The COVID-19 pandemic sparked a dramatic increase in publishing, including the dissemination of scientific research in preprints, press releases and news stories, as well as the creation of new and specialized databases and search portals. This challenged traditional systems and standards for organization and searching.

This webinar will describe the primary initiatives undertaken by the Librarian Reserve Corps to streamline efforts and encourage sharing and collaboration among partners to inform the evidence-base health information response to COVID-19, focusing on the evolution and preliminary results of two key projects

1) A database validation study of specialized COVID-19 literature databases, jointly led with the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technology in Health.

2) The development of best practices for searching during public health emergencies.