New Jersey Hospital Association H1N1 website

Yet another Swine Flu resource; this one from the New Jersey Hospital Association: 2009 H1N1 Flu.

More swine flu info

Tufts University has updated their SPIRAL (Selected Patient Information Resources in Asian Languages) to include new information about the swine flu in several Asian languages. Check out their website!

Ebsco/DynaMed resources on the Swine Flu

From Ebsco:

Due to the recent global outbreak of Swine Influenza, EBSCO Publishing and the DynaMed Editors have made DynaMed’s information about Swine Influenza free to health care providers and institutions throughout the world. The DynaMed topic on Swine Influenza consolidates information from multiple sources for health care providers to stay current with recommendations for monitoring, diagnosing, and treating patients with flu-like illnesses during this outbreak. DynaMed Editors will continue to monitor information and update this topic as needed throughout this global crisis.

If you’re interested in even more free Swine Flu information, visit Ebsco’s DynaMed website.

More Endnote news!

EndNote X2 offers a wide breadth of new features and improvements, such as the Find Full Text option, faster online search options, and Smartgroup creation. If you have not upgraded to the new EndNote X2, you can do so by going to the library’s EndNote webpage. Click on “EndNote Installation” and enter your FoxNet ID and password (the one you use for email). On the left hand side, under Talbot Research Library and Software, click on either Version X2 for Macintosh or Windows, depending on your operating system.

Just as a reminder: EndNote has created patches for both the Window and Macintosh versions of the program which allow EndNote usage in different “modes”. New EndNote library modes enable you to choose the way you like to work. You can use the online search introduced in EndNote X2 that imports results automatically into your EndNote library, or the temporary online search that requires moving references to the permanent library.

To upgrade to the X2 patch, please check the following link for instruction. Note that the Macintosh version of the patch has additional step for updating the “Cite While You Write” option.

What’s new in the EndNote X2 update

from The EndNote website:

The temporary online search results are back! Now you can choose between having results automatically stored in the library or kept separate for more selectivity. Three new buttons above the Groups panel provide:

• Integrated Library & Online Search Mode—library groups and online search results are combined on this panel to simplify navigation. Online search results are saved directly into the open library.
• Local Library Mode—the focus on this panel is groups built from the EndNote library. The Online Search groups are not available. When initiating an online search from the Tools menu, the Groups pane display switches to Online Search Mode.
• Online Search Mode—only the Online Search groups are available. When downloading references from an online database, the references are stored in a temporary library much like in previous versions of EndNote. Those references you wish to keep can then be copied to a permanent EndNote library.

Special librarians make the cut

U.S. News and World Report ranks librarianship as one the best careers for 2009. Special librarians are needed in all sorts of research organizations, such as Fox Chase, as well as law firms, pharmaceutical companies, non-profit agencies, hospitals and more. Librarians have to go through extensive graduate training and do not simply shelve books:

Forget about that image of librarians as a mousy bookworms. More and more of today’s librarians must be clever interrogators, helping the patron to reframe their question more usefully. Librarians then become high-tech information sleuths, helping patrons plumb the oceans of information available in books and digital records, often starting with a clever Google search but frequently going well beyond.

See the entire article here.

Internet usage good for aging brains?

For middle aged and older people at least, using the internet helps boost brain power, research suggests.

Apparently using the internet is better “brain stimulation” than reading a book. Check out the whole article on BBCNews.

Google Reader for your PDA

In an age when many of us are wondering how to keep up with all the news blogs and scholarly updates, Google (as Google usually does) provides voracious information-seekers with a fantastic answer. Their answer is: Google Reader, a RSS reader. Basically, a RSS reader uses RSS (Really Simple Syndication) technology to house and organize news and blog feeds into one convenient web tool. Google’s product outshines other RSS readers because its concise design translates clearly into a mobile format, so that anyone with a PDA can read feeds on one neat, legible platform. Many other blog tools fail when it comes to actually being read on a small mobile screen, so Google is a welcomed change (for me anyway). When on the train, or waiting for a late colleague, you can keep up with scholarly and personal news on a PDA without having to open up your laptop!

Top 10 Randomized Clinical Trial Abstracts

See Dr. Machtay’s selections for ASTRO 2008 sessions highlighting the latest advances in prostate, head and neck, breast, and GI cancers. Dr. Machtay has ranked these randomized clinical trial abstracts in the order of importance. Dr. Machtay is Walter J. Curran Professor and Vice Chair, Department of Radiation Oncology, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia.

TOP 10 RANDOMIZED CLINICAL TRIALS

1. Abstract 66: GP Swanson
   Update of SWOG 8794: adjuvant radiotherapy for pT3 prostate cancer improves metastasis free survival.
2. Abstract 67: J Bourhis
   Accelerated versus conventional radiotherapy with concomitant chemotherapy in locally advanced head and neck carcinomas: results of a phase III randomized trial.
3. Abstract 60: TJ Whelan
   Long-term results of a randomized trial of accelerated hypofractionated whole breast irradiation following breast conserving surgery in women with node-negative breast cancer.
4. Abstract 218: D Kwong
   A randomized trial comparing intensity modulated radiotherapy versus 2-dimensional radiotherapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
5. Abstract 65: M Bolla
   Ten year results of long term adjuvant androgen deprivation with goserelin in patients with locally advanced prostate cancer treated with radiotherapy: a phase III EORTC study.
6. Abstract 69: Q Le
   Palifermin reduces severe oral mucositis in subjects with locally advanced head and neck cancer undergoing chemoradiotherapy.
7. Abstract 165: JM Crook
   Final report of a Canadian phase III trial of 3 vs 8 months neoadjuvant androgen deprivation prior to 66 gray external beam radiotherapy for clinically localized prostate cancer.
8. Abstract 214: V Beckendorf
   70 Gy versus (vs) 80 Gy dose escalation Getug 06 French trial for localized prostate cancer: mature results.
9. Abstract 61: D Sebag-Montefiore
   The impact of short course pre-operative radiotherapy on patients’ quality of life: data from the MRC CR07/NCIC C016 randomised clinical trial in patients with rectal cancer.
10. Abstract 215: KA Skladowski
    Weekend breaks have no impact on the outcome of head and neck cancer when definitive radiotherapy is accelerated–results of phase III clinical trial (CAIR-2).

From: OncologySTAT.