UpToDate Anywhere - an update!

UptoDate Anywhere has announced an enhancement to their service. Currently users must confirm their ongoing affiliation with RCSI every 30 days; from 1st July this re-verification period will be extended to 90 days. So users who log in from the RCSI network at least once every 90 days will maintain their UpToDate Anywhere access rights with no disruption.

So what is UpToDate Anywhere? See below for details

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Men's Health Week 2015

This week (15th-21st June) is International Men's Health Week. Men's Health Week aims to heighten awareness of preventable health problems for males of all ages. Each year, individual countries focus upon a specific theme. The theme for 2015 in Ireland is: 'Creating culture change - it's time for a new script'.

In Ireland:

• Men die, on average, four and a half years younger than women do

• Males have higher death rates than women for all of the leading causes of death

• Poor lifestyles are responsible for a high proportion of chronic diseases

• Late presentation to health services leads to a large number of problems becoming untreatable

          (www.mhfi.org, 2015)


Some useful resources on men's health include:

• The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) provides an A-Z of men's health with general information on men's health topics as well as links to relevant publications and reports.

• Irishhealth.com has a section dedicated to Men's health 

• The State of Men's Health in Europe (2011) - a report by the European Commission comparing men's health within and between European countries

• RCSI has access to a number of resources which may be of interest;. Searching RCSI library's Clinical Key database for 'men's health' will provide you with detailed information on the topic from a number of sources including ebooks and journals. You can access Clinical Key through the 'Find Articles: Databases' section of the library's website. 

       

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Free access to OVID resources in June

For the month of  June OVID are offering free access to PsycBOOKS, a unique full-text database of books and chapters from the American Psychological Association (APA).

You can sign up for access at this link

                 

OVID are also offering free access to the Harvard Review of Psychiatry in June; you can register here



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Changes to PubMed

PubMed has recently implemented some changes.

To help users easily find the feature to create My NCBI e-mail alerts the  the 'Save search' link has been renamed  'Create alerts' (Figure 1). Also, the 'RSS' link to create an RSS feed for a search has been renamed 'Create RSS'.

Additionally, the  'Related citations' feature has been renamed 'Similar articles' (Figure 2) as has the Abstract discovery tool title (Figure 3).

Figure 2: PubMed Summary Display

Figure 3: PubMed Abstract Display

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World MS Day 2015

Today, May 27^th, is World Multiple Sclerosis Day. The theme for this years day is access; access to diagnosis, treatment and support; access to buildings, leisure and travel facilities; and access to education, training and employment. There are a number of events taking place in Dublin to mark the day; you can get more information on these and the day itself at http://worldmsday.org

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a progressive disease of the nervous system, for which there is no cure at present. It is one of the most common diseases of the central nervous system; approximately 2.3 million people worldwide suffer from MS, with around 8,000 in Ireland. MS is more likely to affect women than men, with a ratio of 2:1. Symptoms are varied and include fatigue, vision problems, dizziness and depression.

Some resources which may be of interest are listed below:

• The Multiple Sclerosis Society of Ireland provides information on MS and links to local support groups across the country.

• Searching RCSI Library's Clinical Key database for 'Multiple Sclerosis' will provide you with detailed information on MS from a number of sources including ebooks and journals. You can access Clinical Key through the 'Find Articles: Databases' section of the library's website (RCSI staff and students only)

• The US National Library of Medicine (NLM) provides an information page on MS with links to evidence based research and consumer summaries. 

• The Cochrane Library has published a number of systematic reviews and protocols evaluating the effects of pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions for MS. You can see the full list here 

                                         

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International Clinical Trials Day

Today, 20th May, is International Clinical Trials Day. It commemorates the day James Lind started his famous trial on scurvy and is the recognised date for organisations, clinical research professionals and the public to celebrate and acknowledge the importance of research in healthcare.

Frank Moriarty, who is based at the HRB Centre for Primary Care Research at RCSI in Dublin, has written an article in the latest Irish Times health supplement calling for open and transparent clinical trial reporting, in order to eliminate bias towards positive results. He argues that this bias 'can alter the balance of evidence for a drug and make it appear more beneficial that it actually is'. You can read the full article here .

The RCSI library website has links to a wide range of resources on evidence based healthcare. Of particular interest may be the CONSORT website. The main product of the CONSORT group is the CONSORT Statement which is an evidence based, minimum set of recommendations for reporting randomized trials. It offers a standard way for authors to prepare reports of trial findings, facilitating their complete and transparent reporting, reducing the influence of bias on their results and aiding their critical appraisal and interpretation.

The ISRCTN registry , a primary clinical trial registry recognised by WHO and ICMJE that accepts all clinical research studies, may also be of interest as well as clinicaltrials,gov which is maintained by the United States National Library of Medicine (NLM) and provides access to information on publicly and privately supported clinical studies on a wide range of diseases and conditions,

                                                              Wellcome Library, London.

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Need a Library book over the summer?

From Monday 18 May 2015, you can get a vacation loan for most items from RCSI Library - please ask at the Service Desk when taking out the book.

Please note:

• Vacation loans are due on Monday 14 September 2015
• A vacation loan is subject to certain conditions - if there are requests for the item over the summer months, then we may need to recall the item. In this case, you must agree to return the item (by post etc.) and are responsible for the item until its return. 
• Exceptions: USMLE and MCQ books and DVDs are exempt from vacation loans as these are required over the summer. 

Please ask at the Library Service Desks if you have any queries about vacation loans.