Medicine

Free Influenza Resource from EBSCO

Influenza: Evidence Based Resources is a FREE database offered by EBSCO Publishing (from whom the Libraries purchase a number of databases). It is comprised of selected resources from a number of its health related databases. And includes information for clinicians, nurses and patients.

Flu Statistics for LA

The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals has released its Influenza Surveillance Report through the end of August. It finds that:

  • 11% of swine flu patients are 4 or younger.
  • 70% are 5 to 24 years old
  • 18% are 26-64
  • 1% are 65 are older
  • Further the report states that “there are 737 lab confirmed cases of 2009 Influenza A (H1N1) in Louisiana. Based on an extrapolation from CDC data, the real case count in Louisiana is closer to 39,000.”

    Don’t forget to follow the CDC guidelines for staying healthy.

    1st Chemotherapy Agent Used 100 years ago

    Paul Ehrlich developed what is now recognized as the first chemotherapy agent 100 years ago. On August 31, 1909 his 606th compound of arsenobenzene was developed. He was searching for a way to treat syphillis.

    Anniversary

    223257759_d8a7130727_o.jpg

    Four years later, a memorandum of understanding is signed for a new public-private teaching hospital.

    Influenza Update

    With reports the past weeks of daycare center closings, sidelined football players, and sniffling sorority girls, clearly Louisiana is not immune from H1N1 outbreaks. As of August 17, 2009, Louisiana reports 449 confirmed cases and 1 related death (also in New Orleans) from the novel influenza A (H1N1) virus, aka the Swine Flu.

    For local & state information on influenza, visit www.FluLa.com, from the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals. There you will find weekly statistics and public health updates, as well as flu information for patients in English, Spanish and Vietnamese. Clinicians can also access an Online Training Course on local flu preparedness, testing protocols, regional OPH offices, and info from the Louisiana Office of Public Health Lab like the Lab 96 form and instructions for swine flu testing.

    For national swine flu information, the CDC is always your best bet: http://cdc.gov/h1n1flu/

    Top Doctors from New Orleans Magazine

    Once a year, New Orleans Magazine publishes a list of the Top Doctors in the greater New Orleans area; this list is compiled from a database created by Best Doctors in America. This year there were 564 listings from 66 specialties; the list is created by asking area physicians who they would want to treat an ill family member. Two LSUHSC physicians were featured Kim Edward LeBlanc and Cleveland Moore. Congratulations to everyone on the list!
    Allergy & Immunology
    Luis R. Espinoza
    Cleveland Marvin Moore
    Ricardo Sorenson
    Cardiovascular Disease
    David Lucas Glancy
    Critical Care Medicine
    Christopher C. Baker
    Carol M. Mason
    Steve Nelson
    Warren Richard Summer
    Dermatology
    Brian David Lee
    Lee T. Nesbitt, Jr.
    Endocrinology & Metabolism
    Alfonso Vargas
    Family Medicine
    Kim Edward LeBlanc
    Herbert L. Muncie, Jr.
    Infectious Disease
    Rebecca Adair Clark
    Michael Edward Hagensee
    David H. Martin
    Charles V. Sanders
    Internal Medicine
    John R. Amoss
    David M. Borne
    Angela M. McLean
    Medical Oncology & Hematology
    Lowell Anthony
    Neurology
    John D. England
    Anne L. Foundas
    Amparo (Amy) Gutierrez
    Piotr Wladyslaw Olejniczak
    Austin John Sumner
    Nuclear Medicine
    Richard J. Campeau, Jr.
    Obstetrics & Gynecology
    Martha Johnston Brewer
    Ralph R. Chesson, Jr.
    Felton L. Winfield, Jr.
    Orthopaedic Surgery
    Andrew G. King
    Otolaryngology
    Rohan Walvekar
    Pain Medicine
    Alan David Kaye
    Stephen Kishner
    Pathology
    Randall Douglas Craver
    Gary E. Lipscomb
    William Proctor Newman III
    Pediatric Allergy & Immunology
    Cleveland Marvin Moore
    Ricardo Sorenson
    Pediatric Anesthesiology
    Stanley Martin Hall
    John Frederick Heaton
    Pediatric Cardiology
    Robert Joseph Ascuitto
    Nancy Tamara Ross-Ascuitto
    Aluizio Roberto Stopa
    Pediatric Gastroenterology
    Raynorda F. Brown
    Pediatric Hematology-Oncology
    Renee V. Gardner
    Tammuella E. Singleton
    Maria C. Velez
    Lolie Chua Yu
    Pediatric Nephrology
    V. Matti Vehaskari
    Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgery
    Andrew G. King
    Pediatric Pathology
    Randall Douglas Craver
    Pediatric Rheumatology
    Abraham Gedalia
    Pediatric Specialist/Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
    Charles C. Coleman
    Debra DePrato
    Martin J. Drell
    Humberton Quintana
    Pediatric Specialist/Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine
    Brian Barkemeyer
    Staci Olister
    Duna Penn
    Dana Rivera
    Pediatric Specialist/Neurology, General
    Stephen Russell Deputy
    Ann Henderson Tilton
    Maria Weimer
    Pediatric Specialist/Neurology, Neuromuscular Disease
    Ann Henderson Tilton
    Pediatric Surgery
    Charles Baker Hill, Jr
    Pediatric Urology
    Joseph Ortenberg
    Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation
    Stephen Kirshner
    Psychiatry
    James G. Barbee
    Jose Calderon-Abbo
    Charles C. Coleman
    Erich J. Conrad
    Debra Deprato
    Howard Joseph Osofsky
    Mark Harold Townsend
    Pulmonary Medicine
    Juzar Ali
    Carol M. Mason
    Steve Nelson
    Judd Ernest Shellito
    Warren Richard Summer
    David Allen Welsh
    Rheumatology
    Luis R. Espinoza
    Sleep Medicine
    Piotr Wladyslaw Olejniczak
    Surgery
    Christopher C. Baker
    J. Philip Boudreaux
    John Patrick Hunt III
    Surgical Oncology
    Eugene A. Woltering
    Urology
    Sean Collins
    Harold Anthony Fuselier, Jr
    Jack Christian Winters
    Vascular Surgery
    Larry Harold Hollier

    Largest Class of Medical Students

    It’s not just my imagination. There really are more first year medical students this year. Welcome to campus!

    Prevention and Control of Seasonal Influenza with Vaccines

    Weekly Influenza Surveillance: Week ending July 25, 2009
    CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) published the 2009 guidelines for the use of influenza vaccine for the prevention and control of seasonal influenza on July 30th, 2009. These guidelines are for seasonal flu, for which there are vaccines, and not swine flu, though clinical trials are underway for the H1N1 virus.

    “Flu season” generally runs October – May. During these months, the CDC collects and publishes weekly influenza surveillance reports, like the one shown above. In fact, you can even get flu updates sent to your phone.

    Who needs the seasonal flu vaccine? Health care workers, for one, as well as young children, the aged, pregnant women and people with chronic medical conditions. LSUHSC – NO usually offers flu shots for a small fee during the month of October.


    More flu information from the CDC.

    2010 Yellow Book

    2010 yellow book
    The 2010 edition of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention?óÔé¼Ôäós Yellow Book includes new or expanded sections on medical tourism, traveling safely with chronic diseases and conditions, and expert perspectives on popular travel itineraries worldwide. The updated book, which is a definitive guide for healthy international travel, is now available online.

    Aerospace Medicine & History

    July is full of space anniversaries, from the moon landing (July 15th) to the establishment of Cape Canaveral (July 24th), but what did this mean for medicine?

    To understand the history of a medical subject, I sometimes check out its history in MeSH. The current subject is Aerospace Medicine and has been since 1980, but it was Aviation Medicine from 1966-74 and Space Flight from 1975-79. If a comprehensive historical search is required, it is always good to check out the Online & History Notes in MeSH.

    Check out this article by SE Parazynski, a former astronaut and a physician, entitled “From model rockets to spacewalks: an astronaut physician’s journey and the science of the United States’ space program.” This article is freely available to the general public through PubMed Central.

    National Junk Food Day

    July 21st is National Junk Food Day, but try not to go wild. According to the CDC, Louisiana went from having under 15% obesity rate in 1990 to a rate of 25-29% in 2008. If you’re going to celebrate today, just try to be smart and eat healthy the rest of the week.

    $1.3 Mil from NCI

    The NOLA.com website just released a story on LSUHSC’s own Eduardo Davila. Dr. Davila, assistant professor pediatrics, has been awarded a $1.3 million grant over 5 years by the National Cancer Institute to study new immunotherapies, including a vaccine, for cancer. Read the LSUHSC press release for more information.

    Don?óÔé¼Ôäót eat that Dough!

    Looks like Louisianans haven?óÔé¼Ôäót been eating prepackaged Nestle Toll House refrigerated cookie dough and thank goodness.

    As of Tuesday, June 30, 2009, 72 persons infected with a strain of E. coli O157:H7 with a particular DNA fingerprint have been reported from 30 states (None in Louisiana!). Of these, 51 have been confirmed by an advanced DNA test. More information is available from the CDC.

    Who Named It? (medical eponyms)

    From Abbot’s tube (A long double-channel intestinal tube inserted through a nostril) to Zimmermann-Laband syndrome (an extremely rare inherited syndrome of gingival fibromatosis), whonamedit.com has it covered.

    A biographical dictionary of over 8294 medical eponyms (people after whom something is named) and counting, whonamedit.com was created by a Norwegian group, and has been around since 1994.

    What I really like about this site is the ease of use. Eponymns are listed alphabetically and by category, so if you want a list of all epoynms associated with the brain, it is quickly accessible.

    There are also a fair number of biographical entries, which can be browsed by country and last name. There is a separate list of female entries. Many biographical entries also include bibliographies, which makes my little librarian heart flutter.

    BOTTOM LINE:
    Whonamedit.com is a great source to check synonyms and definitions of medical conditions, and offers a fair number of biographical entries for physicians. It’s layout makes it very easy to use as a quick reference source.

    Practice Anatomy with Winking Skull

    Here’s an anatomy site that is fun and educational at the same time.

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    WinkingSkull.com is an online study aid for anatomy. It’s provided through Thieme publishing, which also provides online atlases to our library users.

    Offering several levels of access (my personal favorite is FREE), Winking Skull features stunning illustrations from Atlas of Anatomy, based on the work of Michael Schuenke, Erik Schulte, and Udo Schumacher. Once you’ve created a user name and password, it’s fast and easy to create exams based on region of the body. There’s a self study mode as well as a timed assessment feature, and your statistics are saved so you can see what you need to work on.

    246 images are offered at the free level, but if you personally own either Atlas of Anatomy or Anatomy Flash Cards: Anatomy on the Go, you get access to the “Plus” version: 363 images from Atlas of Anatomy. For those who really want an extra anatomy study aid, there is a “Pro” account available for a monthly subscription. Freaking out about that anatomy exam? There’s even a 24 hour “Panic Package”

    BOTTOM LINE
    Winkingskull.com features a witty name, a 246 free anatomy images, and a great interface with wonderful pictures. Next time you’re bored in lecture, check out this game instead of MineSweeper.

    DETAILS
    -Requires creation of user profile (free)
    -Free version offers 246 images

    This post is simply an FYI and should not be taken as a product endorsement.