Mass Gatherings and Public Health

Ever wonder why you always get sick at Mardi Gras? Surely it couldn’t be the mass consumption of food and drink combined with the scrambling around outside in all types of weather. Overindulgence aside, the “Mardi Gras malaise” sprang to my mind when I ran across “Public Health Surveillance for Mass Gatherings” (full text PDF) from the Johns Hopkins APL Technical Digest (Lombardo, J.S., et al.; Vol. 27, No. 4 (2008):

Abstract:
Mass gatherings represent specific challenges for public health officials because of the health risks associated with crowd size and duration of stay. In addition, population movement requires public health departments to interact across jurisdictional boundaries to identify risks and disease-management solutions. However, federal privacy laws restrict the sharing of patient data among public health departments in multiple jurisdictions. This article examines previous disease surveillance practices by public health officials in planning for mass events
and describes a simple approach for sharing health-risk information that was employed in 2007 during Super Bowl XLI by the health departments of Indiana, Marion County, Cook County, and Miami-Dade County.

Want more? In honor of the Inauguration, Superbowl, and other large spectacles, the National Library of Medicine has put together a fresh new bibliography on Public Health Preparations for Mass Gatherings.

New Books for the New Year!

A collection of hot new Library acquisitions are displayed on the New Books Shelf on the third floor (near the Reference Stacks). These titles can be checked out!

Ball, Jane. Pediatric Nursing: caring for children. WY 159 B21p 2008

Fortinash, Katherine M. Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing. WY 160 F77ps 2008

Catalano, Joseph T. Nursing Now!: today’s issues, tomorrow’s trends. WY 16 C28c 2009

American College of Cardiology Foundation, American Nurses Association. Cardiovascular Nursing: scope and standards of practice. WY 16 C17 2008

Styles, Margretta Madden. Specialization and Credentialing in Nursing Revisited: understanding the issues, advancing the profession. WY 101 St9s 2008

Winner, Paul. Headache in Children and Young Adults. 2nd ed. WL342 W73 2008

Cranford, Jerry. The Healthcare Professional’s Guide to Human Research. W 20.5 C85 2008

Clouse, Amy L. Women’s Health in Clinical Practice: handbook for primary care. WA 309 C625 2008

Li, Shulin. Electroporation Protocols: preclinical and clinical gene medicine. QZ 52 L61 2008

Brown, Meta. Drug Calculations: process and problems for clinical practice. 8th ed. QV 18 B81 2008

Holmboe, Eric S. Practical Guide to the Evaluation of Clinical Competence. W 20 H73 2008

Verster, Joris C. Sleep and Quality of Life in Clinical Medicine. WL 108 V61 2008

Hudziak, James J. Developmental Psychopathology and Wellness: genetic and environmental influences. WS 350 H86 2008

Jones, Stephen J. Prostate Biopsy: indications, techniques, and complications. WJ 750 J71 2008

Kiesslich, Ralf. Atlas of Endomicroscopy. WI 17 K54 2008

Rutter, Michael. Genetic Effects on Environmental Vulnerability to Disease. WA 30.5 R93 2008

McCracken, Thomas. Color Atlas of Small Animal Anatomy: the essentials. SF 761 M13 2008

Fishman, Alfred P. Fishman’s Pulmonary Diseases and Disorders. 4th ed. WF 600 F53pu 2008

Oatis, Carol A. Kinesiology: the mechanics and pathomechanics of human movement. 2nd ed. WE 103 Oa8k 2009

Synchronized Swimming Mitosis

The American Society for Cell Biology’s Image and Video Library is a great collection of still images and dynamic videos of the highest quality covering the field of cell biology. CellDance is an annual contest hosted by the ASCB that spotlights new video and digital images in microscopy.

My favorite is this video from University of California, San Francisco, which uses synchronized swimmers to illustrate mitosis. (The first place winner on the Golgi Appartus is pretty cool as well.)

The ASCB’s Image & video library invites contributions from all cell biologists who wish to publish high quality images and videos on the site, and all content is available to view for free online. As of yet there are no submissions from LSU! Maybe you could be the first to contribute.

Noon on Sundays

The John P. Isché Library will start opening at 12 noon on Sundays starting, January 11th. The Library will continue to close at 12 midnight.

Tetris as a trauma reducer?

UK researchers say the video game Tetris may work to reduce Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, BBC news reports:

The Oxford University experiment works on the principle that it may be possible to modify the way in which the brain forms memories in the hours after an event.

A total of 40 healthy volunteers were enrolled, and shown a film which included traumatic images of injuries.

Half of the group were then given the game to play while the other half did nothing.

The number of “flashbacks” experienced by each group was then reported and recorded over the next week, and those who played Tetris had significantly fewer.

The study was recently published in the online, open access journal PLoS One.

View full text of original article (free).

Science round-up 2008

From protecting our genetic information from discrimination to constructing an entire bacterial genome from scratch, here’s a round-up of the top stories in science and medicine for 2008:

Science Magazine names Reprogramming Cells the “Breakthrough of the year”; exoplanets & cancer genes make runners-up.

The NIH open access policy and GINA get a mention in Rick Weiss’s Top 8 Science Policy News Stories of 2008 at ScienceProgress.org.

Time Magazine went whole hog with it’s Top 10 of Everything, but we’re more interested in their Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs and Top 10 Scientific Discoveries.

Amazon editors selected Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body by Neil Shubin the best science book of 2008. Customers used their wallets to push My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey by Jill Bolte Taylor above Shubin; Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach sounds pretty interesting as well. (2008 was also the year of the colon, apparently.)

For you skeptics out there, The Quakometer offers his take on the best books about quackery, scepticism, complementary and alternative medicine and its effects on society for 2008.

A Practical Guide to Clinical Medicine

Whether it’s your first H&P or fifty-thousandth, medical students and other health care professionals will find A Practical Guide to Clinical Medicine useful.

Created by Charlie Goldberg, M.D. and Jan Thompson at UCSD School of Medicine, A Practical Guide to Clinical Medicine is designed eye towards clinical relevance. Each section is constructed to answer the question: “What do I really need to know about this area of medical care?” and the material is presented in a concise, ordered fashion with color photographs that should be readily applicable to the common clinical scenarios seen in day to day practice.

Detailed descriptions of how to function in clinical settings are included. If you’ve ever wondered about oral presentations, patient write-ups, outpatient clinics, functioning on an inpatient service or clinical decision making, there are sections describing exactly that.

A Practical Guide to Clinical Medicine is freely available online for anyone.

Choking Hazards

Everyone knows to watch out for small children and choking hazards, especially when age recommendations are not followed. As tomorrow (January 6th) is the first day of carnival, it is also the first day of the official King Cake season. Make sure you don’t choke on any plastic babies.

Ische Internal Elevator Down

The Isché Library elevator will be out of service for the forseeable future. It is being upgraded along with the main elevators for the building. It was taken out of service on December 23rd.

See you next year

The LSUHSC Libraries (Dental and Isché) are closed for the Winter Break (university holidays). Both Libraries will re-open on January 2nd at 8 a.m.

Winter Break Hours

Exam hours for the Isché Library will end on Thursday, December 18th. Winter Break hours will begin on Sunday, December 21st and will end on Sunday, January 4th. The hours are as follows:

Alferez Frieze – Library Commons’ Sculpture

Yesterday another milestone was reached in the completion of the Library Commons. “The Conquest of Yellow Fever” frieze by Enrique Alferez was mounted in a specially prepared wall. (Specially prepared because the frieze weighs about 2 tons.)

Conquest of Yellow Fever frieze by Enrique Alferez

Alferez frieze pre-restoration

The conservator will complete the restoration now that the piece is in place. The frieze will be beautiful addition to the Library Commons.

Ische Library Internal Elevator

The Isché Library’s Internal Elevator will be taken out of service on Monday, December 22nd. It will be completely overhauled and will be put back in service sometime in January. The internal stairwell will be available for accessing the 4th & 5th floors. For patrons who are unable to use the stairs, check with the Circulation Desk staff for other options.

At the same time elevators #1 & 2 for the Resource Center will be taken out of service. So access to the Library will switch back to elevators #3 & 4 (closest to Tulane Ave).

22 must-see diagnoses for med students

Wandering around Learningradiology.com today, I stumbled across “22 Must-See Diagnoses for Medical Students“. It’s a great review if you have 12 minutes to brush up on your radiology skills.

LearningRadiology.com has a ton of multimedia radiology resources, from interactive quizzes, and cases of the week. There’s also video podcasts available to download to your iPhone or mobile device too.

Have a favorite radiology site? Post here, and we’ll add it our radiology links page.

Santa & the Space Time Continuum

A North Carolina State University engineering professor has come up with theories on how Santa Claus can travel around the entire world in a single night (“exploit the space-time continuum”), how he carries all those presents in his sleigh (nanotechnology), and how he makes his list of naughty & nice children (antennas & radar).