Hardin News

The University of Iowa Libraries would like to announce the implementation of VisualDx, a visual clinical decision support system designed by the doctors and health care professionals of Logical Images, Inc. VisualDx merges medical images with specialist knowledge to guide diagnosis, treatment, and management of visually presenting conditions. It provides instant access to close to 16,000 images that aid in the diagnosis of nearly 900 visually identifiable diseases, drug reactions, or infections.

The University of Iowa is continually working to improve patient care through quick and accurate diagnosis, along with using today’s latest technology available to medical institutions. It was found that VisualDx increased diagnostic accuracy by over 120% in a study done by the University of Rochester Center for Future Health (http://www.logicalimages.com/prodVDxProven.htm).

Used in a growing number of hospitals and state health departments, VisualDx is organized to match the way clinicians think about symptoms and diagnoses. By entering patient symptoms, signs, medical history, and other clinically relevant findings, the system refines a patient-centric differential diagnosis. VisualDx presents this visually so health care professionals can actually see the differential allowing them to evaluate and analyze in direct comparison to the patient and feel confident that they have considered all relevant diagnostic possibilities.

Additionally, VisualDx is a key component for emergency preparedness. The system provides differential diagnoses for rare and unusual events such as bioterrorism and emerging infectious diseases and can be customized to inform clinicians of public health alerts, reporting requirements, and notification needs at the point of care.

VisualDx can help many health care disciplines, including:

• Emergency Medicine
• Family Medicine
• Public Health
• Dentists
• Emergency Preparedness Teams
• and more…

Access VisualDx today!

The Hardin Library now has a private lactation room available any time the library is open.

Room 430 contains an electronic pump and some reading materials provided by Family Services.  The room has an outdoor view, is near the restroom, and has wireless internet access.

If you would like to use the room for lactation or feeding, please ask for the key at the 3rd Floor Desk.  If you have questions about the room or its use, please direct them to Catherine Reed Thureson at 319/335-7221.  Further information about lactation facilities on campus is available from Family Services or by calling Jane Holland at 319/335-1371.

Fear and dread are no strangers to the Libraries, especially during finals week, as students fight the demons of procrastination, sleep deprivation, and over-caffeination. But this Halloween, we’re kicking it up a notch from fear to terror.

Drop by Main Library on Halloween for our “Ghosts From the Stacks” event, where library staff will draw from Special Collections, Iowa Women’s Archives and the John Martin Rare Book Room to presents artifacts related to grave-robbing, local hauntings, and demon conjuring. Also we will serve cookies.

Ghosts From the Stacks
Main Library, room 2032
Wednesday, Oct. 31, noon - 1:00 pm

The public is invited to a University of Iowa History of Medicine talk on “Poisoning on the Prairie: Abraham Lincoln, Nancy Hanks Lincoln and Milk Sickness” at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, October 23, in Room 401 of the UI Hardin Library for the Health Sciences.

The speaker will be Edmund A. Franken, Jr., Professor Emeritus, Division of Diagnostic Radiology.

Light refreshments will be served. The lecture is part of a series of presentations sponsored by the UI History of Medicine Society.

Franken will discuss the epidemic of milk sickness that swept the wilderness of Southern Indiana shortly after seven-year-old Abraham Lincoln and his family moved to the area. The disease was responsible for the death of Lincoln’s mother and several relatives. While pioneers presumed correctly that milk sickness was due to a poison, the medical community pursued other causes and inhibited the development of knowledge to prevent the disease. The puzzle was not completely solved until the 20th century. The presentation will also include information about the young Abe Lincoln and the role that the social environment of the area played in his development.

Based on feedback from this summer’s trial, Natural Standard is now available. Natural Standard provides evidence-based information about complementary and alternative therapies. It contains three sub-databases: Herbs & supplements, condition center, and alternative modalities. Information is presented in the form of mongraphs designed to facilitate clinical decision making. All monographs undergo blinded editorial and peer review prior to inclusion in Natural Standard databases.

Faculty of 1000 is a unique service which provides reviews of pertinent and interesting papers. Faculty of 1000. Medicine includes recommendations from a group of nearly 2500 leading international researchers and clinicians, while Faculty of 1000. Biology includes reviews from well over 1000 leaders in the field.

Thursday, October 18, 2007, 4:00 – 7:00 p.m.
Begins at Sahai Auditorium room 110A, Medical Education & Research Facility (map), then moves to Hardin Library for the Health Sciences.
Join us as we celebrate the opening of the traveling exhibit from the National Library of Medicine, Changing the Face of Medicine.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Chief of Staff and UI College of Pharmacy alumna Susan Winckler, and Professor and Head of the UI Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Jennifer Niebyl, M.D. will speak about the changing role of women in health care. Winckler was recognized in 2003 as a UI Distinguished Alumni Winner. Niebyl was honored as a “Local Legend” by the American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA). 

Women doctors are the focus of a new traveling exhibition on display at the Hardin Library for the Health Sciences from October 11 through November 30.

Changing the Face of Medicine: Celebrating America’s Women Physicians tells the extraordinary story of how American women who wanted to practice medicine have struggled over the past two centuries to gain access to medical education and to work in the medical specialty they chose. The University of Iowa Libraries is one of only 60 libraries across the country that has been awarded the traveling exhibit from the National Library of Medicine.

Remarkable Women in Health Care is the University Libraries local site for the exhibit.   The site includes a calendar of programs.