PatEdNet

If you'd like to network with other educators on a daily basis or get immediate feedback on an important issue, the PatEdNet e-mail discussion group may be exactly what you're looking for. Jackie A. Smith, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Clinical at the Univ. of Utah College of Nursing created the site with several colleagues and still maintains it. According to Jackie, after ASHET was disbanded and before HCEA was formed, PatEdNet was started to provide a needed forum for educators to exchange ideas in the late 90s.

“It was a hit right off the top. People like the immediacy of it. You can throw out issues and get immediate feedback that day,” says Jackie. “Just remember that any message goes to everyone on the list, now about 400 strong.”

To sign up, all you have to do is send a blank e-mail to join-patednet@lyris.med.utah.edu.

There are also two affiliated groups. For staff educators, StaffEdNet was formed a year later and the sign-up address is join-staffednet@lyris.med.utah.edu. A group for pediatric educators was just formed and is called Pipeline (Partners in Pediatric Education). The sign-up address is join-pipeline@lyris.med.utah.edu.

For more information and their FAQ page, go to http://uuhsc.utah.edu/pated/patednet/

MedLinePlus

At least some of our tax dollars are going to good use in the form of MedlinePlus, a health information website provided as a service of the National Library of Medicine and NIH.

According to the National Library of Medicine's Director, Dr. Donald A.B. Lindberg, “Medline Plus is a goldmine of good health information from the world's largest medical library.” It includes resources for healthcare professionals and patients on over 700 diseases and conditions. In fact the Wall Street Journal's 2004 “Guide to Some of the Internet's Best and Most Overlooked Health Sites” states that Medline Plus “should be the first stop in any Internet health search.”

In addition to its other resources, this site has an excellent section, “How to Write Easy to Read Health Materials.” It includes step-by-step instructions on how to plan, organize, write and evaluate self-developed handouts.

MedlinePlus also includes an informative 8 minute audio tour and a Spanish version of the site.

healthfinder

healthfinder® is an award-winning website for consumers, developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services together with other Federal agencies. Since 1997, healthfinder® has been recognized as a key resource for finding the best government and nonprofit health and human services information on the Internet. It also includes a Spanish language version.

The site is divided into four main sections:

• a comprehensive health library from A to Z including medical dictionaries
• a section on healthcare providers
• an area that focuses on special health concerns based on gender, age, race, ethnic origin, or role in helping others care for their health
• carefully screened organizations that reliably provide health information

One interesting section, Online Checkups offers ways to evaluate your risk or knowledge of over 50 diseases and conditions. A few examples include Estimating Your 10-year Risk of Having a Heart Attack, Your Cancer Risk, and Glaucoma: How Much Do You Know?

iHealthBeat

Reporting the Internet's Impact on Healthcare

iHealthBeat offers healthcare professionals an excellent way to keep up on what's happening in healthcare. It is a FREE service offered by the California HealthCare Foundation to stimulate the adoption and effective use of new information technologies in health care. The site includes news, commentary, trends, interviews, and streaming video and audio.

One section, Data Points summarizes surveys of interest. One reports that 69% of consumers said they seek health information on the Internet. In contrast, 59% of respondents said they sought advice from their personal physician, and 39% said they consulted other physicians or health care professionals.

Act in Time to Heart Attack Signs

Each year, 1.1 million Americans suffer a heart attack and about 460,000 of those heart attacks are fatal. Those figures would change if more Americans got to a hospital as fast as possible when a heart attack happened. If you want to raise awareness of heart attack prevention and recovery, The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute has a resource rich site called "Act In Time To Heart Attack Signs." This Web page's content includes information based on material developed by the Rapid Early Action for Coronary Treatment (REACT) research program. The site covers warning signs, surviving a heart attack, testing, reducing the risk, and medications. They also have links to Resources for Health Professionals and Resources for Patients and the Public.

HCEA Save the Date!

The Health Care Education Association's annual meeting is coming up September 15-17 at the Eric P. Newman Educational Center in St. Louis and is locally sponsored by the St. Louis Children's Hospital.

According to HCEA President, Yvonne Brookes, RN, this years meeting will focus on regulatory and accreditation issues (such as the JCAHO Survey Process, and patient safety), community health centers and libraries, cultural diversity, video-on-demand, PDAs, staff recruitment/retention, grant writing/fund raising, health literacy, and a host of other topical issues.

Leah S. Kinnaird, EdD will be the Pre-Conference and Keynote speaker. Dr. Kinnaird, an adult education specialist, has worked in almost every healthcare setting and now works as a healthcare consultant throughout the US, the UK, Ireland, and Italy.

The Healthcare Educators Spotlight will celebrate significant achievement in the field of healthcare education with presentation of several awards including the Jean W. Raines Distinguished Service Award. If you're an HCEA member you can nominate someone, even yourself, before August 1st.

For more information, go to hcea-info.org, write to hcea@cox.net, or call Yvonne Brookes at (786) 596-1333.