AAMC News and Leadership Announcements, 2012 Aug. 31

Here are the highlights from the current issue:

The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday published a lengthy editorial attacking “Cheesecake Factory Medicine.” The breathtaking editorial is in response to a recent article in The New Yorker by Dr. Atul Gawande about efforts to combine quality control, cost control, and innovation.
http://tinyurl.com/chotw8v (subscription may be required)
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/08/13/120813fa_fact_gawande

An article in the August 27 issue of Newsweek discussed the high cost of new cancer therapies that offer limited benefits. According to the article, “Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical and scientific officer of the American Cancer Society, says that in most cases, ‘new cancer treatments cost an awful lot of money, and there is usually a very small incremental benefit…Instead of talking about rationing care,’ Brawley says, ‘we need to talk about rational use of care.’”
http://tinyurl.com/8sbljms

A new web posting by Dr. Sally Rockey, NIH deputy director for extramural research, explores whether the number of applications submitted is correlated to more awards being received. Dr. Rockey writes, “It is evident from the data that, even within our top 100 funded organizations, institutions with similar averages of submitted applications per PI can have very different levels of success.”
http://tinyurl.com/ca9a439

The full list of announcements is below.

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We need your questions for our FAQ

We’re developing an FAQ for our web site, to make it easier for people to find answers to, well, frequently asked questions.  So, we need your help–and your questions: what would you like to see in a library FAQ?  If you have suggestions, please let us know; either leave us a comment on this post, call us (x68497), or send us an email (library@coh.org).

Preliminary testing: COH publications database

We continue to work on the City of Hope publications database. This past month, a small group of people tested the system. Representatives from various departments, such as Hematology, Immunology, ITS Research, Medical Oncology, Neurosciences, and Nursing Research, worked through a number of tasks in the system.  Library Services staff also tested the system.

Testers performed a variety of searches—e.g. author names, keywords, and core facilities—and filtered results by various criteria, e.g. co-authors, date ranges, grant numbers, and publication types.  They also tried out the My List feature, which lets you save publications for exporting later. The basic functions worked just fine during testing, but we learned that some aspects of the system were difficult to use.  The vendor is addressing these, and the initial release of the system is planned for later this month.

Want to know more about the system? Have questions? Please contact the library (library@coh.org or x68497) or stop by the Graff Library front desk to discuss the system with us.

Update on Library Office Hours

Back in March, we began Library Office Hours, where we staff a table in Brawerman each Monday from 2 to 3 p.m. We’ve had 218 interactions with COH staff, patients, and family members, about everything from, “Where’s the  library?” to how to find a journal or search for information on a topic.

Some of the specific information requests and questions we’ve answered are:

• How to attach full text PDF’s to an EndNote Library
• Do we offer PowerPoint classes and EndNote information?
• Referred a user to MedlinePlus for medication information
• How to access journals on an iPad

Come by and see us! Bring questions with you or just stop by to chat about some of our new services as well re-familiarize yourself with some of the tried and true ones, such as interlibrary loan and document delivery as well as our electronic table of contents. And, for us, since we answer so many questions over the phone and via email, this is a great opportunity for us to meet people face-to-face.

We look forward to seeing you!

AAMC News and Leadership Announcements, 2012 Aug 27

Here are the highlights from the current issue:

An article in Sunday’s New York Times discussed the procedural and ethical issues related to returning genetic results to research study subjects or their families, especially when the results were not envisioned as part of the initial protocol or consent process and treatment options exist.

http://tinyurl.com/8ntm39b <http://echo4.bluehornet.com/ct/17466819:20164302279:m:1:1612442508:A8B58835630E3EEECF533EED3B7015BD:r>

The revised HHS financial conflict of interest regulations became effective on Friday. NIH on Friday issued a notice concerning FCOI reporting of certain awards. According to the notice, “Most grantees have already submitted their annual progress report for FY2012 noncompeting continuation awards and multi-year funded projects, which means that the Annual FCOI Report was due before the FCOI implementation date (i.e., 45 or 60 days prior to the start date). Therefore, out of synch reporting for this subset of FY2012 awards will be necessary to capture FCOI reporting information. This one-time guidance is intended to shift the burden of out of synch reporting from the grantee to NIH staff. Therefore, NIH will not require grantees to submit FCOI reports for FY 2012 noncompeting awards issued on or after August 24 until requested by NIH staff.”

http://tinyurl.com/9ys8jnh <http://echo4.bluehornet.com/ct/17466820:20164302279:m:1:1612442508:A8B58835630E3EEECF533EED3B7015BD:r>

Stanford has posted a podcast featuring Captain Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger III, best-known as the pilot who miraculously landed a US Airways flight in the Hudson River, after a flock of geese struck and disabled the plane’s engines. Mr. Sullenberger, who retired in 2010, is now focused on patient safety. According to the posting, “He is among a group of patient-safety advocates calling for an independent agency modeled on the National Transportation Safety Board to investigate and prevent cases of medical harm.”

http://med.stanford.edu/121/2012/sullenberger.html <http://echo4.bluehornet.com/ct/17466825:20164302279:m:1:1612442508:A8B58835630E3EEECF533EED3B7015BD:r>

Two articles posted by the McKinsey Quarterly discuss fundamental changes in the pharmaceutical industry. The publication asserts that the “…’blockbuster’ model of drug development has run its course, and the pharmaceutical industry is now struggling to rediscover its knack for creating value.” One article, “Pharma manufacturing for a new era,” argues that intently focusing on manufacturing innovation is one way to restore the sector’s appeal. Another is by tackling some of the excesses in R&D approaches. “Restoring value to biopharmaceutical R&D” explores several imperatives for pharma executives. (Free registration may be required.) http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/home.aspx <http://echo4.bluehornet.com/ct/17466830:20164302279:m:1:1612442508:A8B58835630E3EEECF533EED3B7015BD:r>

The full list of announcements is below.

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