When you search Health Information @ Himmelfarb, the library’s search box, you will now be alerted to retracted content in the search results. This service is courtesy of Third Iron’s LibKey which provides the PDF and View Issue Contents buttons in article records. When an article is retracted, the PDF button is replaced with a Retracted Article button as illustrated below.
Clicking on the Retracted Article button opens a window that displays the retraction details (why the article was retracted) and PDF link if you still want to read or download the article.
Retraction notices are now available in other Third Iron products. For example, if you use the Browzine app to read e-journals from Himmelfarb, alerts to retracted articles will appear there. LibKey Nomad can be installed as an extension to your Chrome, Edge, or Firefox browser to provide PDF buttons in databases like PubMed. Nomad will now display Retracted Article buttons in those databases.
Need help searching for articles or other resources? Contact our reference team at himmelfarb@gwu.edu or through our chat service.
The Read by QxMD app and website provide a personal awareness service for health sciences professionals, making it easier to keep up with published research. Users create a free account login, enter their profession and specialty, and the service uses an algorithm to deliver a feed of recommended articles. Articles with high levels of interaction and views appear higher in the feed. Like a streaming music service, the more you read, like, and save on Read, the more tailored your feed becomes.
Users can save articles to collections that can be shared with colleagues or used for research projects, journal clubs, or other purposes. Users can also choose to follow curated collections or a particular journal and get regular push notifications when items are added. My Keywords allows users to enter a set of keywords and be alerted when a new resource that’s a match is added. The content source for QxMD is PubMed. New materials become available as they are added to the PubMed service.
It’s easy to access full-text of articles in the form of PDFs in Read. Many articles are open access. Himmelfarb Library is now updating library holdings with QxMD. GW users can now indicate their affiliation and access the library’s full-text collection. Downloaded PDFs are saved to the user’s device.
In December of 2014, 100 UCSF medical students held a demonstration to raise awareness and spur action on racial disparities in healthcare, police violence, and structural racism. The protest came in the wake of decisions by grand juries to not indict police officers responsible for the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. The UCSF event was the first White Coats for Black Lives Die-In. Medical students wore their white coats and layed on the ground in protest on the UCSF campus.
The UCSF demonstration inspired similar protests at more than 80 colleges and universities nationwide and became the #WhiteCoats4BlackLives movement. 74 White Coats for Black Lives (WC4BL) chapters are now active in health sciences academic institutions across the country with the following mission:
To dismantle racism and accompanying systems of oppression in health, while simultaneously cultivating means for collective liberation that center the needs, priorities, and self-determination of Black people and other people of color, particularly those most marginalized in our communities.
The Social Justice Interest Group at GW SMHS submitted responses to the 2019 WC4BL Racial Justice Report Card. The report card included fourteen metrics that evaluate institutions’ curriculum and climate, student and faculty diversity, policing, racial integration of clinical care sites, treatment of workers, and research protocols. One of the metrics where GWSMHS fell short concerned acknowledgement of contributions of BIPOC alumni and faculty. Portraits in Himmelfarb Library and imagery in Ross Hall were cited as problematic. Since then some portraits have been removed from Himmelfarb Library and a Ross Hall Images working group was formed to improve representation in the lobby area and other public spaces. GW overall scored a B- on the report card.
In the summer of 2020 the official GW WC4BL chapter formed. Among several marches, rallies, and stand-ins throughout the season, the local WC4BL chapters organized a gathering of hundreds of health care providers in support of the Black Lives Matter protests in Washington, DC and marched in the vicinity of the White House on June 6, 2020.
That year the GW chapter assembled a document outlining their demands to improve racial equity, diversity, and inclusion at the school. These included a commitment to admitting incoming classes with an over-representation of Black, Latinx and Native American students to begin correcting current shortages, an increase in the number of BIPOC faculty and staff, and specific changes to the MD curriculum, among them not teaching race itself as a disease risk factor.
The GW WC4BL chapter now focuses on three areas: admissions, curriculum, and outreach to the community. Progress is being made on all fronts through work with SMHS leadership, the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, and other activist groups on campus.
^From an event in Fall 2021 regarding long-term care of renal transplant patients, with the representatives from GW Ron & Joy Paul Kidney Center. Pictured (Right to Left) are Dr. Joseph Keith Melancon, Chief Transplant Surgeon at GWUH, and Kegan Dasher, current MS3 and E-board member for GW WC4BL.
The cost of GW has been a barrier to diversity in admissions. The group is meeting with administrative bodies at GW to find out more about what is being done to admit and matriculate more underrepresented minorities (URM) in medicine and determine how more scholarships can be made available specifically for these groups of students. Additionally, the group is working to make sure that antiracism work is asked about and considered appropriately in the admissions process including in secondary applications and the interview stage.
To improve the curriculum, there are now surveys for students to evaluate and report on how they feel race is used or misused in both lectures and in clinical settings. This information is shared with faculty and administration to raise awareness and identify ways to eliminate bias. Representatives from WC4BL have met with POM and PPS directors to better integrate social determinants of health into the curriculum, including at the basic sciences level.
On the outreach front, WC4BL organized students to provide screening services regarding the precedents to kidney disease (namely hypertension and diabetes) at health fairs in the DC area, particularly in Wards 7 and 8, in cooperation with the GWU Ron & Joy Paul Kidney Center. The goal is to raise awareness of these predisposing conditions, refer community members to follow-up services, and also instill and restore trust in health professionals in those predominantly Black and Brown communities.
Current contacts for the GW WC4BL chapter are E-board members Tori Greaves, Nakita Mortimer, Kegan Dasher, and Comi Ganji. There are also elected liaisons representing each of the MD classes who contribute significantly to the functioning of the group. You can reach the organization through the GW WC4BL email and their Facebook page. They are always open to information about new opportunities that the organization could become involved with as well as constructive suggestions about ways to create a more antiracist culture at GW.
Please join the GW WC4BL Facebook group for updates and events!
Himmelfarb Library would like to acknowledge and thank Kegan Dasher and the GW WC4BL board for their contributions to this article.
Join us for a series of noontime webinars February through May providing an overview of systematic reviews in the health sciences literature. Whether you’re planning to do a systematic review or just want to update your knowledge or fill in some gaps, these 30-minute sessions will provide the information you need from an expert librarian. Tom Harrod, Associate Director, Reference, Instruction and Access will be the instructor for all sessions. Tom has extensive experience with both authoring systematic reviews and teaching others, including a two week elective session, “Introduction to Systematic Reviews” for second and third year medical students.
Register to attend the seminar sessions live or view the recordings on our YouTube channel later.
Here’s more information on our scheduled webinars:
Developing A Research Question ,Thursday, March 3rd, from noon to 12:30pm Find out how to take an idea for a systematic review and transform it into a research question that can be used to drive the development of a systematic review protocol.
Formulating A Search Strategy,Thursday, March 17th, from noon to 12:30pm Learn about the vital role that librarians play in supporting systematic reviews, including their role in developing an exhaustive and complete literature search strategy.
Using Covidence,Thursday, March 31st, from noon to 12:30pm Explore Covidence, a software program that vastly streamlines the process of performing a systematic review.
Screening Articles, Thursday, April 14th, from noon to 12:30pm Learn how to plan and execute the process of screening candidate articles identified through your search strategies.
Extracting Data,Thursday, April 28th, from noon to 12:30pm Explore the process of systematically extracting data from the articles that made it through the screening process.
Quality Assessment,Thursday, May 12th, from noon to 12:30pm Find out how systematic reviewers evaluate the quality of their included studies by using established quality assessment tools.
Do you need assistance with a systematic review? Contact our team of reference librarians to schedule a consultation at himmelfarb@gwu.edu or chat with us at Ask a Librarian.
A full listing of all our scheduled Spring 2022 classes is on our Library Events page.
The School of Medicine and Health Sciences has a Premium Institutional Membership with the AMEE - Association of Medical Education Europe for staff and faculty. SMHS welcomes faculty and staff from the schools of Nursing and Public Health and the MFA to also use these resources. All that’s required is registering here using your GW or MFA email address.
Things you’ll have access to once registered include MedEdWorld, an online community with newsletters, interest groups, webinars, and online courses. MedEdWorld includes medical education-focused textbooks and journal articles. There are also links to video clips, images, diagrams and websites for personal use and teaching.
AMEE membership provides discounts to their annual conference and other conferences, and their publications, including MedEdPublish, an open access e-journal. The journal Medical Teacher is provided free to members in an online format.
Mentoring is a relationship that can benefit both the mentor and the mentee. Having a supportive mentor is often critical for success and growth when becoming a new professional or changing jobs. Mentoring relationships are valuable for students who are exploring careers, or need strong recommendations to take their next step into the professional world. Being an effective mentor can help hone your leadership skills, expose you to different perspectives and ideas, enhance your reputation, and bring the satisfaction of having helped a junior colleague or student.
At GW there are several departments that provide support for mentoring. One of them is housed in Himmelfarb Library! The SMHS Center for Faculty Excellence is located on our first floor. Helping support and develop mentoring relationships for faculty at all stages in their careers is part of their services. They have programs to support both Micro-Mentoring, which is one-on-one mentoring, or Peer Mentoring Groups for cohorts of 6-8 junior faculty. Additionally they will present Effective Mentoring Workshops to departments on request. Visit their Mentoring Resources page for more information on these programs and their Mentoring Toolkit.
The Milken Institute School of Public Health has TEAM Milken - Transition, Engagement, Academics, and Mentorship. The program aims to provide individualized support to GWSPH majors to help them thrive academically and professionally. A peer mentoring program for undergraduate students will launch this spring. The TEAM has 30+ staff and faculty participants to provide outreach and guidance.
The Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship includes mentoring as a core component of the program. They sponsor a mentoring network through the GW Innovation Exchange. The exchange helps students interested in entrepreneurship connect with alumni or community professionals to find collaborative opportunities and internships.
Evans MM, Kowalchik K, Riley K, Adams L. Developing Nurses Through Mentoring: It Starts in Nursing Education. Nurs Clin North Am. 2020 Mar;55(1):61-69. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.cnur.2019.10.006. Epub 2019 Dec 24. PMID: 32005366.
Henry-Noel N, Bishop M, Gwede CK, Petkova E, Szumacher E. Mentorship in Medicine and Other Health Professions. J Cancer Educ. 2019 Aug;34(4):629-637. http://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-018-1360-6. PMID: 29691796.
Roberts SE, Nehemiah A, Butler PD, Terhune K, Aarons CB. Mentoring Residents Underrepresented in Medicine: Strategies to Ensure Success. J Surg Educ. 2021 Mar-Apr;78(2):361-365. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsurg.2020.08.002. Epub 2020 Aug 21. PMID: 32839148.
It’s that time of the year again. The white stuff could be coming any day to mess with campus commutes. Here are some ways to stay on top of closures, inclement weather, and campus emergencies.
For Himmelfarb Library closures and hours changes, follow us on Twitter or Facebook! Himmelfarb hours are also regularly updated on our website.
GW Campus Advisories - Visit https://campusadvisories.gwu.edu for traffic, weather, safety, and metro alerts. Closures and delays will be posted here.
GW Alert - This service sends emergency alerts to e-mail addresses, cell phones (text messages), social media and university web pages. Sign up through the GW Alert portal to receive alerts.
GW Information Line - Call for a recorded message on university status, adverse weather conditions, important issues concerning safety, and anything else that may disrupt normal operations. 202-994-5050 for Foggy Bottom, 571-553-8333 for Virginia Science and Technology Campus in Ashburn.
CapitalAlert.gov - Get alerts about the wider Metro DC region through CapitalAlert. It includes emergency, traffic, weather and Amber alerts, and information about school and government closures. You can choose which jurisdictions you want alerts for.
GW Guardian App - Download this app to your smartphone to get campus alerts and connect directly to GW Police and emergency services. The app can assign a virtual Guardian to monitor your progress and safety while commuting or walking alone on campus. Available for iPhone or Android.
Social Media - Follow @GWTweets for non-emergency safety and security information, and @GWPolice for emergency safety information. The university Facebook page has similar content.
The Himmelfarb Library search box includes content ranging from books and book chapters, to dissertations, scientific reports, newspaper articles, and journals. If you’re looking for journal literature specifically, there are several methods you can use.
The first method is to use the Articles search scope. This will automatically limit all search retrieval to just article content. To activate this scope, click the down arrow next to the microphone icon to see all the search scope options and select Articles:
Articles scope includes articles from a variety of journal, magazine, and newspaper sources.You may need to use further limits, including selecting particular content types or limiting to peer review journals with the Availability filter on the left side of results.
These same limits can be used if you start in the default search scope and later want to limit your retrieval to a particular content type.
If you’re looking for content from a particular journal, use the Journal Search option. You can then search either the journal title or ISSN if you have it and can click through to the journal contents from the retrieved record.
To get to full-text of a retrieved article, use the Available Online link that appears in brief results or click the Download PDF link if present.
To see all supplier options for getting to full-text, click the article title in brief results to open the full record, then see the View Online area to click through to full-text from a particular supplier.
If there are no full-text options, use the Documents2Go link under How to Get It to order the article via interlibrary loan. You can login to Documents2Go with your GW NetID username and password.
A scanned or electronic version of the document will be sent to you. It may take several days to a week to process.
If you need assistance with searching the library search box or other databases, contact reference staff via Himmelfarb Library chat. For assistance with document delivery services, contact mlbdoc@gwu.edu.
Medical librarians have been important advocates for health literacy, so it’s appropriate that we celebrate the profession the same month we recognize the importance of health literacy. Healthy People 2030 updated their definition of health literacy to include both personal and organizational health literacy:
Personal health literacy is the degree to which individuals have the ability to find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others.
Organizational health literacy is the degree to which organizations equitably enable individuals to find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others.
The National Library of Medicine and the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NNLM) play a key role in delivering health literacy programs and information resources. MedlinePlus piloted in 1998 as a consumer health information website. It provides a trusted, evidence-based information resource that includes resources in Spanish and over 40 other languages on medical topics, tests, drug information, and genetics. Health check tools including calculators and questionnaires are available. MedlinePlus Connect is a free service that allows linkage of patient information to the EHR.
Medical librarians support health literacy through programs like InformationRx services that provide tailored patient education materials assembled by librarians to patients at the request of attending physicians. Medical librarians also do outreach initiatives, like train the trainer programs for community lay health workers, frequently supported by NNLM grants. The Medical Library Association provides consumer health information specialization training for librarians who provide health information services to the public.
Medical librarians have been active in the fight against the Covid infodemic. At the Eskind Biomedical Research Library, Vanderbilt University, librarians supported nursing staff to make sure they had easy access to the most up to date information when communicating with patients and they did outreach to nurse educators and patient advocacy groups. The Medical Library Association maintains a Covid-19 Resource Guide for Patients and the Public.
Walker P. (2021). The library's role in countering infodemics. Journal of the Medical Library Association : JMLA, 109(1), 133–136. https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2021.1044
Whitney, W., Keselman, A., & Humphreys, B. (2017). Libraries and Librarians: Key Partners for Progress in Health Literacy Research and Practice. Studies in health technology and informatics, 240, 415–432 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5724359/
Months or maybe years ago you set up an ORCID. That’s a great first step to having a unique identifier for your research and work. It allows others to find, link to, and credit you for your work even if you have a common name. Some major scientific publishers and funders now require an ORCID to publish with them or submit grant proposals.
Setting up your ORCID is just the first step (if you haven’t taken that step yet, here’s how!) Your ORCID needs care and feeding to maximize the benefits to you. Here’s some tips for keeping your ORCID up to date and maximizing its usefulness:
Make sure to add all the variants for how your name appears in works. Do you sometimes use two initials and sometimes use just one? Do you sometimes use a shortened version of your first name (ex. Jon for Jonathan). Make sure all these versions get added to your account - here’s how.
