The Rotation: A Himmelfarb Library Blog
Resources, tools & health news from GW Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library
Are you starting to think about GW Research Days 2019? Learn more about Research Days by hearing from some of the presenters and faculty mentors at GW Research Days 2018:
Also, remember that you can explore research presented at past GW Research Days via the Health Sciences Research Commons. The 2018 posters and presentations are online, as well as those from prior years.
New research published in JAMA Internal Medicine looks at the inverse relationship between coffee drinking and mortality. In this population-based study, researchers used baseline demographic data to estimate hazard ratios for coffee intake and mortality, and also looked at the potential effect of specific genes which are known to modify caffeine metabolism.
In Association of Coffee Drinking With Mortality by Genetic Variation in Caffeine Metabolism: Findings From the UK Biobank, Lotfield, Cornelis, and Caporaso seek to answer the question:
"Moderate coffee consumption has been inversely associated with mortality; however, does heavy intake, particularly among those with common genetic polymorphisms that impair caffeine metabolism, increase risk of mortality?"
To understand their research and find an interesting example of population-based genetic research, read the full article - and and enjoy your favorite caffeine beverage guilt-free while you read!
To learn more about these issues and other genetics topics, participate in the SMHS’s online Genetics Journal Club.
Image citation: Foong, C. (2012). coffee [Online image]. Available at https://www.flickr.com/photos/cherylfoong/8249906174
Healthy Living @ Himmelfarb’s November events calendar!
You can use the Healthy Living calendar to find free events including exercise (Fitbit Local Bootcamp and TRL Yoga Flow), cultural events (Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play), and activities to help you enjoy and explore Washington, DC (Smithsonian Food History Weekend Festival; Downtown Holiday Market).
Healthy Living's November calendar can help to help you recharge at the GW Harlan Greenhouse in SEH (Science & Engineering Hall), or by serving your community via Help the Homeless this Holiday Season at the Friendship Place.
An article recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine explores the inherent tension between public health and precision medicine as public health has worked to improve the health of populations and precision medicine seeks to improve the health of individuals via their unique genome. In “Precision” Public Health — Between Novelty and Hype, Merlin Chowkwanyun, Ronald Bayer, and Sandro Galea explore what precision medicine might mean for public health and ask:
What does a shift toward precision medicine mean for public health?
Will precision public health provide an opportunity reenvision and empower public health or is it an abandonment of public health’s core aim of enhancing health at a population level?
How will public health integrate individual genome specific data and interventions with its broader mission?
To learn more about these issues and other genetics topics, participate in the SMHS’s online Genetics Journal Club.
Over the last year, the three GW University libraries have worked together to implement new management and discovery systems. The new systems provides access to collections and library resources available to the GW community at large and can also search the collections of the Washington Research Libraries Consortium (i.e. Georgetown University, American University, Catholic University, etc.).
One major change to library systems at GW is that all patrons have been assigned to a home library. If you are in the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Milken Institute School of Public Health, or the School of Nursing, your home library is the Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library.
What does this mean for you?
Start every search at the Himmelfarb Library webpage (http://himmelfarb.gwu.edu) which features the Health Information @ Himmelfarb search box.
Sign-in to Health Information @ Himmelfarb with your GW NetID:
to ensure full access to Himmelfarb collections and document delivery services. While most search results are displayed regardless of login, Scopus search results are displayed for on-campus and logged-in users exclusively.
to see what library items you have checked out and renew them.
Himmelfarb Library users can still search the Gelman Library collection and access Gelman Library electronic full-text articles and books - and vice versa. However, access to print books and materials at other WRLC Libraries requires that you login to your home library.
How do I sign in?
Access Himmelfarb Library and then enter a search in the Health Information @ Himmelfarb search box or go directly to http://himmelfarb.gwu.edu/catalog/.
Click on Sign In in the upper right corner of the Health Information @ Himmelfarb screen.
Enter your GW NetID (netid@gwu.edu) and password.
Should you have any questions or concerns about how the new system works, please contact the Information Desk at 202-994-2850 or chat us @ Ask Us.
The National Guideline Clearinghouse has ceased operation and links to it have been removed from the Himmelfarb Library website. The Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality released a statement on July 2, 2018 which stated that the National Guideline Clearinghouse would cease as federal funding is no longer available to support it.
Can genetic information catch a killer? And, cost you your privacy?
As the Washington Capitals' winning record brings them closer to the Stanley Cup, Himmelfarb Library looks to the health sciences literature to assess if being a Washington Capitals' fan can make you happier.
In this article, researchers explored the relationship of emotional expression with group membership. Extrapolating from that data, we suggest that being a Washington Capitals fan will make you happier.
GO CAPS!
In the recent NEJM essay p53 and me, Shekinah N.C. Elmore describes the experience of living with a genetic diagnosis as "flying between fatalism and denial". Dr. Elmore was diagnosed with Li–Fraumeni syndrome during her 1st year of medical school having already survived childhood rhabdomyosarcoma and simultaneous diagnoses of breast and lung cancer as an adult. Dr. Elmore explores what it means in her life to have this genetic knowledge, how it affects her life, and what types of information would help her and others undergoing genetic testing in the future.
To learn more about genetic testing, genetic counseling, Li–Fraumeni syndrome, and other genetics topics, explore the Genetics Journal Club and Himmelfarb Library's resources including:
https://youtu.be/uQjOTTAlgjE
Can gene therapy eliminate the need for blood transfusions for patients with transfusion-dependent β thalassemia?
This article reports the results of two phase 1-2 studies studied on the use of a gene therapy. In these studies, patients with transfusion-depenent β-thalassemia received gene therapy to assess if this therapy would substitute for the standard therapy, red-cell blood transfusions. The researchers were assessing both the safety and the efficacy of this gene therapy. You can read the results of this study in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Thompson, A. A., Walters, M. C., Kwiatkowski, J., Rasko, J. E., Ribeil, J. A., Hongeng, S., ... & Moshous, D. (2018). Gene therapy in patients with transfusion-dependent β-thalassemia. New England Journal of Medicine, 378(16), 1479-1493.
To learn more about this area of gene therapy, explore additional readings from Himmelfarb Library's full-text collection:
Explore more of Himmelfarb Library's genetics collection by checking out:
