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 When an article is retracted, the PDF button is replaced with a Retracted Article button as illustrated below.
Clicking on the Retracted Article button opens a window that displays the retraction details (why the article was retracted) and PDF link if you still want to read or download the article.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 Nomad will now display Retracted Article buttons in those databases.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.
These videos are designed to prepare you for Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) by testing your clinical reasoning skills. Each video allows you to observe a clinical encounter, and then develop an assessment or differential diagnosis, and provide an appropriate diagnostic workup. The videos include both pediatric and adult cases with ages ranging from ten to seventy years old and a range of complaints including back pain,headache, and shortness of breath.
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.
Himmelfarb offers the following online resources to help you prepare for the USMLE or PANCE/PANRE exams.
Exam Master
Exam Master uses question banks to prepare you for the USMLE Step 1, Step 2, and Step 3 exams as well as the PANCE and PANRE exams. The question banks aim to simulate the experience of an actual board exam. Scoring feedback lets you know what areas you need to focus on. Access is available from on-campus locations and via VPN from off-campus locations. Create a free personal account to access.
Features include:
Detailed scoring feedback.
Tutor Mode emulates the look/feel of the exam or can focus on basic science subjects.
Timed Mode delivers practice exams and then provides access to My Stats for a report of strengths and weaknesses by subject.
Case Files Collection
In addition to its ‘Access’ textbook libraries, McGraw Hill offers the Case Files Collection, an interactive series of case scenarios that emulate real-life cases. This resource will strengthen your skills in both the basic sciences and clinical medicine. Set up a free MyAccess account to use. Access the software and then create a free MyAccess account.
Features include:
1000+ cases, explanations, and quizzes.
Clinical rotation cases are offered for: anesthesiology, cardiology, emergency medicine, family medicine, internal medicine, medical ethics & professionalism, obstetrics/gynecology, pediatrics, and surgery.
BoardVitals
BoardVitals offers question banks geared toward 3rd and 4th year medical students preparing for the NBME Shelf Exams. Features include timed test conditions, study tips, and individualized study recommendations based on practice test performance. Access BoardVitals and then create a personal account.
Features include:
Choose a specific exam: Emergency Medicine, Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Neurology, OBGYN, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, and Surgery
Choose either a timed or untimed exam
Study Mode can display answers and explanations during the quiz
Select your difficulty level: Hard, Moderate or Easy questions
Choose subject areas within a specific exam to study
PA Exam Prep
PA Exam Prep offers practice questions for PANCE and PANRE. Itcan generate random practice quizzes for you, or you may create customized quizzes tailored to specific areas of study. Set up a free personal account prior to first use.
Features include:
Choose your level of difficulty.
Establish keywords that should appear in the quizzes.
Define your learning objectives from among:
Areas of focus (family medicine, emergency medicine, OB/GYN, etc.)
Organ systems (cardiovascular, EENT, hematologic, etc.)
Task areas (history taking, ordering labs, pharmaceutical therapeutics, etc.)
Choose among three test modes: Practice, Test, and Simulation (simulates the actual exam).
Update: Access has been restored as of Monday morning, Jan 3. You should be able to access Himmelfarb databases from off-campus through the usual browser-based login.
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The WRLC proxy server that we use to provide off-campus access to Himmelfarb's subscription resources is currently offline. Until the outage is fixed, you will need to use the GW VPN to access our resources from off campus.
DynaMed Decisions is now available via Himmelfarb Library! DynaMed Decisions is a clinical decision support system. It’s designed to enhance clinical decision-making, assist clinical providers, and strengthen patient engagement. DynaMed Decisions is available via DynaMed by switching tabs at the top of the screen, and can also be accessed directly as a standalone resource.
DynaMed Decision’s Shared Decision-Making Tools and Clinical Calculators can help clinicians and patients navigate decisions by incorporating both patient preferences and complex clinical scenarios. The decision-making tools are organized by category (e.g. cancer, bones & joints, diabetes, serious illness). Each tool is displayed in a table to indicate which type(s) of decision-making support is available:
Tools that incorporate individual patient data for personalized results
Tools that incorporate a risk/benefit calculator
Tools that provide an option grid so patients and caregivers can explore the risk and benefits of different decisions.
All of the shared decision-making tools provide access to an option grid which can help clearly describe the risks and benefits of the available choices. For example, the option grid for COVID-19 Vaccine Options compares no vaccine vs Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines vs the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. For each possible choice, the grid provides brief, straightforward information on the benefits, short term side effects or harms, and long term side effects or harms.
For some decision-making tools, clinicians and patients can start with personalized information to work through the decision-making process. For example, the ‘Atrial Fibrillation Treatment Options to Lower Stroke Risk’ shared decision-making tool begins with patient information:
Based on the data provided about the patient, users can move to the assessment and guidance section which provides more customized information and recommendations:
The final portion of the shared decision-making tool allows the clinician and patient to explore outcomes based on different prospective choices in a clear graphical format, as well as view the option grid for a textual information display:
DynaMed Decisions includes tools to help clinicians share the decision-making tools with patients as well as document their use in health care records. Clinicians can generate QR codes, web links, and PDFs to share with patients. Clinicians can also generate a brief note to document the use of a decision aid in the patient’s health care record:
DynaMed Decisions also provides access to clinical calculators. These calculators are evidence-based and created by physicians to support clinician’s workflows. For example, the Pulmonary Embolism (PE): Diagnostic Evaluation in Stable Adults clinical calculator allows a clinician to enter key pieces of patient data:
Based on the individual patient’s data, the calculator will provide risk and benefit information along with clinical guidance.
DynaMed and DynaMed Decisions are available to all GW users. Users located on-site should have direct access to these resources without logging in; direct access includes access from the GW University Hospital and GW Medical Faculty Associates.
In an effort to remain accountable to communities who have been negatively impacted by past and present medical injustices, the staff at Himmelfarb Library is committed to the work of maintaining an anti-discriminatory practice. We will uplift and highlight diverse stories throughout the year, and not shy away from difficult conversations necessary for health sciences education. To help fulfill this mission, today's post will highlight the Native Health Database.
The Native Health Database is an online collection that organizes and shares information related to the health and health care of American Indians, Alaska Natives and Canadian First Nations. The Native Health Database “...provides information for the benefit, use, and education of organizations and individuals with an interest in health-related issues, programs and initiatives regarding North American Indigenous peoples.”
Created in the 1990s, the Native Health Database is the final result of the merging of two different Native American health care collections, the Native Health History Database and the Native Health Research Database. When Dr. William W. Schottstaedt donated over 3,000 documents to the University of New Mexico’s Health Sciences Library and Informatics Center, the resources were compiled into the Native Health History Database. The historical documents dated from 1672 to 1966 and were collected into a single database that focused on the history of health and healthcare of Native American people.
The Native Health Research Database began in 1997 when the United States Indian Health Service contracted with The Health Sciences Library and Informatics Center to create a resource that covered the current landscape of Native American health. These two databases merged into the Native Health Database in 2007, and recently transitioned to the Mukurtu CMS platform with the goal of giving Native American groups and individuals better control and access to the content that’s available for viewing and sharing.
The Native Health Database does not require users to create an account to browse or access items in the collection, but registered users can save items to their personal collection for later review and registration is free.
When searching for a resource, you can refine your search by the date, tribal or group affiliation, subject, resource type or by other parameters. Resource types include, but are not limited to, journal articles, editorials, guidelines and monographs. While the full resource is not stored on the database, the individual database records provide information to guide you to the manuscript or document elsewhere.
You may use the item’s identifier to search for the resource through an external link such as PubMed Central. If you’re interested in the physical copy of the resource, you can contact the Native Health Database administrator at hsc-nhd@salud.unm.edu to request access to the resource. Please note these requests are granted on a case-by-case basis.
The Native Health Database is an excellent resource for learning about the historical and current needs of Native American communities. With documents ranging from the late 1600s to now, the database covers a broad spectrum of topics and time periods. The content available through the Native Health Database is meant to serve as a springboard for individuals as they explore the specific topics and needs that directly impact Native American groups. By increasing their level of understanding of Native American health, medical professionals and researchers will have the ability to better address the needs of their patients or undertake research opportunities that are respectful of Native American people and communities.
With the development of COVID-19 vaccines, there has been a renewed interest in all things vaccine related and vaccine development has taken center stage on the global stage. In support of vaccine research, Springer Nature has compiled key resources on the past, present and future of vaccine research in a new Evolution of Vaccines resource that is available to you through Himmelfarb Library! Simply request access to these resources by completing a short form, and you will have access to these fantastic resources.
In the Present: The Latest Developments section of this resource, you will find case studies, blog posts, videos, review articles, and article collections all related to current vaccine developments. In the Future: What We Can Expect section of this resource, you will find review articles, perspectives, podcasts, blog posts, and article collections that explore how vaccines might progress in the future.
Also included in this collection are two short videos that do a fantastic job of explaining how vaccines work and how vaccines are developed:
In honor of World Evidence-Based Healthcare Day, held annually on October 20, we wanted to share some tools to help you keep up with the evidence!
Point-of-care resources like DynaMed synthesize evidence on conditions, management, patient evaluation, and other clinically relevant topics. PubMed searches retrieve original research articles, from case studies to meta-analyses. McMaster Health Knowledge Refinery (HKR) provides tools to search pre-appraised research articles and be alerted to the most relevant and impactful studies.
McMaster Health Knowledge Refinery (HKR) helps practitioners stay up-to-date on the latest, high-quality, clinically relevant, and practice-changing evidence in fields, including medicine, rehabilitation, and knowledge translation. HKR research associates select articles reporting on treatments, diagnostics, and prognostic studies, as well as systematic reviews, from 100-plus journals, including core titles like JAMA, NEJM, and The Lancet.
During critical appraisal, research associates tag articles by type, purpose, population, and clinical specialty, to improve findability. For quality assurance, clinicians check these data, as well as index terms added by indexers.
While metadata helps users find and filter for relevant articles, the added value comes into play in the McMaster Online Rating of Evidence (MORETM). Practicing physicians, nurses, and therapists evaluate articles for 1) relevance and 2) newsworthiness. Once at least three practitioners evaluate the article, ratings are averaged, and articles receiving scores greater than four out of seven in both categories are added to the Premium LiteratUre Service (PLUS) database.
Users can create alerts to learn of new articles meeting selected notification criteria, i.e. thresholds for relevance and newsworthiness, specific disciplines and populations, etc.
To set alerts, users need a free account. Then, they can set alert preferences, create custom dashboards, and identify GW Himmelfarb as their PubMed outside tool https://www.evidencealerts.com/Account/MyProfile#OutsideTool, which links to Himmelfarb content via the Get It @ Himmelfarb button on PubMed.
EvidenceAlerts is one of many tools to help you stay up-to-date with the latest relevant and newsworthy research in your field.
Find more tools for keeping up with the literature.
Would your study of anatomical structures benefit from a 3D rendering that you can scale and rotate? Could a collection of infographics aid you as you master illness scripts?
Focused Anatomy Modules
Image source: AccessMedicine
AccessMedicine, your online gateway to Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine, has recently released 300+ systems-based anatomy modules that take you on a visual journey inside the human body. These modules focus on common medical conditions, offering 3D views of affected areas of the body with the functionality to rotate, pan, and zoom. Labels identify various parts of the anatomical structure under study, and a brief text description of the condition appears to the left, with a link to a relevant chapter from AccessMedicine library of medical textbooks. Users can highlight and isolate structural elements, as well as read descriptions of their structure and function. The program includes a drawing tool as well as an option to download the image with your annotations.
Infographic Guide to Medicine
Image source: AccessMedicine
AccessMedicine has also introduced a series of infographics that address common conditions. These infographics, also organized by system, often reflect the template you use when creating illness scripts. Their graphical layout, with illustrations and a spare use of text, can help you with recall and retention.
How to Access
AccessMedicine is available on the library’s homepage under Popular Resources and is accessible from on- and off-campus locations. These modules are featured on the AccessMedicine homepage.
