Genetic data + health history = Huge Database

A research project at Harvard University hopes to collect the genetic data from 100,000 people, along with their health history, to create a new database in an effort to identify new drugs for common diseases and to “explore other human traits and behaviors”. Currently, the database has partially sequenced genetic data on about 10 people and is under review by a Harvard ethics panel. This is the brain child of professor George Church and has funding from Google and OrbiMed Advisors. Additional funding will come from the participants themselves at a price of $1,000 for most participants. The story was reported in Bloomberg news.

Hat tip to iHealthBeat. blog.

Wellness Books and More at the UCSD Bookstore

The UCSD Bookstore’s Medical Department is placing a new emphasis on wellness.  They have pulled out the medical books related to wellness and put them into new sections:  Complementary Medicine, Nutrition, Sports Medicine, and Rehabilitation.  They also have a number of wellness-related books on sale at special discount prices.

The Bookstore now has wellness products such as exercise balls, elastic stretch bands, hand weights, Yoga products, spot massagers, etc. 

In the future, some UCSD faculty and local physicians who are highlighting wellness in their practices will be giving talks at the Bookstore.  Keep an eye on the Bookstore’s News and Events page for details about these talks, once they are arranged, and other events.

For more information, contact Debbie Foreman at dforeman@ucsd.edu or (858) 534-6825.

Google Health record pilot debuts - back to the future!

Google Health debuted today as a pilot project with patients at the Cleveland Clinic. This project will give patients access to their own medical records in a secure authenticated environment. You can read a little more about the project at Google’s official blog.

Those of you who have been at UCSD for a while may remember PCASSO, our own early project to provide patients and physicians with Internet-based access to health records. The Biomedical Library was a partner in this project, which you can read more about in a summary article in JAMIA. Web technology has come such a long way in just a few years!

“Got Impact” class - Road show version available!

In January we launched a new class on finding who has cited your work using Web of Science’s author citation reports and other tools. The session also covers journal impacts and the “h” index, a relatively new measure of impact of an individual’s work. Would your (UCSD) department be interested in having a session for your research group? We can host it here in our lab for hands-on access or we can bring a laptop to your department. If you have a computer lab, even better!

The session is designed to run just about an hour but we can be flexible.  Because most of the tools in this class are subscription-based, we’ll only be doing these sessions for UCSD groups or departments. Interested? Please let us know! Contact Karen Heskett for more info or to schedule a session.

Library hours on Monday, February 18

February 18 is a university holiday.  The Biomedical Library will be open from 10am - 6 pm.   The Medical Center Library (Hillcrest) will be closed that day.  Looking for a place to study?  The Geisel Library will be open from 8 am - 2 am.  CLICS will be opening later, at 1 pm, but will remain open until 1 am.

InfoCommons Focus Group - update: cancelled

Attention students! Are you a user of the Biomedical Library’s Information Commons space (ACS computer area, presentation room, scanner, etc.) ? We’re evaluating the service and we’d like to hear from you. We’re conducting a focus group this Friday, February 15, 10:30 am. If you join us, you’ll get a $15 TritonPlus card as well as snacks.

UPDATE: we only got one signup so this session is cancelled!

New Clinical Trials Web Site @ Stanford

The new Clinical Trials Directory at Stanford is designed to help with recruiting participants to the clinical trials available on the campus. Not quite the novel idea, but the site design and information available make it worth mentioning.

The site is easy to navigate with a focus on browsing more than searching; although, a search box is available. The information is presented in an easy to scan format and includes information about any publications associated with the study. The study investigators are listed with links to their community profile, and a trial’s primary contact person and information is clearly displayed at the top. While most cancer centers have had this type of information available for years, other specialties have not always had this information so easily available.

Stanford’s Clinical Trials Directory falls in line with previous efforts to make information about clinical trials more transparent, such as the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors requirement (in 2005) to have trials registered at clinicaltrials.gov or the recent WHO Clinical Trials Registry Portal (see previous blog post).

Hat tip to iHealthBeat blog.

Bergey’s - Volume 2 of new edition of Systematic online

Volume 2 of the 2005 edition of Bergey’s Manual of Systematic Bacteriology is now online! Unfortunately, we don’t know when the other volumes or the Determinative manual will join them.  (FYI, some students have told us that the 1984 edition is the more useful.) This link will get you there:

http://uclibs.org/PID/120061.