Staying Well Connecteds

Staying Well. Connected.

Promoting Health Careers for La Feria Middle Schoolers

Greysi Reyna and Monica Tovar at WB Green Middle School in La Feria Keith Cogdill and Monica Tovar with eighth graders in La Feria

On Friday, November 16, three UTHSCSA Library staff visited W.B. Green Middle School in La Feria to promote health careers. Greysi Reyna and Monica Tovar from the Ramirez Library at UTHSCSA’s Regional Academic Health Center in Harlingen and Keith Cogdill from San Antonio took part in the event, during which they spoke with more than 50 eighth graders about careers in medicine, dentistry, nursing, allied health and health sciences librarianship. Some of the resources that were especially helpful for the students were guides to UTHSCSA’s School of Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing, Allied Health Sciences and Biomedical Sciences.

Posted in Staying Well. Connected., UTHSCSA Library News, Youth | Comments Off

Póngase al día con su salud en MedlinePlus

In June, NLM released a public campaign to try to encourage Spanish-speaking Web users in the US and worldwide to use medlineplus.gov/salud. The campaign’s tagline is “Póngase al día con su salud en MedlinePlus” (“Get up to date on your health with MedlinePlus”) and it features a superstar who is instantly recognizable across Latin America: Chilean TV host Mario Kreutzberger, better known as Don Francisco. Don Francisco is the Emmy-award-winning host of the longest-running TV show in the Americas: Sábado Gigante, which he created in Chile in 1962 and which has continued weekly for many years across the US on the Univisión network and throughout Latin America on Galavisión. His campaign for NLM and MedlinePlus includes videos, posters, bookmarks, and calling cards — all available for free download and distribution from MedlinePlus. You can view the videos and learn more about the campaign in English or in Spanish, and download the (bilingual) campaign materials here.

Posted in Hispanic health, South Texas, Spanish Language Content, Staying Well. Connected., Websites | Comments Off

Reaching Our Spanish-Speaking Audience

The Texas State Library will be offering a series of free workshops to help English-speaking libraries and community centers reach out to Spanish speakers. The day-long workshops will be held around the state over the next few months. South Texas locations include Harlingen, San Antonio, Bandera, Laredo, Beeville, and Carrizo Springs. Topics will include cultural differences, community partnerships, marketing, and technology. The workshops are intended for librarians and their community partners. A brochure and more information are available at http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/ld/workshops/rosa/.

Posted in Classes, Hispanic health, Staying Well. Connected. | Comments Off

El Paso to take part in diabetes study

With the rising number of diabetes cases along the Texas/Mexico border, it is important to know how to manage the disease in order to live a full, productive life. But, it is also important to do all that can be done to determine who might be at the greatest risk for developing diabetes. This is especially important in families where a family member has already been diagnosed.

It is with this goal in mind that El Paso has been chosen to take part in a seven-year study on diabetes funded by the National Institutes of Health. The study, which will involve approximately 840 El Paso residents, is aimed at detecting which relatives of people who already have Type 1 diabetes might develop the disease. El Paso was chosen due to the high number of people (approximately 85,000 ) with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.

The study will be conducted through the El Paso Diabetes Association , and will be done in conjunction with 18 clinical centers throughout the United States and other countries.

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Diabetes rates increasing among youth

The NIH News reports that rates of Type 2 diabetes, most commonly seen in adults, are increasing among youth under age 20. About 154,000 youth under age 20 have diabetes in the United States. According to data reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2006, one in 523 people younger than age 20 has diabetes. Among this group, 79 percent are aged 10 to 19 years. To help young people diagnosed with diabetes and their parents, the National Diabetes Education Program (NDEP) is introducing a new series of tip sheets and an online quiz specially created for teens to help them manage their disease and reduce their risk for complications. See the full story from the NIH at http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/nov2007/niddk-13.htm.

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Diabetes in US-Mexico Border Region

A new study coordinated by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is the first to treat the US-Mexico border region as a single epidemiological unit. Examining the prevalence of diabetes, it found that rates of the disease as well as its risk factors are increasing. Diabetes is now Mexico’s leading cause of death. Among adults with type 2 diabetes living in the US-Mexico border region, approximately 22 percent were unaware that they had the disease.

Posted in Reports, Staying Well. Connected. | Comments Off

Rebates for reducing school bus emissions in Texas

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is reimbursing school districts for the costs associated with retrofitting school buses with devices that reduce pollution emission. An estimated 36,000 school buses carry 1.3 million children in Texas every school day.

Posted in Staying Well. Connected., Youth | Comments Off

Drugs and Drug Interactions

One increasing challenge in health information is helping consumers to be aware of the variety of drugs and supplements they may be taking, keep track of them, and understand their use, effects, and possible interactions and side-effects. When helping patients who may not be able to get regularly updated drug information from their doctors — such as Winter Texans or other visitors whose regular doctors may be far away — it’s important to be able to provide consumer-oriented drug-information sources that they can use to understand drug topics despite their complexity and fluidity. Here are a few suggestions:

  • DrugLib.com is a drug information database that can be searched by drug name, condition, or category and includes FDA alerts.
  • ExpressScripts’ DrugDigest tool includes a drug library and comparison tool, as well as a helpful interaction checker where you can enter a set of drugs and check the interactions between those drugs as well as interactions with food and alcohol.
  • The FDA’s MedWatch site provides drug safety information and an RSS feed of the latest safety alerts. [thanks pilgrimtinker at Learn to Live]
  • iGuard.org is a service launched earlier this year that allows patients to enter the list of drugs they’re taking; iGuard then provides an analysis of the risk of interaction problems, and allows user to sign up for a personalized alert service with new information, alerts or discoveries about their specific set of drugs. [thanks Joshua Schwimmer at TechMedicine]
  • Last week, Thomson launched PDRhealth.com, a new consumer-oriented site based upon Thomson’s PDR products for health professionals. The new site supports the PDR drug information with background information on conditions, and online tools like risk factor analyzers to support health decision-making.

Finding equivalent consumer-oriented sites in the Spanish language is a bit more difficult. Two options include:

  • BuenaSalud.com includes a searchable Enciclopedia de Medicamentos that provides helpful information on quite a few drugs.
  • PortalFarma.com, from the professional organization of pharmacists in Spain, provides an online database that does offer interaction information; unfortunately, although it is available to the public, the presentation is not very consumer-friendly.

Posted in News, Spanish Language Content, Staying Well. Connected., Websites | Comments Off

Hidalgo County to be Part of National Children’s Study

Approximately 1,000 children from Hidalgo County will be taking part in a study, sponsored by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, along with several other federal agencies. Women who are pregnant, or going to become pregnant will be chosen for the study, which will examine social and environmental factors (such as diet, pollutants, and poverty) on the children’s health and development. The children will be followed from their time in the womb until their 21st birthday.

“The goal of the study is to get a handle on all aspects of pregnancy and childhood….that includes biological, phyiscal, chemical and social factors.” according to Dr. Daniel Hale, an investigator with the study and pediatrics professor at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio.

Posted in Hispanic health, South Texas, Staying Well. Connected. | Comments Off

Hispanic Heart Health discussed at the AHA Scientific Sessions

A recent study indicates that significant percentages of Hispanics have borderline high or high total cholesterol, low levels of good cholesterol, and borderline high or high levels of triglycerides. The study, which was based on the results of the 2007 Summer Heart Health Campaign survey and screening of almost 3,000 Hispanics in four cities (Chicago, IL; Houston, TX; Miami, FL; and New York/New Jersey metro area), was released at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions. The recent survey and screening effort is part of the Alliance’s Para un corazón saludable (translation: For a healthy heart) campaign. The campaign, led by the National Alliance for Hispanic Health (http://www.hispanichealth.org/), and sponsored by an educational grant from AstraZeneca was launched to improve awareness and understanding of heart disease risk factors, including high cholesterol, in Hispanic communities. Leading Hispanic cardiologists will convene for the inaugural Hispanic Cardiologist Leadership Network meeting at the AHA 2007 Scientific Sessions to discuss these and other issues critical to the improvement of heart health among Hispanics.

Posted in Hispanic health, News, Staying Well. Connected. | Comments Off