Well-Conceived and Ill-Drawn: Hosting “Ill-Conceived and Well-Drawn,” an NLM Exhibition

Background: The Lamar Soutter Library serves the UMass Memorial Hospital and the University of Massachusetts Medical School, which consists of the Schools of Nursing, Medicine, and Biomedical Sciences. In pursuit of our mission to help our community in the “creation of knowledge, intellectual growth, and enrichment of the academic experience” the library plans activities, programs, and exhibitions. We recently hosted an NLM traveling Exhibition, “Ill-Conceived and Well-Drawn,” and partnered with the NNLM-NER to create an enriched experience for our users. Description: The NLM’s traveling exhibit consists of 6 free standing posters and seeks to introduce the concept of graphic medicine. Graphic medicine uses the medium of comics to explore themes of illness, healthcare, and health information from the perspective of the caregiver, the patient, or family members. Graphic medicine can also be used for science communication. While the exhibition was on display in the library, we worked to create programming around the topic of graphic medicine to engage our users and community. Conclusion: As a direct result of hosting the exhibition, the library saw an increase in traffic in the library compared to similar time periods in the past. We also recorded an increase in the use of our graphic medicine collection’s circulation statistics. One particularly successful program was a visit by Matteo Farinella, author of Neurocomic and The Senses. Because we hosted the NLM’s exhibition, we were able to engage targeted populations in meaningful ways and promote library resources

Achieving the Potential of Health Care Performance Measures: Timely Analysis of Immediate Health Policy issues

The United States is on the cusp of a new era, with greater demand for performance information, greater data availability, and a greater willingness to integrate performance information into public policy. This era has immense promise to deliver a learning health care system that encourages collaborative improvements in systems-based care, improves accountability, helps consumers make important choices, and improves quality at an acceptable cost. However, to curtail the possibility of unintended adverse consequences, it is important that we invest in developing sound measures, understand quality measures' strengths and limitations, study the science of quality measurement, and reduce inaccurate inferences about provider performance

Ready or Not? Protecting the Public's Health From Diseases, Disasters, and Bioterrorism, 2008

Examines ten indicators to assess progress in state readiness to respond to bioterrorism and other public health emergencies. Evaluates the federal government's and hospitals' preparedness. Makes suggestions for funding, restructuring, and other reforms

Pandemic Flu Preparedness: Lessons From the Frontlines

Outlines early lessons from the 2009 H1N1 influenza outbreak and recommendations for strengthening the U.S. core public health capacity, including vaccine stockpile and development, planning and coordination, infrastructure, and surge capacity and care

HealthCare Partners: Building on a Foundation of Global Risk Management to Achieve Accountable Care

Describes the progress of a medical group and independent practice association in forming an accountable care organization by working with insurers as part of the Brookings-Dartmouth ACO Pilot Program. Lists lessons learned and elements of success

MS-128: Papers of William C. Darrah

This collection consists of material retained by William Darrah as it related to his position as an administrator and a faculty member at Gettysburg College. It includes correspondence, primarily from students, former students and parents of students; a report of his administrative activities as director of a continuing education program attempted by the College in the mid-1950s; a review of the varied research and presentation interests of Mr. Darrah while a member of the faculty; and materials that preserves his legacy to his profession, to his interests in the history of photography, science and technology, and to Gettysburg College. Special Collections and College Archives Finding Aids are discovery tools used to describe and provide access to our holdings. Finding aids include historical and biographical information about each collection in addition to inventories of their content. More information about our collections can be found on our website http://www.gettysburg.edu/special_collections/collections/.https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/findingaidsall/1116/thumbnail.jp

Emergency Management Training and Exercises for Transportation Agency Operations, MTI Report 09-17

Training and exercises are an important part of emergency management. Plans are developed based on threat assessment, but they are not useful unless staff members are trained on how to use the plan, and then practice that training. Exercises are also essential for ensuring that the plan is effective, and outcomes from exercises are used to improve the plan. Exercises have been an important part of gauging the preparedness of response organizations since Civil Defense days when full-scale exercises often included the community. Today there are various types of exercises that can be used to evaluate the preparedness of public agencies and communities: seminars, drills, tabletop exercises, functional exercises, facilitated exercises and full-scale exercises. Police and fire agencies have long used drills and full-scale exercises to evaluate the ability of staff to use equipment, protocols and plans. Transit and transportation agencies have seldom been included in these plans, and have little guidance for their participation in the exercises. A research plan was designed to determine whether urban transit systems are holding exercises, and whether they have the training and guidance documents that they need to be successful. The main research question was whether there was a need for a practical handbook to guide the development of transit system exercises

The Business Case for Quality: Ending Business as Usual in American Health Care

Examines some of the reasons why establishing a business case for improving health care is so difficult, and considers possible solutions. Includes comments on quality provisions of the Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003

To Reform Medicare, Reform Incentives and Organization

Alain C. Enthoven's paper, To Reform Medicare, Reform Incentives And Organization, explains how the principles of cost-responsible consumer choice among competing health-insurance plans, sometimes called "managed competition," can both improve quality and reduce cost in the federal government's Medicare program