Rachel Fenske, Information
Services/Outreach Librarian from the USA Biomedical Library, presented a poster
session at the Medical Library Association Annual Meeting in Atlanta on May 22,
2018, “PATHS (Parent/Patient Access to Health Resources) Leading to Improved Health Outcomes” describing the patient/family
education program implemented at the University of South Alabama (USA)
Children’s & Women’s Hospital. The
project, funded in part by a NNLM SE/A Technology Improvement Award, provides
patients and family members of those newly
diagnosed with pediatric cancer and other chronic illnesses a means of
acquiring and using reputable, easy to understand, health resources during the
educational processes while at the hospital.
Android tablets are used to access MedlinePlus, Patient Education
Institute’s X-Plain® videos, Genetics
Home Reference, Genetic and Rare
Diseases Information Center, and a host of other NLM/NIH resources at their
convenience. Access
to various NLM resources, specifically MedlinePlus,
has led to increased confidence in the parent’s and patient’s ability to
locate quality health information. As
part of her project, she also collected data to determine the efficacy of the
various educational interventions employed in the project surveying the usefulness
and convenience of using the Android tablets, the continued use of the NLM resources
by the parents and patients after discharge, as well as the likability in
reading and viewing material in their native language.
