Lister Hill Library is collaborating with the Jefferson County public
libraries to provide a new consumer health information service, the Health
InfoNet of Jefferson County.
Based on a model that has been successful
in Connecticut for many years, the system provides for a triage setup in
which consumer health information seekers are guided first to their local
public library, with Lister Hill Library providing backup reference and
referral service for those questions the public libraries cannot answer.
Lister Hill Library also provides training and consulting services to the
public libraries. (There are forty libraries in the Jefferson County
Library Cooperative system.)
Two separate surveys were undertaken recently
to determine the need for such a service. The first mail survey in
the summer of 1998 involved a major sampling of local health information
providers, including local libraries, health professionals, voluntary health
agencies, clinics, pharmacies and other points of access for consumer health
information. The second was a series of focus group surveys, conducted
by the UAB School of Public Health, involving residents in the area and
was begun in the fall of 1998. While results from the focus group
surveys are still being tabulated, the mail survey quickly pointed to a
need for just such a cooperative, efficient health information service
in the area.
Local voluntary health agencies and health
care providers give valuable direction as participants on the InfoNet advisory
committee. Other plans for local health community involvement in
the network include conducting a series of workshops on health topics in
the local libraries and physician-directed "pathfinders" to the literature
on particular conditions for consumers.
In the planning stages for two years, the
Health InfoNet of Jefferson County is set to "kick off" at the end of October
with a week of festivities at Birmingham Public Library downtown.
Promotional brochures will be available in participating libraries, clinics,
voluntary health agencies and pharmacies. There is also a website
at www.uab.edu/infonet, with an emphasis on local resources for health
information seekers. If you would like to make InfoNet brochures
available to patients in your office, or would like to participate in other
ways in the InfoNet network, please contact Kay Hogan Smith at 934-2231
or
.
Please note that this is a newsletter. The information and links in individual articles are current as of the date of publication, but they are not kept up-to-date thereafter.
Please send comments about this page to: Pat Higginbottom at
