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The objective of the Starting Points Web page series at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT HSC) Libraries is to provide specialized information resources in an organized online format. Highlighted resources include databases, journals, UT HSC campus information, funding sources, PubMed® RSS article feeds, and information about professional associations. This paper discusses the development process, planning, challenges, and outcomes of the Starting Points series. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An editorial is presented on American Occupational Therapy Association's AOTA INSPIRE 2022 Annual Conference & Expo in San Antonio, Texas. Topics include attending the continuing education seminars, scientific research and technology panels, posters, short courses, tech labs, workshops and special events; and factors associated with requesting accommodations among people with multiple sclerosis, musculoskeletal disorders among sonographers, and veterinary healthcare professions.

Fatalities from drug-induced overdoses in the United States have taken greater than 292,000 lives in the last five years, and nearly two-thirds of these are opioid-related. The burden on prehospital emergency medical services (EMS) to respond to these incidents is growing. The standard of care typically involves overdose reversal and rapid transport, although a few agencies have begun to use community paramedicine to more proactively follow-up, initiate treatment, and refer patients to addiction medicine providers. Methods: In this manuscript we share the details of an outreach case study to serve as a blueprint for other agencies and municipalities to adopt and refine. The University of Texas Health Science Center, in partnership with the Houston Fire Department and other local first responder agencies, developed a program in Houston, Texas based on rapid response to post-overdose survivors using available incident data from the primary municipal agencies. Results: The Houston Emergency Opioid Engagement System (HEROES) was created to more comprehensively address the opioid epidemic. By utilizing data extracted from the patient care record system, a team comprised of a peer recovery coach and a paramedic is dispatched to the home location of a recent overdose (OD) incident to provide outreach. Conclusions: Outreach dialog and motivational interviewing techniques are used to provide awareness of treatment options and to engage individuals into a treatment program. A case report of this program and recommendations for broader adoption are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The use of mobile health technology has the potential to increase healthcare accessibility, promote self-management, provide education materials, and support self-monitoring of biometrics. This may be of particular benefit to those living in the community with chronic neurological conditions. The purpose of this research was to characterize perspectives of individuals with brain injury or stroke, their care partners, and neuro-rehabilitation clinicians to inform the design of mobile health app-based interventions that address the need for ongoing community-based health-related professional support. Methods: Individuals with stroke or traumatic brain injury, their care partners, and clinicians were recruited from a large university hospital with a specialized neuro-rehabilitation program. Data were collected via semi-structured focus groups and were examined using descriptive statistics and content analysis. Results: Five consistent themes emerged: (a) all-in-one app with customized features; (b) communication with healthcare providers; (c) cognitive strategies; (d) app accessibility; and (e) user education. The clinician focus group reiterated these consumer focus group themes, with one additional theme: (f) logistics of clinician time and effort to provide effective app-based services to patients. Conclusions: Results have directly informed the ongoing development of a community-based mobile health app intervention, and may also inform the content and design of future mHealth technological development in this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This study sought to determine the impact of Healthy Families Healthy Futures (HFHF) enhanced with Steps to Success (STS). HFHF is a structured home visiting program for teen parents in Houston that focuses on improving parenting skills and preventing child abuse. HFHF enhanced with STS includes content and activities aimed to reduce repeat pregnancies within 24 months after the first child's birth. Methods: The study team recruited 248 young mothers for the study, primarily through local health clinics and schools, and then randomly assigned them to either a treatment group that was eligible to participate in HFHF enhanced with STS or to a control group. The control group was not offered any other program through the study. Outcomes were measured by a survey administered 12 months after program intake, in five domains aligned with the program's logic model: (1) exposure to information related to program content, (2) contraception knowledge, (3) contraception use, (4) enhanced family functioning, and (5) child health and development. To estimate program impacts, we used ordinary least squares regression, controlling for demographics and baseline measures of the outcome variables, if available. We use both frequentist approaches (calculations of statistical significance) and Bayesian posterior probabilities to interpret the findings. Results: HFHF enhanced with STS significantly (p <.05) impacted exposure to information on parenting and birth control, with effects of 20.8 and 15.4 percentage points, respectively. Using Bayesian posterior probabilities, there is an 85% chance that the program had a favorable effect on these outcomes. We also calculate a probability of 77% that the program had a favorable impact on long-acting reversible contraceptive (LARC) use, but a probability of 89% that the program reduced knowledge of birth control pills; these two results were not statistically significant (p =.17 and.10, respectively). Conclusions for Practice: These findings are primarily favorable and consistent with the program content and goals. Smaller than anticipated sample sizes due to recruitment challenges increased the chances for random error to affect the ability to detect statistically significant differences on many of our other outcomes; Bayesian posterior probabilities can therefore aid in interpreting the impact estimates. More research of this promising model is warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents findings from a comparison of electronic resources troubleshooting tickets submitted during a one-year period at Texas A&M University and University of Tennessee Knoxville. The authors used a classification previously developed by Mark Hemhauser and Rebecca Goldfinger at University of Maryland, College Park to categorize the types electronic resources access problems reported at their respective institutions. The findings suggest that academic libraries deal with similar electronic resources access problems at a similar rate. The authors recommend adopting this classification to categorize types of electronic resources access problems profession-wide in order to increase efficiency in reporting and resolving electronic resources access problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of seniors over age 65 aging at home is increasing. They require usable health information to make informed decisions to maintain health and independence. This study partnered with Meals On Wheels, Inc., of Tarrant County, Texas, to assess the homebound over age 65 population's ability to use of National Network of Libraries of Medicine online health information. Only 1% of participants utilized online resources and only 8% of available resources met their needs. Recommendations included using community outreach to extend online formatting, applying AHRQ's "Health Literacy Universal Precautions," to online information, or improving seniors' eHealth skills and access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective Guided by the Uses and Gratifications approach, to examine mothers' use and preference of e-Health media, and associated contextual factors. Design and Sample Cross-sectional survey of 165 mothers (White, African-American, and Hispanic) from a stratified random sample. Measures Use of online media about mother -baby care; favorite websites about motherhood and best-liked features of Web sites; channel preferences (Web site, postal mail, text) for receiving three types of health information; and contextual factors, e.g., education. Results Media use ranged from 96% for health information searches about babies to 46% for YouTube viewing about mother -baby topics. Contextual factors, such as education, were associated with media use. Babycenter was the most frequently reported favorite Web site and rich, relevant information was the best-liked feature. Across three health topics (weight, stress/depression, parenting) mothers preferred receiving information by Web site, followed by postal mail and least by text messaging (χ2 statistics, p < .001). Stress and race/ethnicity were among factors associated with preferences. Conclusions Mothers widely used e-Health related media, but use was associated with contextual factors. In public health efforts to reach new mothers, partnering with mother-favored Web sites, focusing on audience-relevant media, and adopting attributes of successful sites are recommended strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low health literacy remains an extremely common and problematic issue, given that individuals with lower health literacy are more likely to experience health challenges and negative health outcomes. In this study, we use the first three stages of the innovation-decision process found in the theory of diffusion of innovations (Rogers, 2003). We incorporate health literacy into a model explaining how perceived health knowledge, information sharing, attitudes, and behavior are related. Results show that health information sharing explains 33% of the variance in behavioral intentions, indicating that the communicative practice of sharing information can positively impact health outcomes. Further, individuals with high health literacy tend to share less information about heart health than those with lower health literacy. Findings also reveal that perceived heart-health knowledge operates differently than health literacy to predict health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This section is maintained by Vladik Kreinovich. Please send your abstracts (or copies of papers that you want to see reviewed here) to vladik@cs.utep.edu, or by regular mail to: Vladik Kreinovich, Department of Computer Science, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX 79968, USA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Increasingly, people diagnosed with cancer are surviving and continuing to participate in the work force. This trend brings with it new issues regarding survivors' employment-related needs. OBJECTIVE: The research team's objective is to explore cancer survivors' employment-related needs and supports with the ultimate goal of developing a training intervention for them. METHODS: Data were collected via an online survey. This article reports on the findings from the pilot stage of the study, which included 32 respondents. RESULTS: Many cancer survivors experience cancer symptoms at work, but do not tend to seek reasonable accommodations. Levels of awareness of possible programmatic and legal supports are low. Respondents reported that neither employers nor medical practitioners are primary sources of information regarding their individual employment-related concerns. Instead, they relied on general information from cancer advocacy organizations. CONCLUSIONS: Survivors, employers, and practitioners who treat cancer patients could benefit from training resources about how survivors might address their employment-related needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose This article is a descriptive analysis of rural nurses' perceived readiness to manage disaster situations. Design and Methods The 58-item Disaster Readiness Questionnaire was used to survey hospital-based nurses from rural communities in Texas during the summer of 2011. The data were collected by emailing a link through the various hospital intranet sites, resulting in a sample size of 620 nurses. Results Findings revealed that most nurses are not confident in their abilities to respond to major disaster events. The nurses who were confident were more likely to have had actual prior experience in disasters or shelters. Self-regulation of behavior (motivation) was a significant predictor of perceived nurse competence to manage disasters only in regard to the nurse's willingness to assume the risk of involvement in a disaster situation. Healthcare climate (job satisfaction) was not a determinant of disaster preparedness. Conclusions Global increases in natural and human-induced disasters have called attention to the part that health providers play in mitigation and recovery. Since nurses are involved in planning, mitigation, response, and recovery aspects of disasters, they should actively seek opportunities to participate in actual disaster events, mock drills, and further educational opportunities specific to disaster preparedness. Administrators must support and encourage disaster preparedness education of nurses to promote hospital readiness to provide community care delivery in the event of a disaster situation. Clinical Relevance Nursing comprises the largest healthcare workforce, and yet there is very little research examining nurses' readiness for disaster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to explore pregnant and recently pregnant women's perceptions of influenza vaccine and antivirals during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic. We conducted 18 focus groups with pregnant and recently pregnant women in three US cities in September 2009. Participants were segmented into groups by insurance status (no or public insurance vs. private insurance), vaccine attitudes (higher vs. lower likelihood of acceptance of any vaccines, not only influenza vaccines), and parity (first child vs. other children in the home) based on information they provided on the screening questionnaire at the time of recruitment. We found that women are not well informed about influenza vaccinations and antiviral medicine and have significant concerns about taking them during pregnancy. An interest in their infant's well-being, however, can be strong motivation to adopt preventive recommendations, including vaccination. A woman's health care provider is a highly trusted source of information about the 2009 H1N1. Pregnant women have unique communication needs for influenza. Messages directing pregnant women to adopt public health recommendations, particularly for vaccination or prophylactic medication should include a detailed description of the benefits or lack of risk to the fetus and the safety of breastfeeding. Additionally, messages should recognize that pregnant women are taught to be selective about taking medication and provide a clear rationale for why the medicine or vaccine is necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to illustrate the benefits of implementing embedded evaluative methods and ongoing data analysis in the assessment of a learning commons and its services. At the University of Houston, the results of various forms of feedback have aided in the refinement of day-to-day procedures as well as in the planning of an expansion of the facility after approximately one year of operations. This article will discuss the outcomes of the different forms of assessment used at the commons and provide suggestions for the establishment of assessment measures for learning commons at other universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past few years, Texas A&M University (TAMU) has searched for a way to administer its electronic subscriptions as well as the electronic subscriptions shared among the TAMU System. In this article, we address our attempts to implement an effective electronic resource management system (ERMS), both for subscriptions on the main campus and for those resources shared by its affiliate institutions throughout the TAMU System. Specifically, we describe two implementation efforts that have shaped TAMU's experience with ERM systems: our unsuccessful attempt to implement Verde and our more successful implementation of Gold Rush. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Combining historical land survey field notes and modern Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technique, this essay explores the vegetation pattern in eastern Harrison County in Texas along the Texas-Louisiana border in 1838, the year that marked the beginning of major influx of Anglos into this region. The analysis confirms that the vegetation cover prior to the influx was significantly different from what is there today. This article also demonstrates how GIS can be used to assist in historical research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter discusses creation and implementation at The University of Texas at Dallas of a software application developed in house to capture facilities, inventory, and personnel data for the purposes of federal and state mandatory reporting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information about the Lita Human Machine Interface Interest Group meeting held on January 2006 at San Antonio, Texas is presented. Librarians are always interested in developing web sites, collecting of rights information, and tracking for electronic resources. The symposium featured several librarians including Patricia Tully, Nancy Foster and Rachel Bridgewater.

The article discusses the hypocrisy and biblical morality of sensationalism in mass media reporting during the late-19th century in Texas. It states that a systematic examination of Texas newspapers from 1880-1900 indicates an apparent contradiction between what the editors proclaimed and what they printed in their newspapers. It affirms that many Texas newspapers were doing exactly what their editors were criticizing northern big city newspapers for doing. It stresses that there was nothing wrong with sensationalism in and of itself, and that the difference between Biblical sensationalism and yellow journalism is contextualization.

Background: Resident physicians are expected to demonstrate medical knowledge. However, little is known about the residents' reading habits and learning preferences. Aim: To assess residents’ reading habits and preferred educational resources. Methods: Residents at five internal medicine training programs were surveyed regarding their reading and learning habits and preferences. Results: The majority (77.7%) of residents reported reading less than 7 h a week. Most residents (81.4%) read in response to patient care encounters. The preferred educational format was electronic; 94.6% of residents cited UpToDate® as the most effective resource for knowledge acquisition, and 88.9% of residents reported that UpToDate® was their first choice for answering clinical questions. Conclusions: Residents spent little time reading and sought knowledge primarily from electronic resources. Most residents read in the context of patient care. Future research should focus on strategies for helping resident physicians learn in the electronic age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]