Publishing with an Academic Press

On March 16, Joseph Parsons, Senior Editor at the University of North Carolina Press (UNC Press) http://www.uncpress.unc.edu , spoke informally at the Laupus Library. He is also the general editor of the Studies in Social Medicine monograph series.

 

Mr. Parsons recommended, in addition to the UNC Press, consulting the Association of American University Presses site http://www.aaupnet.org/index.php. Also look at the publishers of related books on your shelves. The best match is good for the book, author, and publisher.

 

A good research project should be interesting, dynamic (either show change or provide a good reason why there was no change), and cause the reader to ask “why didn’t I see that before?”

 

Most university presses have submission guidelines. He suggested submitting a cover letter and proposal rather than the whole manuscript. Be sure to proofread everything carefully.

 

He always asks the author who should and should not read the manuscript and why. These reviewers help him decide whether to publish the book and what the published reviews are likely to say. He considers who the core, secondary, and tertiary readership is likely to be.

iPad Security in Healthcare Settings

As iPads spread virally throughout the healthcare industry, IT chiefs are left wondering if these new devices will compromise the security of their organizations. (source)  With an increase in malicious attacks and hackers trying to find any way possible to get to sensitive data security on mobile devices this has become a serious concern.

 

Christina Thielst, vice president at Tower Strategies and author of the blog Christina’s Considerations, talks about the potential risk of using the iPad in a healthcare setting:

  •  Balance usability, preferences, security, & budgetary concerns
  •  Register personal devices used in workplace by those with a legitimate business use
  •  Adopt written terms of use with employees and contractors using personal devices in their work:
    •  Agree to report if lost or stolen
    •  Agree to allow remote erase
    •  Agree to use in accordance Policies
    •  Require Device Access Password
  •  Require that No Patient Data be Stored on the device!!
  •  Central reconciliation of device usage (billing, monitoring, etc.)
  •  Capabilities for disabling or wiping devices clean (loss or theft)
  •  Remotely lock devices or change passwords
  •  Remotely configure/deploy applications globally (rather than one device at a time)
  •  Flexible security configurations – settings changed on an individual basis from a central management dashboard
  •  Built-in encryption of all communication streams to prevent data leakage during configuration and deployment processed
  •  Only permit password protected thumb drives and check-out or account for all with any PHI

 

She goes on to give us some easy security fixes that you may consider.

 

1. Use the password, auto-lock, and auto-erase functions smartly.

If your iPad is stolen, this could help information from falling into the wrong hands.

2. Limit access to confidential information to that on VPN’s when in a public place or on unsecured networks, and disable the Blue Tooth function after use.

Be wary of public or open networks.

3. Permanently mark or engrave your iPad to help with identification.

Consider having your name and phone number engraved on the back of your iPad.

4. Only download apps and open files from trusted sources.

The Apple store is an obvious safe choice however if you decide to download an app from other websites just be critical of the source.

5. Consider a mobile device management (MDM) solution for security and convenience.

“Services like Apperian, AirWatch, and MobileIron can create hosted, internal app stores,” said Stopler. “This lets a company make available a curated offering specific to business needs.” And, he added, it ensures security and system integrity can’t be compromised if an iPad is lost or stolen. “With these services, the apps can be shut down remotely and the contents of the iPad (related to work) deleted.”

 

You can read the rest of her suggestions here on Healthcare IT News. 

 

Laupus Library’s Food ‘n’ Fun Break!

Take a mental break from you studies to join us for Laupus Library’s Food ‘n’ Fun Break!

 

When: Thursday, April 26th from 7pm-10pm

Where: Rooms 1504, 1506 (1st floor of the library)

 

Board Games include: Pictionary, Jenga, Battleship, Apples to Apples and more!

Wii Games include: Wii Sports, Wii Play, Super Mario Bros Wii, Mario Kart and more!

Snacks and Drinks will also be provided! Hope to see you there!!

 

Useful Medical iPad Apps

 iPads are becoming more and more prevalent in our everyday lives and they can be extremely helpful for those in the medical setting.  Below are a few medical apps that are available in the iTunes store.

PubMed On Tap Lite: searches PubMed and allows users to save references in a personal library.  References can also be emailed or linked to full text depending on institutional affiliation.   The free version only allows for 10 results per search, the full version which contains unlimited results is $2.99.

Medscape: contains medical news and the ability to receive critical alerts in specialty areas.  Other available content includes prescribing information, CMEs, and evidence based information on diseases, conditions, and procedural videos.  Medscape is a free app.

DynaMed: a point of care reference tool that contains over 3,100 evidence based summaries that are updated daily.  The app for DynaMed is free with an institutional subscription.

Micromedex: provides access to over 4500 medications that includes information on dosages, interactions, administration, indications, and adverse effects.  This app is freely available to anyone.

AirStrip: allows you to monitor your patient anywhere you have a Wi-Fi connection.  Clinicians can view live streaming patient data including such information as vitals, labs, intakes and outputs, and cardiac imaging.  To use the app your healthcare facility must have purchased AirStrip.

AED Trainer: helps to educate health care professionals with the use of an automated external defibrillator (AED).  The trainer features a 3D simulator, random scenarios, and exercises of proper pad placement. The trainer costs $5.99 and is designed to work with AED pads and CPR mannequins.

Not an app but still useful: Echo medical now offers sterile tablet covers designed for use in the OR.  The sleeves are available for $125 for a box of 24. http://www.imedicalapps.com/2012/03/sterile-ipad-sleeve-operating-room-exclusive-handson-review/

RefWorks Training Sessions @ Laupus Library

Laupus Library is very pleased to offer RefWorks training sessions for faculty, staff, and students.  For those unfamiliar with this resource, RefWorks allows users to easily gather references from most of ECU’s online databases, organizes your research, and automatically generates bibliographies in APA, AMA, Vancouver, or hundreds of additional citation styles.

RefWorks training sessions at Laupus will cover personal account set-up, importing citations, managing/sharing folders, and automatically creating works-cited pages and in-text citations.

Spring 2012 Training Sessions:

  • Thursday, February 23rd @ 10:00-11:00am
  • Wednesday, March 14th @ 1:00-2:00pm
  • Friday, April 13th @ 10:00-11:00am
  • Tuesday, May 15th @ 3:30-4:30pm

Registration:

  • Faculty and Staff should register via OneStop – University Training
  • Students should email Christine Andresen at andresenc@ecu.edu to register

All sessions will be held in Laupus Library, 2502G

Procedures Consult App for Apple Devices

For those who might not know, Procedures Consult is an online procedure reference tool offering easy access to complete details on how to prepare for, perform, and follow up on some of the most common procedures required in today’s hospital setting. Offering high-quality illustrations and multi-media for each procedure, Procedures Consult provides physicians, residents, and students with time-effective, self-directed procedures training and testing.

The Procedures Consult app allows for text and illustration content to be stored on any iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch. Recently viewed videos as well as videos selected as favorites can also be stored on your device, making all of the Procedures Consult content available anytime, anywhere.

Procedures Consult allows physicians, residents, and students to access procedures repeatedly, until they fully understand the procedure. This adds a layer of safety to the medical adage “See One – Do One – Teach One”, which refers to how physicians typically see a procedure demonstrated, perform the procedure and then teach the procedure to a colleague. Physicians typically demonstrate procedures only when patients are available, but Physicians Consult gives its users the opportunity to watch videos performed by the experts, as many times as needed, before feeling comfortable performing or teaching the procedure themselves.

Laupus Library does have an institutional subscription to Procedures Consult, so you can easily access this resource on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch. First you will need to create a free account by accessing Procedures Consult through the library’s electronic resources page¹. Then you can download the free app from iTunes² and login with the account you created. Now you are ready to take advantage of everything Procedures Consult has to offer!

Please let us know if you have any questions or problems using this resource: http://www.ecu.edu/laupuslibrary/research/askalibrarian.cfm

Links to access Procedures Consult or learn more about the new app:

¹ http://www.ecu.edu/laupuslibrary/research/erinfo.cfm?ID=192

² http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/procedures-consult/id479652961?mt=8

http://app.proceduresconsult.com/PressRelease/ProceduresConsultAdminEnhancements.pdf

 

Internet Piracy Bills

 

You may have visited Wikipedia today and noticed that the website has literally gone dark or maybe you landed on the Google homepage and saw the blacked out Google logo.  This is occurring due to a protest of two proposed bills in the House and Senate.  Multiple sites are objecting, including Wikipedia and Reddit who aren’t allowing user to access any of their sites content.

The two bills in dispute are the Protect IP Act (Senate) and the Stop Online Piracy Act (House).  The main idea behind these bills is to stop the illegal downloading of movies and TV shows.  According to the Washington Post, “they would impose restrictions forcing U.S. companies to stop selling online ads to suspected pirates, processing payments for illegal online sales and refusing to list Web sites suspected of piracy in search-engine results.”

Tech companies are concerned that if these bills pass they will provide the government with the ability to close websites if they think they are violating copyright laws.  In addition, tech companies would have to monitor user generated sites.

For example, “Under the proposed legislation, if a copyright holder like Warner Brothers discovers that a foreign site is focused on offering illegal copies of songs or movies, it could seek a court order that would require search engines like Google to remove links to the site and require advertising companies to cut off payments to it.

Internet companies fear that because the definitions of terms like “search engine” are so broad in the legislation, Web sites big and small could be responsible for monitoring all material on their pages for potential violations — an expensive and complex challenge” (Wortham, 2012).

Andrew McLaughlin, vice president at Tumblr, “said the fear is that on large and diverse Web communities like Tumblr, any user who uploads an unauthorized clip from a movie or an unreleased track from an album is putting the whole company in the line of fire”.

Most companies support the current law that asks websites to take down content if asked by the copyright holder.  Many sites, such as Tumblr and Wikipedia, are providing users with a means to contact their local legislators.

For more information see the following links:

Fahrenthold, D.A. (2012).  Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/sopa-protests-to-shut-down-web-sites/2012/01/17/gIQA4WYl6P_story.html

Wortham, J. (2012).  Retrieved from  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/18/technology/web-wide-protest-over-two-antipiracy-bills.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&hp

New Learning Management System Challenges Blackboard

Sick of Blackboard? You’re not alone!

Although Blackboard dominates the majority of the market for learning management systems (LMS), students and faculty are less than enthusiastic about its endless list of bugs and crashes (in fact, Blackboard receives a 93% ‘hate’ rating on the social media analytics website, Amplicate).

But there is hope! Coursekit, a learning management system built by students out of the University of Pennsylvania, looks and works a lot more like the social media platforms people typically use in their spare time.  Since its launch this fall, Coursekit has been described as a, “cleaner-looking Facebook news feed, centered on a single academic theme, or a group Tumblr blog where each picture, question, or video can accumulate its own discussion in the attached comment thread”. Coursekit designers opted to go directly to the instructors rather than market to campuses as a whole, and beta-testing of the new system was piloted by professors at 30 campuses this semester (you can check our 4 cool case studies here) and have 80 student ambassadors hired to introduce the new LMS to students at colleges across the country.

Key features in Coursekit include a calendar, syllabi, grading tool, paper and assignment collecting tool and a “class wall” where students can post comments and hold discussion.  Any instructor in the world can use the program for free, and one of the founders, Joseph Cohen, has said that one of the most interesting parts about his new LMS is that Coursekit transforms the class experience from something that happens twice a week for an hour, into this community of continuous conversation that greatly increases student interaction.

Today many students form their own class pages on Facebook where classmates can ask questions or post relevant information, and Coursekit has incorporated that feature into their LMS, finding an appropriate balance between social networking and course management.  As the semester is finishing up and Coursekit feedback is being gathered one student has said of Coursekit, “It basically does everything that Blackboard is meant to do, but in a better, more accessible way”.

Now that actually sounds like something worth looking forward to, and Coursekit is one of several new challengers to Blackboard so be on the lookout for major changes to the way courses are managed online in the near future!

For more information visit:

http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/new-course-management-software-promises-facebook-like-experience/34488

http://blog.coursekit.com/archive

A Scientific Approach to the Leisurely Read

Booklamp.org is a unique non-profit site that helps users find books they may be interested in reading.  There are a lot of websites now that offer book recommendations such as Goodreads.com, Shelfari.com, and LibraryThing.com. Those websites are considered social recommendation engines and they base their search results on books that are popular among their customers buying patterns and what’s currently popular in the industry.  These social recommendation sites are helpful in recommending books that your friends have read and those books that are most popular right now.

What these sites lack though, is the whole picture. What about  the book did you like? Did you like the fact that the main character was a detective or a journalist? Did you like that a subplot in the book centered around animals? Did you like that the book contained elements of true crime, art history, a jury trial, or that it shared a lot of factual information on medieval weapons and armor? For a truly thorough book search like that, you need a site like Booklamp.org.

Booklamp.org is the outcome of the Book Genome Project. This project was created in 2003 by students and programmers from Stanford University, Florida State University, and Boise State University. The programmers wanted to create a unique search engine algorithm which seeks to break a  story down into all of its “thematic ingredients.” Or, in other words to create a virtual DNA for each book  by breaking the story down into all the individual themes it covers.  By doing this, users would be able to search for a book not only in a specific genre such as mystery, but they would be able to specify what exactly they liked about the book – journalism/ photography/cooking, etc…

Booklamp.org is basically like Pandora.com (which was the “practical outlet” of the Music Genome Project) but for books instead of music. The project is still at the beginning stage and they have to work with publishers individually to be to have the rights to list books on their site. So currently the catalog of books to search is not very large.  But as the site grows and more publishers are willing to work with the organization — Booklamp.org should be able to have much more wide variety of books to add to their storyDNA databases!

 

Open Access Week 2011

Open Access Week is a global event held the week of October 24th, 2011, which the ECU Libraries will be celebrating for the third year in a row. It is our opportunity to promote the potential benefits of Open Access to the academic and research community at ECU.

So, what exactly is Open Access (OA)? It encompasses the free, immediate, online access to the results of scholarly research, and the right to use and re-use those results as needed. OA literature is digital, online, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions. The ECU Libraries believe OA has the power to transform the way research and scientific inquiry are conducted and that it has direct and widespread implications for academia, medicine, science, industry, and for society as a whole.OA Week is an invaluable chance to connect the global momentum toward open sharing with the advancement of policy changes on the local level.

This year the Libraries will be sharing brief, energetic videos promoting the principles of OA, starring some of our own ECU faculty, and displaying posters on the “Cost of Research Today”. For more information on the global OA Week movement, check out http://www.openaccessweek.org/.