MLA News Selected Articles

April 2001

Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is a deliberate and conscientious approach by health care professionals to support clinical decision making with the best current research available. This guide will assist librarians in recommending resources to educate and support patient decision making.

Public health information kiosks communicate health information in settings such as hospital lobbies, clinic waiting rooms, medical libraries, and consumer health resource centers. Typically, the anonymous user touches a computer screen to pick a topic and browses the content in a self-paced environment. Kiosks are implemented with various objectives, including:

1. Improving medical outcomes:
   Quality, interactive health information programs can enhance medical outcomes by providing information on topics such as healthy living and safe use of medications. For significant impact, the program should present easy-to-understand content to reach the widest audience, maintain user’s attention, and ask questions to ensure comprehension and retention.
2. Increasing consumer satisfaction:
   Organizations use kiosks to offer customer services such as assisting consumers with directions or helping them use their waiting time constructively.
3. Marketing:
   Public kiosks have traditionally been used to market products and increase the visibility of services.
4. Collecting data:
   Kiosks can automatically save data from studies such as patient satisfaction surveys and consumer market research.
5. Saving costs:
   Kiosks can reduce the cost of pamphlets by offering printouts or emailed content, and, by providing directions to facilities, paid reception staff can be reduced.

Objectives Dictate Location and Content
All kiosk projects are associated with some expected return on investment (ROI), though the ROI is not always directly measurable. Those that emphasize better health outcomes are expected to help reduce the cost for medical services and are often implemented by health care systems based on capitation. Kiosks that increase consumer satisfaction usually produce an ROI through repeat business and referral from satisfied customers. Those that advertise products are expected to increase revenues from the widespread visibility of the services and products.

Determining the objectives of the kiosk is essential before shopping for the content and components, because the objectives usually dictate the location and the needed content. Without accessible, quality content, the most expensive kiosks could sit idle and unused. Most of the content available on the Web or via CD-ROM is textual, noninteractive, and requires significant decision making from users. To reach the widest audience, content should be written at a low readability level, be reinforced with multimedia, and include a simple and self-paced interface. The size of the text and buttons should be large enough to allow the option links to be easily chosen. Abundant interactive elements, such as questions and feedback, can maintain attention and verify understanding. A sample of kiosk-friendly programs is available on MEDLINEplus.

Selecting kiosk components does not have to be an expensive and laborious process. Depending on the objectives and needs, functional kiosks without an enclosure (the ATM-like structure housing the computer hardware) can be acquired for as little as $2,000. A kiosk with a sturdy enclosure, an Internet connection, and a preventive service contract can be expensive and may involve recurrent fees for content subscription and maintenance. Professional services (e.g.,www.dynatouch.com, www.goeinstein.net) offer complete solutions for a price.

For further information about selecting kiosk components, visit the Patient Education Institute Website (www.patient-education.com/Kiosks.html).

What do you think of when you hear the words “Cunningham Memorial International Fellowship?” For many MLA members, the fellowship means meeting and sharing thoughts about library practices and culture with health sciences librarians from all over the globe. For others, the fellowship may not hold much significance at all.

The 2002 fellow, Yuan Lin,* represents the Central Library at West China University in Chengdu City.

MLA would like to enhance the fellowship experience by exposing more members to the visiting fellow. By becoming a volunteer host, you can share in this unique opportunity for cross-cultural exchange. Fellows visit many different sizes and types of medical libraries. Host libraries and librarians are needed to help train and orient the fellows to local libraries and cities. Fellows are given a living stipend, so there is no financial burden on the host.

Established in 1967 with a bequest from the estate of Eileen R. Cunningham, the MLA Cunningham fellowship assists the education and training of health sciences librarians from countries outside the United States and Canada. The first fellowship was awarded in 1972 at the MLA annual meeting in San Diego, CA. Since 1972, more than thirty-three fellows have participated in Cunningham fellowships. The program continues to train and motivate international librarians with the latest practices in the health sciences profession.

Four-Month Long Program

The 2001 fellow, Kgaladi Kekana, represents the University of the North Library, South Africa.

The Cunningham fellowship fund supports a four-month program, which concludes at the end of annual meetings in May. Fellows observe and perform supervised work in one or more health sciences libraries in the United States or Canada, travel limited amounts, and have opportunities to attend continuing-education courses at annual meetings.

Recent fellows have traveled to the United States from Nigeria, Russia, South Africa, and The Netherlands. The Itinerary Committee of the Cunningham fellowship will soon begin planning the schedule for the 2002 fellow, Yuan Lin* of the Central Library, West China University–Chengdu City.

MLA is currently hosting the 2001 fellow, Kgaladi Kekana, a health sciences reference librarian at the University of the North Library, South Africa. Kekana will attend MLA 2001 in Orlando, FL, and would enjoy meeting MLA members to discuss her fellowship experience.

Note: Since publication of this article, Yuan Lin's affiliation has changed to Medical Branch Library of Sichuan University Library, Sichuan University–Chengdu, P. R. China.