Increasing Access to Quality Information for New Americans: The New Americans Library and Internet Project
3:05 PM - 3:35 PM
Description: This project aims to expand access to quality electronic health and medical information for refugees and immigrants on the north side of Chicago through a partnership among Heartland Alliance Refugee Health Programs, a program of Heartland Health Outreach (HHO); the University of Illinois-Chicago's Library of the Health Sciences; and two branches of the Chicago Public Library located in Rogers Park and Uptown, two neighborhoods with significant refugee and immigrant populations. This project was developed based on findings from research that we have applied to the context of serving the health education needs of refugees and immigrants, specifically: (1) consumer access to health information is important to health care; (2) searching the Internet, including searching on medical topics, is second nature to most Americans, but does not always lead to quality health information; and (3) the value of training for public library staff in searching and evaluating health information on the Internet is a fruitful endeavor. It is hoped that this project will contribute to an individual’s safe and healthy journey as a refugee or immigrant, to a client of health services, to becoming a patron of one of Chicago’s greatest institutions, the public library.
Author: Judith Weinstein, Associate Director, Heartland Health Outreach, Chicago, IL
Health Literacy Resources for Refugees: Is Reading Required?
3:35 PM - 3:50 PM
Objective: The authors repurposed plain language English health information resources into bilingual multimedia tools for health and patient education. Our goal is to improve the health literacy of health providers, interpreters, and refugees in our global village. These resources are freely available via our websites and linked via MedlinePlus.
Methods: Various methods were used to locate appropriate resources, including some already translated into a second language, usually Spanish. The authors worked with copyright holders and government agencies to obtain permission to translate and convert into audio and downloadable multimedia formats. When appropriate information was not available for the target populations, new resources were developed based on National Institutes of Health publications. Resources were translated into the requested languages for each contract, recorded, and produced as multimedia programs, with some converted into streaming video. Each new series is shared via online mailing lists. Evaluation methods include analyzing website utilization records and web surveys, and sharing stories using the resources for patient education and radio programs. The paper uses the Hmong heart health series (Hmonghealth.org), produced under a National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Greater Midwest Region, contract, as a case study illustrating typical challenges in translation and cultural adaptation.
Results: While web survey respondents state that they prefer handouts, website data indicate that more audio and files are downloaded from Healthy Roads Media (www.healthyroadsmedia.org). Hmong health workshop evaluations indicate preference for use of audiovisual resources with the opportunity to question an expert in their own language, with help from a qualified interpreter.
Conclusions: For low literacy audiences, including refugees and English as a second language groups, audio and multimedia formats are preferable to print. While these consumers prefer education from their providers, learning is enhanced via take home resources and broadcast messages. Refugee groups appreciate use of prerecorded, culturally appropriate media in their own languages as part of health education programming.
Authors: Margaret (Peg) Allen, AHIP, FMLA, Consultant, Health Knowledge Consultants, Stratford, WI; Mary Alice Gillispie, Director, Healthy Roads Media, Bozeman, MT; Peter Yang, Executive Director, Wausau Area Hmong Mutual Association, Wausau, WI; MeLee Thao, Physician Assistant, Family Medicine, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin, Wausau, WI
Expanding Access to Culturally Diverse and Language Appropriate Health Information: The Web-based Refugee Health Information Network
3:50 PM - 4:05 PM
Program Objective: The intention of the Refugee Health Information Network (RHIN) is to make accessible high-quality culturally and linguistically appropriate health information. Further, RHIN serves to enable a culture of information sharing and communication among those who specialize in refugee and immigrant health.
Description: Refugees resettled in the United States are increasingly diverse in national origin, ethnicity, and native language. Public health professionals and care providers are challenged to provide appropriate and accessible health information as well as to improve their own capacity to deliver care that is responsive to their refugee clients and patients as well as to the general immigrant population. Access to and sharing of information has been identified as critical. The core of this program is to develop a database of reviewed and high-quality, multilingual, multicultural information. RHIN does this by partnering with the Association of Refugee Health Coordinators. These public health officials serve in the health departments of most states and coordinate the health care access for refugees being resettled. RHIN also has trusted partners including Ethnomed and Healthy Roads Media, which have high-quality content that supplements what is in the RHIN database and is searched simultaneously by the RHIN search engine.
Results: The RHIN website has been available for several years and was just redesigned based on input from users, particularly from the Association of Refugee Health Coordinators. It is organized to (1) provide ease of use with the ability to find multilingual health information in a variety of formats, (2) support the sharing of resources from users and producers of information, and (3) promote learning about refugees and asylees. RHIN encourages users to submit their documents, audio, video, or other types of files for review for possible use on RHIN. Each provider of content is also asked to supply metadata about the item. This includes title, abstract, languages available, type of item, producer or authors, keywords, development and review methodology, and copyright.
Authors: Gale A. Dutcher, Deputy Associate Director, Division of Specialized Information Services, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD; John C. Scott, President, Center for Public Service Communication, Arlington, VA
Vocabulary and Taxonomy Issues When Searching Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Health Literature
4:05 PM - 4:20 PM
Objective: Information documented in published articles relating to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) health issues is generally reported in a free-text or keyword format. This creates inaccessibility to bibliographic data in the health sciences databases. The purpose of this paper is to describe gaps in existing vocabularies and taxonomies. The paper will demonstrate more formal semantics and a working taxonomy that could be included in developing indexes that would integrate metadata from the health sciences.
Methods: A literature search on health issues of LGBT individuals was done, using indexes of health sciences literature (MEDLINE). Precise retrieval was difficult using standard subject heading lists and controlled vocabularies such as Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). No searches adequately retrieved an integrated and inclusive representation of LGBT health literature. A search using existing taxonomies yielded eighty articles ranging from general to semi-specific accuracy. A careful reading of the articles prompted the effort to strengthen existing taxonomies including LGBT or “gay-sensitive” terms from the medical informatics and consumer-driven perspectives.
Results: An analysis of LGBT terms, derived from a sampling of published research literature as well as gay-slang and Internet metadata, is presented, which suggests a more appropriate set of terms to use when searching the health scieces literature that reports current research on health concerns of LGBT persons. If a more specific taxonomy, including gay slang and appropriate metadata, can be developed, tested, and implemented, the terms will enhance the sparse amount of literature that is currently retrieved by using consumer terminology (free-text or keywords) when using academic and consumer retrieval systems.
Conclusions: Diversification of the ontological representation of LGBT terms requires a more precise attempt to update and enhance literature retrieval efforts of bibliographic information. Both pro’s and con’s discovered in the practicality of inclusion of gay slang (as introduced in the web directory, “Dictionary of Gay Slang, Words and Terms") will be highlighted.
Author: Mary Jo Dorsey, AHIP, Post Doctoral Associate, Department of Biomedical Informatics, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
