The Houston Academy of Medicine--Texas Medical Center Library management information system.

A management information system (MIS) provides a means for collecting, reporting, and analyzing data from all segments of an organization. Such systems are common in business but rare in libraries. The Houston Academy of Medicine-Texas Medical Center Library developed an MIS that operates on a system of networked IBM PCs and Paradox, a commercial database software package. The data collected in the system include monthly reports, client profile information, and data collected at the time of service requests. The MIS assists with enforcement of library policies, ensures that correct information is recorded, and provides reports for library managers. It also can be used to help answer a variety of ad hoc questions. Future plans call for the development of an MIS that could be adapted to other libraries' needs, and a decision-support interface that would facilitate access to the data contained in the MIS databases.

New library buildings: the Houston Academy of Medicine--Texas Medical Center Library.

A historical account is given of the Houston Academy of Medicine--Texas Medical Center Library within its Texas Medical Center setting in Houston, Texas. Outlined are planning, financing, and construction of the new library, which consists in part of new building and in part of renovated interiors of an old building originally completed in 1954. A concise picture is given of the new library's interiors, showing its functional success for users and employees alike. An architectural summary is appended showing gross and net footages, source of funds, costs and capacities.

Microbe Hunters Revisited – Paul de Kruif and the Beginning of Popular Science Writing

Paul de Kruif is credited with being one of the first popular science writers for the general public. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1916 and worked at the Rockefeller Institute under Simon Flexner. After being fired in 1922 for publishing a scathing article on medical research, de Kruif caught the attention of Sinclair Lewis, who used his scientific background to write his Pulitzer Prize winning novel, Arrowsmith. In 1926, de Kruif published Microbe Hunters which recounted the exploits and discoveries of 14 renowned microbiologists from von Leeuwenhoek to Pasteur, Ross, Paul Ehrlich and Walter Reed. Microbe Hunters became a best seller, was translated into 18 languages, and formed the basis of two Hollywood movies, "Yellow Jack" and "The Magic Bullet." Generations of young readers were captivated by the vivid protrayal of these men and their discoveries.

Caring Minds

Greetings Pacesetter Grads Feel Boost in Entry to Nursing Workforce UTHealth-UH Dual Bachelors Program for First-Time Students UTHealth School of Nursing – By the Numbers 2012 PARTNERS Spring Luncheon – honored “Generations of Nurses” – guest speaker Naomi Judd UT Health Services Expands Care for Patients When I Grow Up, – A UTHealth Nursing Student’s Story Donors Support Start of New Accelerated Family Nurse Practitioner Program Giuseppe Colasurdo, M.D. – Appointed Sixth President in U THealth’s 40-Year History Dean Starck Named to UT Academy of Health Science Education, Marcus Honored by Regents for Outstanding Teaching Students Select Two for 2012 McGovern Awards Endowed scholarships Former home of School of Nursing for 30 years disappears in dust cloud Ruppert Named 2012 FAAN

The Effect of Proximity, Explicitness, and Representation of Basic Science Information on Student Clinical Problem-Solving

Problem: Medical and veterinary students memorize facts but then have difficulty applying those facts in clinical problem solving. Cognitive engineering research suggests that the inability of medical and veterinary students to infer concepts from facts may be due in part to specific features of how information is represented and organized in educational materials. First, physical separation of pieces of information may increase the cognitive load on the student. Second, information that is necessary but not explicitly stated may also contribute to the student’s cognitive load. Finally, the types of representations – textual or graphical – may also support or hinder the student’s learning process. This may explain why students have difficulty applying biomedical facts in clinical problem solving. Purpose: To test the hypothesis that three specific aspects of expository text – the patial distance between the facts needed to infer a rule, the explicitness of information, and the format of representation – affected the ability of students to solve clinical problems. Setting: The study was conducted in the parasitology laboratory of a college of veterinary medicine in Texas. Sample: The study subjects were a convenience sample consisting of 132 second-year veterinary students who matriculated in 2007. The age of this class upon admission ranged from 20-52, and the gender makeup of this class consisted of approximately 75% females and 25% males. Results: No statistically significant difference in student ability to solve clinical problems was found when relevant facts were placed in proximity, nor when an explicit rule was stated. Further, no statistically significant difference in student ability to solve clinical problems was found when students were given different representations of material, including tables and concept maps. Findings: The findings from this study indicate that the three properties investigated – proximity, explicitness, and representation – had no statistically significant effect on student learning as it relates to clinical problem-solving ability. However, ad hoc observations as well as findings from other researchers suggest that the subjects were probably using rote learning techniques such as memorization, and therefore were not attempting to infer relationships from the factual material in the interventions, unless they were specifically prompted to look for patterns. A serendipitous finding unrelated to the study hypothesis was that those subjects who correctly answered questions regarding functional (non-morphologic) properties, such as mode of transmission and intermediate host, at the family taxonomic level were significantly more likely to correctly answer clinical case scenarios than were subjects who did not correctly answer questions regarding functional properties. These findings suggest a strong relationship (p < .001) between well-organized knowledge of taxonomic functional properties and clinical problem solving ability. Recommendations: Further study should be undertaken investigating the relationship between knowledge of functional taxonomic properties and clinical problem solving ability. In addition, the effect of prompting students to look for patterns in instructional material, followed by the effect of factors that affect cognitive load such as proximity, explicitness, and representation, should be explored.