HSR Search
The National Library of Medicine is pleased to announce HSR Search, a search interface designed to give users who are looking for health services research information a single access point to the several databases with HSR-specific information that NLM offers. This new feature is accessible from the National Information Center on Health Services Research and Health Care Technology (NICHSR) homepage.
HSR Search allows users to enter one or more terms that are then ANDed together for them. HSR Search runs a query against the following NLM databases: HealthSTAR, HSRProj, DIRLINE, HSTAT, and a prototype HSR Tools database. Users may select all or some of these when sending a query.
It is expected that in the future, HSR Search will be replaced by an NLM gateway that is currently being developed by staff of the Library. This gateway, which will be a much more sophisticated state-of-the-art access mechanism, will provide access to NLM's databases beyond the HSR suite.
LOCATORplus
In April 1999, NLM unveiled the Library's new Web-based catalog called LOCATORplus. LOCATORplus allows anyone with Internet access to find out what books, journals, audiovisuals, manuscripts, and other items are contained in the NLM collections. LOCATORplus is found at: www.nlm.nih.gov/locatorplus/. LOCATORplus also includes a Health Services Research screen with links to HealthSTAR, HSRProj, HSTAT and the NICHSR homepage. To reach this screen, click on the Search Other Resources button on the LOCATORplus home page, and then click on the Health Services Research button at the top of the screen.
Heart Attack Alert
Heart specialists talk about a so-called "golden hour" immediately after a heart attack. This is the crucial time when a clot-dissolving agent can significantly improve the victim's chances for survival. Although the efficacy of these agents has been known for years, only a fraction of those suffering a heart attack receive this treatment. The reasons for the slow adoption of known methods for dramatically improving the chances of surviving a heart attack are several, including delayed recognition by patients and bystanders that a person is having a heart attack, issues relevant to emergency transportation, and decisions and procedures within hospital emergency departments.
NLM, with support from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's National Heart Attack Alert Program, is funding 14 projects that will apply medical informatics techniques to see if this record can be improved. Medical informatics is the discipline that applies computer and information technologies to the problems of health care. For more information on this program, see http://www.nlm.nih.gov/news/press_releases/haalert.html.
For additional information on NLM's health services research and health technology assessment related products and services, please contact NICHSR at email: NICHSR@NLM.NIH.GOV; phone: 301-496-0176; fax: 301-402-3193.