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Objective: To determine the value of a program instituted by an academic medical library to train public library workers across the State of Tennessee, US to deliver quality health information to patrons. Methods: Qualitative analysis including focus groups. Results: The East Tennessee State University (ETSU) Medical Library used four three-hour classes developed by the US National Library of Medicine to train public library workers across the State of Tennessee over the last five years. All four classes were offered multiple times in the nine regions of the state public library system. Approximately 250 library workers received the Consumer Health Information Specialization designation from the US Medical Library Association for participating in 12 hours of training. The motivation behind this effort was reports that the first place people with a new diagnosis go for information is the public library. Conclusion: We wanted to look for evidence to see if there was value in this project in order to know whether to repeat it in the future or whether to promote it as a model to other geographical areas. A qualitative analysis of the results of the project will be presented at the conference.

Objective: Remote Area Medical (RAM) Volunteer Corps is a nonprofit volunteer relief corps dedicated to serving mankind by providing free health care, dental care, eye care, and technical and educational assistance to people in remote areas of the United States and the world. The East Tennessee State University Medical Library participated in two RAM expeditions. Approximately 3,000 patients were seen at the 2 events. Methods: The library obtained funding to purchase laptops and printers and printed consumer health information. The library had a prominent position in the educational section of the events. Librarians from other medical libraries and public libraries were invited to be part of the team. During the event, library staff aggressively sought out opportunities to give consumer health information to patients. Results: The library provided health information to approximately 1,300 of the participants. Conclusions: RAM provided the library with a chance to really help out with the community. It was an interesting eye opening experience. It is the medical library’s wish to have a continued relationship with RAM. The library's presence made an impression on the various health care providers as to what a powerful tool information could be.

Objective: To enable primarily public libraries and secondarily public health workers and rural hospital staff to be consumer health information providers with the goal of creating a program that could be copied nationally, enabling public library workers to become an important resource in reversing our national health information illiteracy. Setting: Three regions of the state regional public library system covering seventeen counties and two regions of the state public health department system. Participants: Public library staff, public health department staff, and rural hospital staff. Program: East Tennessee State University (ETSU) College of Medicine Library partnered with public libraries to improve the delivery of health information. Four free classes were taught multiple times: “Prescription for Success,” “An Apple a Day,” “PubMed for Public Librarians,” and “From Snake Oil to Penicillin.” Regional public library directors were used to convince their staff of its value and obtain the concurrence of their boards for release time for class attendance. Classes were also developed for the public health workforce and rural hospital staff. Existing classes (with all teaching materials on the National Network of Libraries of Medicine [NN/ LM] Website) were used with the existing public library system. Results: Five-hundred thirty-three students attended the classes. Fifty-two public library workers received MLA’s Consumer Health Information Specialist certification. Thirty-one public libraries have joined NN/LM. All ordered MedlinePlus marketing materials for their libraries from InformationRx.org. Conclusion: This project helped address the public health problem of health information illiteracy by filling the gap the average person has in finding quality health information. A strength of this project is its easy replication. The project used materials that were readily available and put them to use. Any library could replicate this project in its own service area saving time and cost to the library.

Program Objective: to train rural physicians how to use PDAs and the ePocrates database Setting: Tennessee rural critical access hospitals Participants: physicians Program: This patient safety initiative was a collaboration between the Tennessee Hospital Association (THA) and the Universities of Southern Maine, Minnesota, and North Dakota, and the Maine Rural Health Research Center, Upper Midwest Rural Health Research Center, QSource (Tennessee QIO), eight small rural Tennessee hospitals and BlueCross/BlueShield of Tennessee (funder). Because of THA’s knowledge of the East Tennessee State University Quillen College of Medicine Library (QCOML) through state conferences, QCOML was asked to conduct the training for the PDA segment of the project. Main Results: The goal was to provide a PDA for every hospital prescriber in eight small rural Tennessee hospitals. The project provided a Palm TX device, a two year subscription to the full suite of ePocrates software and training. One hundred-thirty clinicians were trained in PDA/ePocrates. Retraining was provided at each site as needed. Evaluation: evaluation was conducted by a 4–6 month user’s survey, usage data from ePocrates (sync, look-ups) and evaluation based on the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Survey. Conclusion: Physicians were pleased with the PDAs and indicated that the devices positively influenced their patient care. This type of cooperative venture exposes the talents of medical librarians to new populations and opens up opportunities for further collaboration.

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