Friday, March 27, 2009

Household Products Database



Many of us have just finished updating our Hazardous Materials Inventories for our work areas.
But have you ever wondered about all the chemicals we keep at home, under the kitchen sink, in the laundry room, and in our garages?

The Household Products Database provides information on the potential health effects, safe use and handling of common products in and around our homes. Information is taken from manufacturers' product labels and Material Safety Data Sheets. Research consumer products based on chemical ingredients.

Examples :
AntiFreeze
Air Fresheners
Cleaning Supplies
Lawn Care Products, and much more …

The Household Products Database is a free resource from the National Library of Medicine (our tax dollars at work!)

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Top Ten Reasons to Use Your Library (whether or not you are involved in direct patient care)

Number Ten: You will get valuable information to help you make decisions

Number Nine: You will get more accurate information.

Number Eight: You will make better decisions.

Since librarians are trained to evaluate information sources for reliability you can be assured that the information you’d get from us is information you can trust. Using credible information will help you to make better decisions, whether these decisions relate to direct patient care or to other aspects of your work.

Please contact Michele (223-0340) or Margo (738-2325) for additional information or for help with your project.

Stay tuned for Reason Number Seven in a future edition of this Blog.

Source: Special Libraries Association

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database

We recently renewed our online access to NMCD.
It is an excellent tool for medication reconciliation.

NMCD is considered the scientific “gold standard” for evidence-based clinical practice info on herbals and other dietary supplements like Gingko or St. Johns Wort.

Search Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database
* Search - enter any natural product name, disease or condition, or drug name...gives you objective product information, Effectiveness Ratings, or potential interactions with drugs, etc.
* Natural Product Effectiveness Checker - tells you the level of effectiveness for natural products used for various medical conditions.
* Natural Product / Drug Interaction Checker - tells you potential interactions between any natural product and any drug. Automatically checks for interactions with EACH INGREDIENT of each product.
* Disease / Medical Conditions Search - shows you medical conditions, and allows you to see which natural products might be effective.
* Advanced Search - helps you find specific information or keywords anywhere in the Database.

How to get there :
Affinity Intranet > Library > Scroll down to Natural Medicines

Affinity Intranet > Library > Find Drug Info > Scroll down to Natural Medicines

Please feel free to contact Library Services with questions.
MMC Library : 3-0340 STE Library 8-2325

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Top Ten Reasons to Use Your Library (whether or not you are involved in direct patient care)

Number Ten: You will get valuable information to help you make decisions

Number Nine: You will get more accurate information.

Information found for free on the World Wide Web does not always come from credible sources. Your Affinity Librarians provide access to a number of electronic resources from the Library page on the Affinity Intranet that have been vetted and provide reliable information that you can use in caring for patients or for other work-related projects.

Please contact Michele (223-0340) or Margo (738-2325) for additional information or for help with your project.

Stay tuned for Reason Number Eight in a future post.

Source: Special Libraries Association