2005 MLA CAM SIG BUSINESS MEETING

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Conference Room 12, Rivercenter, San Antonio, TX

Convener: Julia Whelan

Co-convener: Marilyn Rosen (unable to attend)

Attendees:

Greg Chauncy Pacific College of Oriental Medicine

Naomi Broering Pacific College of Oriental Medicine

Sharon Lezotte Cottage Health System

Barbara Nail-Chiwetalu University of Maryland

Susan Murray Toronto Public Library

Diane Zehnpfennig Office of the Surgeon General, Armed Forces Medical Library

Julia Whelan Massachusetts General Hospital

Introductions: Julie Whelan thanked the two presenters present for their outstanding talks. It was noted that the time for our invited speaker, Susan Murray, had been cut so much that she could not complete her talk, and this issue was brought up with the National Programming Committee on Thursday. The CAM SIG cosponsored two section presentations at the Annual Meeting thanks to Ruthann Gildea who worked on this project.

Comments during the introductions included suggestions from Naomi Broering to recruit librarians from libraries at colleges of oriental medicine into the SIG and into MLA, as well as publicity on Medlib-l and other MLA publications about the SIG. Diane Zehnpfennig from the Armed Forces Medical Library believes that CAM services will soon be offered to military personnel through their Tricare Military Health Program and the librarians who serve that community need to be prepared. Chiropractic care is already covered in Tricare.

Susan Murray described the active role she and other Canadian librarians are playing in determining policy on natural products. She mentioned many resources available from the Canadian Health Network (http://www.canadian-health-network.ca) and distributed attractive brochures publicizing their services. The Toronto Public Library is compiling CAM guides on individual therapies. A CAM subject guide is available at http://vrl.tpl.toronto.on.ca/helpfile/he_c0028.html . Susan recommended a recent article: Walji M, Sagaram S, Sagaram D, Meric-Bernstam F, Johnson C, Mirza NQ, Bernstam EV. The efficacy of quality criteria to identify potentially harmful information J Med Internet Res. 2004 Jun 29;6(2):e21.

Julie Whelan mentioned that the recipient of last year’s Kronick Traveling Fellowship was a Canadian librarian, Ellen Crumley (University of Edmonton), who focused her research on CAM.

Programming: SIG members had a brainstorming session on possible programming for next spring’s meeting in Phoenix. Topics that emerged were:

Herbal medicine past and present, with a Native American speaker and a fellow from Dr. Weil’s Integrative Medicine Program at the University of Arizona. The fellow could discuss how to get physicians involved with CAM or education about CAM in the medical curriculum. Pat Bradley from the University of New Mexico was suggested as a resource for finding a Native American healer. Additional topic threads were patient and physician literacy in CAM, patient safety, and the informed consumer. Other sections suggested as collaborators were the Chiropractic, Cancer, and History of Medicine. The group supported the idea of a session of invited papers on Cancer and CAM since so many cancer patients use CAM therapies. If these ideas do not work out, Julia Whelan volunteered to contact the History of Medicine and/or the Hospital sections. Members proposed a field trip or site visit since Phoenix is a center for CAM practice and traditional healing. A trip to Bastyr University during the Seattle MLA was mentioned as an example of a pervious SIG event that was educational and fun. This event might be scheduled for after the opening reception. Julia Whelan volunteered to attend the NPC program-planning meeting on Thursday morning.

SIG Website: Several SIG members attended Stephanie Weldon’s Evidence Based CAM class on Sunday and suggested that the SIG website link to that class’s website. Suggestions for additional content also included meeting minutes, presentations from SIG sponsored programs, and expert searcher pages. A vision of members sharing their resources emerged with suggestions to ask the SIG list and Medlib-l for favorite web links.

A meeting for Section and SIG web people was scheduled for Thursday morning and Sharon Lezotte volunteered to attend.

Julia Whelan

5/24/05 Top CAM SIG HOME

CAM SIG Meeting

MLA 2004, Washington DC

 

Meeting Summary

 

The SIG met from 5-6 on Tuesday, May 25, 2004, in the Farragaut room of the Washington Hilton.

 

Present were:

Stephanie Marcus, Library of Congress

Susan Murray, Toronto Public Library

Ruthann Gildea, Butler Hospital

Lisa McCormick

Lourdes P. Lin, Pacific College of Oriental Medicine

Julia Whelan, Massachusetts General Hospital

Rae Jesano, University of Florida

David Owen, University of California at San Francisco

Marilyn Rosen, Miner library, University of Rochester Medical Center

Additions since meeting:

Joan Colburn, Mountain Area Health Education Center, Library, NC

Mary E. Ryan, NIH Library- NCCAM

Dan Kanaley, New York Chiropractic College Library

 

 

David Owen opened the meeting and explained that he was one of the current conveners. Due to other commitments, he is no longer able to continue in this role.

 

The group discussed the situation and determined that there is enough interest to keep the CAM SIG active. Marilyn Rosen and Julia Whelan agreed to assume the role of co-conveners with the rest of this group acting as a steering committee.

 

Goals:

The group felt that goals for the 2004- 2005 year should be:

• To join with an MLA section and offer some CAM programming at the next annual meeting. Ruthann Gildea, offered to attend the program planning meeting at 7 a.m. on May 26 and report back to the group on themes and potential alliances for the CAM SIG. The group discussed possible topics and brought forth suggestions: evidence based medicine in CAM, and CAM use by diverse populations.

 

• To develop CAM CE opportunities.

 

• The group would like to offer CAM bibliographies on the SIG web site. Susan Murray mentioned bibliographies for the consumer that could be linked to the web page. Another bibliography on medicinal herbs will be coming out this fall in Choice and could be another link.

 

The SIG plans to communicate through its listserv so all are encouraged to join.

 

The group adjourned at 6 p.m.