PABC Physio Info-blog.

Farewell to the Physio-Blog: final confession from a reluctant blogger

2009-02-25T22:38:16Z

The Physio-Blog is officially shutting down. I’ve been trying to find a place for blogging even since I took over as PABC librarian last year, but admittedly without much success. I was hoping to maintain the blog started by former librarian Eugene Barsky, but quickly realized that learning about a new field and blogging about it didn’t make sense to me. As a relative newcomer to health related librarianship I simply don’t feel expert enough (yet) to blog to the physio community. There you go, I probably should have admitted this months ago!

So, to the broader community I would like to thank all readers who took the time to visit the blog since its introduction in 2006. In the coming weeks this site will be permanently removed from the UBC server where it is currently hosted. Until then, I can be reached at librarian@bcphysio.org if you have any questions or comments about the blog.

PABC members will have continued access to many of the resources found here through the PABC website. Please visit for a complete listing of library services and for access to the PABC eLibrary.

All the best!
Suzanne

Looking for PABC members to test drive the New Rehabilitation Reference Center from EBSCO

2008-12-15T22:33:39Z

EBSCO has recently launched the Rehabilitation Reference Center (RRC), an evidence-based point-of-care reference tool for rehabilitation clinicians. RRC content includes clinical reviews (summaries on rehabilitation topics incorporating the best available evidence), research instruments, drug information, exercise images, key reference handbooks, practice guidelines, patient education resources, as well as rehab news and clinical updates.

MAIN PAGE

Learn more by watching this brief tutorial: http://support.ebsco.com/training/flash_videos/RRC.html

Access to RRC is on a trial basis only. Unlike other PABC e-library databases, this resource is not part of the eHLBC consortium, and is therefore not listed on the PABC Library Services website. Access will be given to interested PABC members only. Please contact me at librarian@bcphysio.org for login information.

I'll be taking this database for a spin in the coming weeks and will blog about it further, but would certainly appreciate some feedback from a physiotherapist perspective. Test drive it now!

Rehab+: an easy way to get customized evidence-based rehabilitation research to you inbox

2008-12-15T22:20:04Z

Check out Rehab+ from McMaster University's Health Information Research Unit. Rehab+ offers a searchable database of best evidence from the health care literature - over 150 premier clinical journals, as well as an email alerting system matched to your personal clinical interests (patient population, clinical settings, and specialty). Articles are chosen for quality by research staff, then rated for clinical relevance and interest by members of a worldwide panel of practicing occupational and physical therapists. Relevance to practice and newsworthiness of the research is provided using a visual ranking system. Other features include links to selected evidence-based resources, and a "Hit Parade" of the most often read articles in the past 30 days is available on the home page.

EXAMPLE OF EMAIL RESULTS:

Registration is free and easy to set up. Try it out and let me know what you think.

Thanks to Susanne Watson for bringing this to my attention.

Physiotherapy and Exercise as Effective for Osteoarthritic knee pain as arthroscopic surgery

2008-09-11T19:04:15Z

A landmark study from the University of Western Ontario has found that one of the most common and widely performed knee operations is ineffective and doesn't provide significant benefits for osteoarthritis patients.

A Randomized Trial of Arthroscopic Surgery for Osteoarthritis of the Knee (New England Journal or Medicine)
News Stories:
Therapy for arthritic knees often as effective as surgery: study (CBC Health News)
Arthroscopic knee surgery ineffective: study (Globe and Mail)

Physio News: Stroke & Exercise Research

2008-09-05T18:13:33Z

Stroke survivors show improvements from exercise says a recent CBC health news item. People who have suffered a stroke may benefit from walking on a treadmill years after the brain injury, according to a RCT published in Stroke

Abstract: Treadmill Exercise Activates Subcortical Neural Networks and Improves Walking After Stroke. A Randomized Controlled Trial

The full-text will be available soon in the PABC eLibrary’s LWW Total Access Journal Collection.

The RSPT 572 audiocasts now available

2008-08-25T19:00:21Z

The RSPT 572 audiocasts (and presentations) are available for download. Both current and past (three years) presentations are available from the UBC cIRcle (Information Repository).

For those unfamiliar with the UBC PT program, RSPT 572 is a rehabilitation research project where students develop systematic reviews, meta-analysis, or clinical practice guidelines suitable for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.

This year's topics:

The Effects of Aerobic Exercise on Functional Recovery Post Stroke As Defined by the ICF: Systematic Review

The Effectiveness of Comprehensive Physiotherapy in the Treatment of Adults with Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Systematic Review

Effects of Exercise & Pharmacological Therapy on Bone Density in Persons Post-Stroke

Physical activity as an adjunct treatment for schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders: A systematic review

The Effect of Power Training versus Strength Training on Lower Extremity Function in Community-Dwelling Older Adults

Effects of Exercise on Persons with Metastatic Cancer

The Effects of Tai Chi on Balance in Healthy Older Adults

EBSCOhost 2.0 is now live.

2008-07-22T06:37:32Z

EBSCOhost 2.0 . This upgrade effects the following PABC Library databases: CINAHL with Full-Text, PsycINFO and PsycARTICLES, EBSCO Biomedical Reference Collection, and Medline (EBSCO)

New features include:

* A new simpler basic searching screen
* The ability to preview an article or image by mouseover
* New result list
* New detail display
* New search history capability
* Enhanced personalization features
* New organization of limiters and expanders
* New search modes including SmartText
* URLs that can be bookmarked

New PABC tutorials are in the works, in the meantime please visit
the EBSCOhost 2.0 Support website for more information regarding new features, user guides, and training.

Summer Time and the Gyno Spa

2008-07-21T08:27:13Z

Nothing like old news. Admit it. We all fall behind sometimes...especially in the summer - especially here in BC where summer seems too short. So, I’m daring to even mention a couple of interesting articles I came across few weeks ago. Apparently, we’re in the slow season for sports injuries (and slow blog posts). According to the New York Times “Summer Sports Are Among the Safest”, and that snowboarding accidents are higher than the rate for summer pastimes like boating, camping, fishing, hiking, mountain biking, swimming, and water-skiing — combined. Is this true? Does this mean sports physios get a little rest over the summer? Meanwhile...get me to a physio, my snowboarding injury is still haunting me!

Ok. This one really caught my eye: A Spa for Those Women Concerned About ‘Pelvic Fitness’. Welcome to the era of the gyno spa...I like the results.

Video Website for Physiotherapists

2008-07-21T07:42:18Z

Interesting. I just came across a new video/podcast website for physical therapists. How fortuitous! In the upcoming PABC newsletter (Summer 2008) “Directions”, I mention the proliferation of physiotherapy videos on sites like YouTube and VideoJug. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, The “Physical Therapy Channel” is modeled on YouTube, and features demonstrations of treatment techniques, rehabilitation products, software demonstrations, rehabilitation facility tours, interviews with physical therapists and other healthcare related disciplines, online in-services, operating room surgeries, and a host of other unique content from the physical therapy industry. According to the site. “all users will have the ability to subscribe, listen, view, upload and share physical therapy videos and podcasts on our website.” Content is created by physical therapists, and the site is to be “a community for media sharing among physical therapists, students, educators, other healthcare disciplines, and rehabilitation product vendors”. It promises to provide videos and podcasts covering all aspects of the physical therapy industry.” There’s not much there yet, but I’m curious about how a website like this will be used by PTs? Read the press release

An Introduction

2008-06-26T22:35:28Z

Enough lurking! I’m finally going to introduce myself and resurrect the Physio-Blog,

Hi, my name is Suzanne Geba and I’m taking over where Eugene left off. First, let me tell you a bit about myself, and what I hope to bring to this blog.

I am a librarian in a unique position. I don’t work in a physical library, seldom handle books, and serve a specific set of users across the beautiful province of British Columbia: the 1800+ members of the Physiotherapy Association of British Columbia (PABC). Our library is fully digital. At its core is the excellent eHLBC collection of health databases, however, when needed I “borrow” electronic resources from public libraries and academic institutions, and of course find stuff using good old Google.

Reference questions are handled via email or IM (try the “Ask Librarian” chat box when I’m online). I also offer database workshops, provide access to new information technologies and sources, and do my best to keep members up to date with current physio information. That’s my job in a nutshell.

So, what up with the blog? After all, it’s been a few months without a fresh post.

While it is true, that Eugene Barsky (now at UBC) is no longer the author of this blog, his past contributions are still happily with us. Truth be told, blogging in someone else’s shoes is just a wee bit challenging, and it may take some time to find my stride. In the meantime I welcome comments from anyone, anywhere.

Since Eugene’s departure my position is no longer affiliated with the University of British Columbia, and for this reason, the main focus of the blog will be on serving PABC members, but hopefully viewers from all over will continue to visit and find something worth while.

This is simply my intro post, but I will be back soon and on a regular basis. Hi for now!

Suzanne, PABC Librarian

ta ta for now – Eugene Barsky’s departure and the physio blog

2008-02-15T19:36:45Z

This is my saddest post on this blog. Well – because this is my last one. I was offered and decided to accept a new tenured track librarian position with the Science and Engineering Library, University of British Columbia.

It means that I will not continue my blogging here. The newly hired librarian – Aditi Gupta - will be holding the fort and keep updating you as for the news in physiotherapy informatics.

The blog does not die – which is a very good thing for me :)

I decided to omit the name of the University of British Columbia from the blog’s title, since it will not continue to be affiliated with the university where I work…

I will greatly miss all British Columbia physios I worked with during the recent years – amazing group of people! I enjoyed it so much! Thank you to hundreds of you who used our library services. Thank you for all your kudos and for being such a great users group – you are a dream of every professional librarian!!

Thank you also to all physical therapists out there that came to read our blog more than 102,000 times during the last two years. Thank you for spending the time with us. I hope you found something useful while being here.

Thank you to all health librarians who came to use our blog as a learning tool and as an example of outreaching to a diverse community of users. I have always appreciated your feedback and respected your opinions.

Particular thank you to those individuals that inspired me and served as my mentors, colleagues and friends: Dean Giustini, Sally Taylor, Lindsay Ure, Katherine Miller, Susan Atkey, Sheryl Adam, David Rothman, Simon Neame, Mark Rabnett, Barbara Saint, Charlotte Beck, Lee Ann Bryant, Aleteia Greenwood, Allan Cho, Brian Lamb. A particular big thank you to the Physiotherapy Association of BC CEO – Rebecca Tunnacliffe, who ALWAYS supported me and my work with the physiotherapists!!

Ta Ta for Now – we are all off to new adventures :)

** Photo by Martin Dee

Celebrating 100,000 page views on the blog

2008-02-08T20:09:10Z

Today is a special day for our blog. We just had our 100,000 page view this morning. It means that our blog pages were viewed by different folks that many times!

I just hope that at least half of those visitors found something useful on our pages!!

** Photo by Stuck in Customs

New tutorial - "Getting the full text from the PABC library"

2008-02-05T16:53:30Z

I just uploaded this new tutorial to the Web - "Getting the full text from the PABC library". The tutorial guides the Physiotherapy of British Columbia (PABC) members as for how to obtain full text articles from the PABC electronic library.

Click here to view this tutorial in your browser.

** Photo by Steve Rhodes

New Rehab Sciences podcasts from Sunny Hill Health Centre, BC Children's Hospital

2008-01-29T16:55:14Z

Sunny Hill Health Centre, BC Children's Hospital rehab therapists kindly share this content with the broader audience.

All sessions were recorded in 2007 and are of potential interest to pediatric PTs, OTs and other rehabilitation professionals.

As usual, you can use the green gadget below to listen to the audiocasts right away, or follow the links below to view the actual presentations and listen/download the audio part of the presentations.

New audiocasts:


Boredom: More than "Nothing to Do"	Presenters: Clark, Mary	PDF	AUDIO
Best Practices for Trasporting Infants and Children with Special Needs	Presenters: Meades, Wendy	PDF	AUDIO
Standardized Tests - a participative workshop	Presenters: Davis, Alexis; Mayson, Tanja; Stewart, Sue	PDF	AUDIO
Melatonin Therapy for the difficult sleep disorders of children with neurodevelopmental disabilities	Presenters: Jan, James		AUDIO

As always, you can access all our podcasts this way:

1. Go to https://circle.ubc.ca
2. Click on "Library" link under "Communities in UBC cIRcle"
3. Click on "The Irving K. Barber Learning Centre" link
4. You will see a small search box. Click on "Titles" button to list all files by titles or "Authors" file to list all files by their authors
5. When opening a particular record, just click on the relevant links to listen to an audiocast and view the presentations in PDF format.

Thanks a lot to David Jordan from the Sunny Hill Health Centre for working with us to get this content online!!

** Photo by mudkat

"Introducing Web 2.0: wikis for health librarians" - new article in JCHLA

2008-01-24T20:02:20Z

Published just a few hours ago, here is a new article by Dean Giustini and yours truly, this time about using wikis in health sciences:

Barsky E, Giustini D. Introducing Web 2.0: wikis for health librarians. Journal of the Canadian Health Libraries Association. 2007 28(4): 147-150

Being a proponent of open-access publishing, I have to say that this journal is open access and you can view our article for free!

It was a great privilege and fun working with Dean - a super experienced health librarian who is also a mentor and a good friend. I have to admit that thanks to him - this is one of our best articles in the series so far!

It continues the series of articles I co-write with other medical librarians about using social software in health sciences:

1. Barsky E., & Cho A. Introducing Web 2.0: social search for health librarians. 2007. JCHLA , 28 (2), 59-61

2. Barsky E., & Purdon M. “Introducing Web 2.0: Social networking and social bookmarking”. 2006 JCHLA , 27 (3), 65-67

3. Barsky E. “Introducing Web 2.0: Webloging and podcasting for health librarians”. 2006. JCHLA , 27 (2), 33-34

4. Barsky E. “Introducing Web 2.0: RSS trends for health librarians”. 2006. JCHLA, 27 (1), 7-8.

5. Giustini D, & Barsky E. “A look at Google Scholar, PubMed and Scirus: comparisons and recommendations”. 2005. JCHLA, 26 (3), 85-89.

Have fun reading!!

** Photo by ~Aphrodite