University of Virginia Health System

U.VA. HEALTH SCIENCES LIBRARY IMPROVES RURAL ACCESS TO ELECTRONIC CANCER INFORMATION

People who live in the rural areas of far southwest Virginia are the target of a new effort to provide lifesaving information on cancer prevention and treatment. The Claude Moore Health Sciences Library at the University of Virginia Health System has received $50,000 from the National Library of Medicine (NLM) at the National Institutes of Health for the new cancer information program in this region.

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in southwestern Virginia, according to the Virginia Department of Health. The new project will include Lee, Wise and Scott counties and the city of Norton.

The Claude Moore Health Sciences Library is part of the NLM's National Network of Libraries of Medicine, which granted the project funds, and will partner with the Central Highlands Appalachian Leadership Initiative on Cancer (CHALIC) to get the project underway.

During the next 18 months, College at Wise-based U.Va. outreach librarian Ann Duesing, a faculty member at the Claude Moore Health Sciences Library, will recruit a coordinator to develop a training program for volunteers to help consumers search for cancer information. The volunteers will use Internet resources such as PubMed and MEDLINEplus, as well as the CA-HELP CD-ROM system developed by the CA-Help Institute with information from the National Cancer Institute.

This program will provide convenient community-based access to cancer information for southwestern Virginia cancer patients and families, Duesing said. For CHALIC members, many of whom are cancer survivors or have family members or friends who were cancer victims, having such a community resource has long been a dream that is now becoming reality.

For more information about this project, contact: Linda Watson, director, Health Sciences Library, (434) 924-0187, e-mail: law6z@virginia.edu or Duesing at (540) 328-0168, e-mail: cad4n@viginia.edu.

August 9, 2001