Merger creates database with 2.5 million citations
Merger creates database with 2.5 million citations
What do you get when you combine a health planning and administration database maintained since 1977 with another database on health services research and technology? Over two million citations.
The HEALTH database, maintained by the Washington, DC-based American Hospital Association (AHA) and the Bethesda, MD-based National Library of Medicine, and the HSTAR database, maintained by NLM have merged. The new database, called HealthSTAR, includes 2.5 million citations on health care administrations, economics, planning, and policy. Other referenced subjects include health services research, clinical practice guidelines, and technological assessment.
The database will be updated weekly from a variety of sources journal articles, books, book chapters, technical and government reports, meeting abstracts, conference papers, and newspaper articles.
Once difficult to access at the hospital level, information and research on HealthSTAR can be accessed with one search, says Christine McEntee, AHA vice president for the association’s Center for Health Care Leadership in Chicago.
Once a password is obtained from the National Library of Medicine, users can access HealthSTAR using the Internet or communications software. Grateful Med software is also available to assist users in searching HealthSTAR. The World Wide Web address for Grateful Med is http://igm.nlm.nih.gov. Charges range from $1 to $2 per search.
[Editor’s note: For more information on HealthSTAR, call the National Library of Medicine at (800) 638-8480.]
Here is the contact information for sources used in this issue of Hospital Peer Review:
Sara Foer, MPH, MSJ, PhD, MD, spokeswoman, American Nursing Association, Patricia Rowell, PhD, RN, senior policy fellow, ANA’s nursing practice department. Virginia Trotter Betts, JD, MSN, RN, president, ANA, Washington, DC. Telephone: (202) 651-7023.
Nancy Grant, RN, nurse manager, surgical intensive care unit, MedCentral Health System, Mansfield, OH. Telephone: (419) 526-8744.
Patrice Spath, ART, independent health care quality and resource management consultant in Forest Grove, OR. Telephone: (503) 357-9185.
Reuben Richards, MA, data analyst, American Medical Group Association, Alexandria, VA. Telephone: (703) 838-0033.
Alice G. Gosfield, JD, principal, Alice G. Gosfield & Associates, Philadelphia. Telephone: (215) 735-2384.
Lisa Weiss, associate executive vice president, Josef J. Reum, MPA, executive vice president, American Medical Peer Review Association, Washington, DC. Telephone: (202) 789-7400.
Barry Scholl, spokesman, National Committee for Quality Assurance, Washington, DC. Telephone: (202) 955-3500.
Michelle Pelling, MBA, RN, president, The Propell Group, Portland, OR. Telephone: (503) 641-1987.
Christine McEntee, vice president, American Hospital Association’s Center for Health Care Leadership, Chicago. Telephone: (312) 422-2000.
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