PARTNERS Project Presented at Regional Advisory Council Meeting

Patricia Wilson, Associate Director of Outreach Services, presented a review of the PARTNERS grants: PARTNERS - Primary Care Access to Training, Networks, Education, Research Services and PARTNERS - Consumer Health to the Regional Advisory Committee of the South East/Atlantic Regional Medical Library (SEA/RML) on March 30, 2001. Ms. Wilson discussed the highlights of PARTNERS' work with the 10 Non-Profit Clinic Consortium (NPCC) clinic staffs and patients. PARTNERS is a collaboration among the Himmelfarb staff, PARTNERS staff, the NPCC Clinics and volunteers from the GW School of Public Health & Health Services, the ISCOPES project, Health Advocates, and Howard University students.

In February 2000 The George Washington University Medical Center's Himmelfarb Library was awarded the two PARTNERS grants. The major objectives were to equip 10 NPCC clinics with hardware, and web resources; to educate staff in resources like MEDLINE and HealthSTAR; and to train patients in health information resources to improve their health literacy and health decisions. The NPCC clinics provide an estimated 37 percent of the primary health care services to low income and uninsured residents of the District of Columbia. These grants were funded through the National Network of Libraries of Medicine and its Southeastern/Atlantic Regional Medical Library (RML) located at the University of Maryland - Baltimore.