Message from the Director
Community Engaged Learning Exhibit
New Resource: LexiDrug Now Available for UT Health San Antonio
New Resource: AORN eGUIDELINES+ and Accreditation Assistant Now Available for UT Health San Antonio
Library Chair Updates
From the Archives: Dr. Julio Palmaz
Featured eBook of the Month
New eBooks
We have 8 new eBooks for you this month!
Our February started off on an incredible high note! Members of the library team were involved in supporting the 18th Annual Community Engaged Learning (CEL) Conference focused on Ending the Injustice of Generational Poverty held on Saturday, February 1, 2025. The conference featured an inspiring keynote by Donna Beegle, and excellent speakers and attracted 412 attendees.
Chris Gaspard, Associate Library Director for Liaison Services, chaired the CEL Poster Subcommittee, which reviewed 80 abstract submissions. Among the subcommittee members were Jeff Uribe-Lacy, Liaison Librarian to the Schools of Dentistry and Public Health and the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, and Rajia Tobia, former Executive Director of Libraries, along with two other subcommittee members. I was fortunate to be able to attend and learned a lot from the speakers who were thoughtful and thought-provoking. My favorite part of the CEL Conference was the opportunity to view the 74 student posters presented at the conference. These posters were engaging, thoughtfully presented, and well-written. Each individual student or group of students was extraordinarily well prepared to present and answer questions, and all came across as polished young professionals. It was pure joy to learn about their research projects! We offer our thanks to the team that coordinates this annual conference.
Since last fall, the UT Health San Antonio Libraries have engaged in multiple conversations with leaders and staff of our growing clinical enterprise. As a health sciences library, one of our areas of focus is clinical library services which enables our librarians and library staff to provide clinicians and healthcare teams with information and resources to improve patient care, support evidence-based practice, and enhance medical education and research.
While the Libraries have always provided clinical library services to serve this part of our institution, the opening of the new UT Multispecialty & Research Hospital represents a new era for our institution. With the opening of the new hospital, the Library’s clinical library services program is growing and expanding. We have initiated recruitment for a full-time Liaison Librarian for Clinical Services and hope to have this position filled by April or May. Like our other liaison librarians, this librarian will support evidence-based practice by assisting clinicians in finding, evaluating, and applying the most current and relevant evidence to address specific clinical questions and manage our clinical operations. Their responsibilities will include conducting in-depth searches of the health sciences literature, training clinicians on information resources and search strategies, consulting and collaborating, assisting in selecting relevant resources such as databases and journals, and supporting structured reviews and other information and data services.
In February, some of our work with the new hospital came to fruition as we debuted two new digital full-text resources that support clinical operations as well as offering resources for teaching and learning on the academic side of the institution that will help prepare our students for clinical aspects in their chosen fields. These two new digital resources – featured in this newsletter – are now available for both the clinical enterprise as well as for the entire campus. The Libraries and the new UT MSRH partnered to license Lexidrug™, and the Libraries purchased a license for AORN eGuidelines+, a full-text digital resource.
Finally in late January, we hosted an event to gather student feedback on new task chairs for the public spaces. The students were heavily engaged and helped select two new task chairs for our public spaces – you can read more about it in this issue. We have placed orders for two types of chairs and anticipate their arrival by April. This much needed furniture refresh will make the library more comfortable for our students.
All the best for the spring semester!
Pat Hawthorne
Executive Director of Libraries
The 18th Annual Community Engaged Learning Conference was held on February 1, 2025. This year’s theme, “Ending the Injustice of Generational Poverty,” highlighted shared best practices and scholarship with a focus on creating a poverty-informed community working towards breaking the cycle of generational poverty. Event highlights included:
The associated art exhibition called on artists to explore the theme of generational poverty and the development of support networks to break the generational poverty cycle. This included how poverty affects human beings and the societies we live in, and how communities adapt, resist, suffer, and sometimes flourish even within systems of injustice.
Stop by the library lobby to view the art exhibit.
Written by Tim Wallace, Manager Research Operations, Charles E. Cheever Jr. Center for Medical Humanities & Ethics
Resilience in the Cold
Acrylic on Canvas.
Phoungthy Tran, Class of 2027, Long School of Medicine
Hidden glory
Acrylic and oil on canvas.
Lacy Lichtenhan, Class of 2027, Long School of Medicine
The UT Health San Antonio Clinical Enterprise and the Libraries have partnered to license UpToDate® Lexidrug™ (formerly Lexicomp®) for the entire institution, a collaboration that represents a significant investment in a full-text clinical drug information resource that supports providing high-quality care to patients and will enhance student learning.
This full-text digital drug-related resource supports pharmacists and other clinicians in prescribing and administering drugs throughout UT Health San Antonio’s growing clinical enterprise which includes the UT Multispecialty & Research Hospital, the Mays Cancer Center, UT Health Physicians, UT Dentistry Clinical Operations, UT School of Nursing, and clinical residents.
The UT Multispecialty & Research Hospital has integrated Lexidrug™ into the electronic medical record system, EPIC, so that it will be available in all the UT Health San Antonio clinical locations and hospital via the EMR system making it easy for clinicians to use in all clinical settings as well as via the mobile app. Integration into EPIC also links to the drug formulary used by UT Health San Antonio which facilitates prescribing and administering medications. Clinicians will find Lexidrug™ useful at the bedside, to help educate patients and for quick lookup of health-related topics during care.
On the campus side, this new digital resource is now available to the entire UT Health San Antonio community. UT Health affiliates can access the resource at: UpToDate® Lexidrug™ . Users will be prompted to log in with their UT Health San Antonio username and password. Once logged in, they will have full access to the resource.
For more information and instructions on how to download the mobile app visit the library guide which includes a video tutorial.
To schedule an instructional session or consultation to learn more about this resource, contact your liaison librarian.
Lexidrug™ offers a collection of content sets and clinical tools that provides users with robust clinical drug information and is part of UptoDate, a suite of clinical resources provided by Wolters Kluwer and widely used in academic medical centers and hospitals. This comprehensive drug database provides detailed information on pharmacology, indications, contraindications, side effects, dosing, and more. It also includes drug interaction checkers, clinical calculators, case studies, clinical scenarios, and mechanism of action diagrams that illustrate how drugs work at the molecular level.
The platform is continually updated using the latest in evidence-based information on drugs. The platform also includes quality of life features like search and filter tools, customizable references. Lexidrug™ offers both mobile and offline modes for uninterrupted access which is vital for clinicians working in multiple locations.
Once logged in, the library user is presented with a search bar to look up specific drugs. Two other features are available on this main page:
Once a drug is searched in the search bar, the database will present the drug monograph which includes the following information:
In addition to this, Lexidrug™ offers Drug ID tools, calculators, and additional clinical tools and patient education materials.
In negotiating the license, the Libraries paid a portion of the license to provide access to students, faculty, and staff outside of the clinics and the hospital, explained Andrea Schorr, Associate Library Director for Resource Management.
For faculty, Lexidrug™ can be a valuable teaching aid, for integrating real-world drug information into lectures. The interactive features, such as drug interaction checkers and clinical calculators, can provide more practical learning experiences for students. Health sciences students will find a user-friendly interface, with tons of information at their fingertips.
“Full access to the resource for the academic side of campus allows faculty to integrate Lexidrug™ into their curricula. Faculty can introduce Lexidrug™ to students in class, develop assignments that help them prepare for clinical rotations and professional practice using the same types of resources available in clinical settings and private practice,” said Chris Gaspard, Associate Library Director for Library Liaison Services. This ensures our students have the ability to learn about this highly-rated clinical resource before they enter clinical rotations and practice in their fields, Gaspard explained.
Joseph Zorek, Executive Director of Linking Interprofessional Networks for Collaboration (LINC) and Professor in the School of Nursing, said, “Campus-wide access to Lexidrug™ is important to support learning. I teach Advanced Pharmacotherapeutics to graduate students, who, as future nurse practitioners, will go on to prescribe and manage medications for a wide variety of patients.”
Beginning this semester, Zorek has integrated Lexidrug™ into his course assignments. “Each week, medication experts in specific areas lead discussions based on real-world case studies. Students are required to complete the cases prior to class, and access to Lexidrug™ has proven to be valuable. It’s important for students to learn how to use drug information resource like Lexidrug™ to their fullest extent during their education, as tools like these are the lifeblood of safe medication use in practice. I have found the institutional investment in Lexidrug™ to be an incredible value add as a faculty member.”
Contributed by Pat Hawthorne, Executive Director of Libraries
The UT Health San Antonio Libraries has acquired the AORN eGuidelines+ and Accreditation Assistant produced by the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN).
This full-text digital resource is a critical clinical resource for UT Health San Antonio’s growing clinical enterprise which includes the UT Multispecialty & Research Hospital, the Mays Cancer Center, UT Health Physicians, UT Dentistry Clinical Operations, UT School of Nursing, and Clinical Residents.
Our subscription offers the entire UT Health San Antonio community 24/7 access to the full-text of all guidelines produced by AORN, which includes a wide variety of integrated tools and resources that serve clinicians and clinical teams.
With a User ID and password, library users can access AORN+ from the library website.
Individual users also have the option to set up a personal User ID and password on the AORN site which allows the individual to customize their settings, bookmark content, and access the guidelines from your phone or tablet using the AORN mobile app.
To schedule an instructional session or consultation to learn more about this resource, contact your liaison librarian.
In addition to the guidelines, you’ll get access to implementation tools and clinical resources. Inside AORN you’ll have access to 9 sections, including:
With funding from AORN, the evidence-based guidelines are based on a comprehensive, systematic review of research and non-research evidence, the guidelines are updated on a regular basis providing clinicians with standardized techniques to use facilities-wide in hospitals and clinical settings. According to AORN, all the guidelines “are written by perioperative practice specialists in the AORN Nursing Department who serve as the lead authors of the guidelines. The lead author works collaboratively with members of the AORN Guidelines Advisory Board, including a patient advocate, and Guideline Advisory Board liaisons representing the American Association of Nurse Anesthesiology, the American College of Surgeons, the American Society of Anesthesiologists, the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, the Healthcare Sterile Processing Association, the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, and the Surgical Infection Society.”
Once developed, each guideline is publicly posted for a 30-day comment period at http://www.aorn.org, where members of the public, including scientific and clinical experts, organizations, agencies, and patients can review and comment on the draft. Public comments are individually reviewed and reconciled by the guideline team members. Each guideline is reviewed and updated on a 5-year cycle.
Contributed by Pat Hawthorne, Executive Director of Libraries
Drumroll……..We have our winners! Over three days from January 28 – 30, more than 450 students, faculty, and staff stopped by the library lobby to test out four different task chair options and vote for their favorite. This event was designed to gather student input as the Libraries begins a multi-year project to update furnishings in the public spaces of the Dolph Briscoe Jr. Library.
Students definitely had favorites – 468 of our students provided feedback! The Series 1 Chair was the winner with 231 votes, followed closely by the Karman Chair with 201 votes.
"Due to the closeness of the vote the Libraries will be purchasing a mix of both chairs. Orders for 100 Series 1 chairs and 15 Karman chairs have been placed last week", said Pat Hawthorne, Executive Director of Libraries. Over the next two to three years, we plan to update all the task chairs on the open floors and in the study rooms.
The Series 1 chair will come with black finishes and a black mesh back complemented by navy and dark red leather seats to fit in with the current color scheme of the Briscoe Library. The Karman chair, which is the more expensive model, will be in all black. We chose these models for their durability and ease of maintenance.
In addition to the purchase of these new task chairs, the café-height seating near the front entrance of the Briscoe Library will be updated in the coming weeks, and three ottomans on the 5th Floor have been reupholstered and repaired.
The Library has also ordered three new mobile whiteboards of varying sizes – and will be asking students to tell which is their favorite size.
The new chairs should be here in April, so watch follow our social media for updates!
We thank all the enthusiastic students who stopped by the library to test out the chairs and cast their vote and offer suggestions to enhance the library’s public spaces!
Contributed by Pat Hawthorne, Executive Director of Libraries
This February, we are celebrating a heart hero and member of the UT Health San Antonio community – Dr. Julio C. Palmaz, whose invention of the balloon-expandable stent has saved millions of lives. His pioneering work transformed cardiology, reducing heart attacks and strokes worldwide.
Dr. Palmaz joined UT Health San Antonio in 1983, where he developed the groundbreaking Palmaz Stent®, which received FDA approval for coronary use in 1994 and was recognized as one of the "Ten Patents that Changed the World." His original prototype is preserved in the Smithsonian Institution.
A pioneer in interventional radiology and cardiovascular care, Dr. Palmaz has played a key role in advancing the field at UTHSA since its formal recognition in 1994. His contributions to medical innovation have left a lasting legacy, transforming interventional medicine and saving countless lives.
Dr. Palmaz continues to work at UT Health San Antonio, in the Department of Radiology.
His papers are available in the University Archives, housed in the P.I. Nixon Medical Historical Library on the 5th Floor of the Dolph Briscoe Jr. Library. The collection includes reprints of major journal articles and book chapters authored and co-authored by Dr. Palmaz from 1980 - 1996, focusing on the use of vascular stents in surgery for the treatment of various conditions.
Learn More
Photo courtesy of the P.I. Nixon Medical Historical Library, located on the 5th floor of the main library
Contributed by Diane Fotinos, Archives & Special Collections Librarian
Each month, we feature an ebook from our collections. Our goal is to feature titles of interest to students, faculty, staff, and alumni.
Paper-Based Diagnostic Devices for Infectious DiseasesBook Description from the Publisher
Point-of-care testing devices for early detection, screening and diagnosis have been proven to significantly improve patient survival rates and quality of life, as well as to significantly reduce the cost and complexity of disease treatment.
Providing a timely update on the current understanding of paper-based biosensors, this book aims to deal with the current state-of-the-art of paper-based biosensors technology and addresses its future prospects for the detection of infectious diseases, with particular relevance and applications for low-income and developing countries. This book focuses on the design and fabrication strategies of paper-based devices for the detection of various biomolecules in biomedicine.
This comprehensive research and reference text would be suitable for researchers, scholars, and manufacturers in multiple disciplines, such as medical device design. Key Features Highlights the fabrication of paper-based point-of-care devices for biomedical applications with a particular focus on low-income and developing countries.
Includes information on tags/probes/label-based and label-free paper-based devices Discusses the integration of paper-based techniques and advanced diagnostics Contains actual case studies of the fabrication and utilisation of paper-based diagnostics in the field in each chapter.
Dr Nidhi Puranik is a faculty member within the Department of Biochemistry and Genetics at Barkatullah University in Bhopal, India. Dr Arpana Parihar is a DST Women Scientist B at CSIR-Advanced Materials and Research Institute, in Bhopal, India. Dr Raju Khan, FRSC, is a Principal Scientist and Associate Professor at CSIR-AMPRI in Bhopal, India.
Check out the book through EBSCOhost eBook Collection, provided by the Briscoe Library.
If you have a title you would like to recommend, please let us know by emailing Kelley Minars at minars@uthscsa.edu