We have 10 new eBooks for you this month! Titles include:
The end of August marked the retirement of Peg Seger, Associate Director of Outreach and Community Engagement.
Peg joined the library 13 years ago as the Interlibrary Loan & Outreach Services Librarian. As a part of the library's outreach group she focused heavily on providing library services to local and nearby communities in south Texas. She often attended and tabled at health fairs and other community events, providing information about consumer health information and resources. She also headed the document delivery services to area health professionals and oversaw the branch library location in Laredo, TX.
Over time her role shifted to focus more on campus outreach and forming connections between many different groups within UT Health SA. She worked hard to promote library resources and to ensure the library space was a welcome place to visit. She spearheaded many successful programs and events, such as the much beloved Student Appreciation Week and coordinated a multitude of art exhibits, displays, and interactive events.
Peg also served as a member of the library leadership team where her expertise and valuable contributions played a pivotal role in guiding the library toward the future.
Peg will be missed and we wish her all the best in retirement!
If you've visited the library recently you may have seen the art hanging in the lobby. The current art exhibition, sponsored by the Charles E. Cheever Jr Center for Medical Humanities & Ethics, is on display in the Briscoe Library foyer. The exhibit was inspired by the Ewing Halsell Distinguished Lecture given by Dr. Ricardo Nuila on August 31st, based upon his book, The People's Hospital: Hope and Peril in American Medicine.
Artists in our UT Health community, including students, staff, faculty, and alumni responded to the call for art on the theme of "The places where we live and serve - San Antonio and South Texas". The gallery has a diverse display of how our artists see their community and the people within it, what they find beautiful, how they see health and illness, and what inspires them in their mission of service.
We invite you to view the amazing paintings, photographs, sketches, ceramic sculpture, and digital art and engage in the culture of our community. You can also view the recording of Dr. Nuila's lecture.
Primal Pictures has some exciting new modules now available to you through the library's subscription to AnatomyTV.
Real-time Functional Anatomy - An evolution of Primal’s cutting-edge functional content that reveals the complexity of human motion like no other resource. The next generation of biomechanics education, perfect for future physical therapists, sports scientists and other health professionals. This module allows users to manipulate anatomy in motion, view movement from any angle or zoom level, with structures that can be ghosted and dissected and access physical therapy content, including goniometer simulations and testing positions.
Disease & Conditions - Primal’s flagship 3D pathology module covering 88 conditions across 16 specialities. Disease and Conditions was built to address the specific challenges of teaching pathology, including a lack of consistency across available resources, problems with student engagement and the reliability of presented information. This module provides context to learning and makes the vital connection between studying and what you’re likely to encounter in real life. Discover for yourself how this clear, concise, academically relevant content can help you improve learning outcomes.
Primal’s Anatomy Learning Outcomes for Medicine - Primal Pictures has partnered with the Anatomical Society to create a groundbreaking new learning tool. It’s a combination of explanatory videos, interactive 3D models, clinical content and self-assessment exercises for understanding everything in the Society’s Core Regional Anatomy Syllabus for Undergraduate Medicine – the gold standard in anatomy education. This module helps to simplify the time-consuming challenge of sourcing quality and trustworthy digital resources and is fully embeddable into your LMS/VLE to support both guided learning, and allow your students to explore the module in totality.
PALMS - Perceptual and Adaptive Learning Modules™- A standalone interactive online adaptive tool that reinforces concepts mastered through use of Primal Picture’s award-winning 3D human anatomy solutions. Primal Pictures has partnered with Insight Learning Technology (ILT), a leading learning technology company applying cutting-edge research in cognitive science to achieve breakthroughs in computer-based learning, to introduce Anatomy Learning and Assessment Modules. This powerful interactive online tool is powered by patented technology that reinforces comprehension and understanding of essential anatomy concepts mastered by using Primal’s market-leading 3D anatomy solutions.
Anatomy & Physiology – Spanish – Our best in class Anatomy & Physiology content, now professionally translated into Spanish for users.
September marks the landing of Hurricane Beulah in 1967. The storm crossed over the Caribbean, the Yucatan Peninsula, and then moved into the Mexican and Texas areas of the lower Rio Grande Valley as a Category 3 storm that spawned 115 tornadoes across the state. A slow moving storm, Beulah caused significant flooding and damage, taking 59 lives by the time it dissipated.
In the aftermath of the storm around 14,000 refugees from Mexico crossed the border into the Rio Grande Valley, seeking food, shelter, and medical care. This sudden influx nearly doubled the local population, stretching the need for relief efforts. One of the people helping to lead the effort to provide that relief was Dr. Mario E. Ramirez.
Born in South Texas in 1926, Ramirez knew from an early age that he wanted to be a doctor after one of his younger siblings passed away from illness. By 1950 he'd completed his medical degree and residency and returned to Texas to practice in his hometown of Roma. For a majority of his career he served as the small community's only doctor, persevering despite financial struggles and other hardships. After a tour serving in the US Air Force, Ramirez opened Roma's first hospital, which later expanded to include a surgical wing.
When Beulah hit in 1967, Ramirez was on the ground throughout, at the center of relief efforts during the immediate weeks after the storm. During this time he coordinated with doctors and staff from area hospitals and beyond, including Mexico, as well as the U. S. Army and volunteers.
Serious flooding was the greatest concern in the surrounding areas; close to 30 inches fell during and after the storm. Ramirez began coordinating shelters for the displaced while juggling treating his patients and dealing with major water damage at his hospital as refugees from Mexico began crossing the border, seeking relief from the same floodwaters. The US military began shipping in food and supplies and Ramirez quickly became the central hub of disaster relief. He'd not only been on the ground since the beginning but his knowledge of the local area and its residents made him well suited to lead.
Medical care arrived soon after, as teams of medical staff from around Texas began to fly into the area. Relief efforts remained difficult. The Army set up field hospitals and emergency clinics were organized, often using make-shift equipment. A local high school shop class built IV poles (seen in the picture at right), duct-taped cardboard boxes acted as incubators for babies, and medical staff worked for days on end providing all the care they could. Many sick and injured, especially those with serious conditions, had to be flown out to hospitals in other cities to get them the care they needed.
It was slow going but thanks to the leadership of Dr. Ramirez and the countless other medical staff and volunteers, the human cost of the storm was far less severe than it could have been. His work in the aftermath has been studied as an example of disaster medicine that has helped develop better responses and procedures.
Dr. Ramirez has been honored by multiple US presidents and served as Vice President of South Texas Programs at UT Health San Antonio from 1995-2007. The Mario E. Ramirez, M.D. Library at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley is named after him.
Learn More
Did you know UT Health recently announced a new dual degree with UTSA? The nation's first dual degree in medicine and AI will be making it's debut next year and applications are being encouraged. Read more about the degree.
The library also has several eBook offerings supporting medicine and AI. This month's featured eBook is one.
Artificial Intelligence for Medicine: People, Society, Pharmaceuticals, and Medical materialsYoshiki Oshida
The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in various fields is of major importance to improve the use of resources and time. This book provides an analysis of how AI is used in both the medical field and beyond. Topics that will be covered are bioinformatics, biostatistics, dentistry, diagnosis and prognosis, smart materials, and drug discovery as they intersect with AI. Also, an outlook of the future of an AI-assisted society will be explored.
Check out the book through EBSCO Ebooks, provided by the Briscoe Library.
Did you know the library has ebooks? Browse our collections that cover everything from the health sciences to literature.