William F. Garrity

Web Strategy Advisory Committee.  I have just been appointed to this group as the professional schools' representative.  WebSAC thinks about and makes recommendations for strategic use of Dartmouth College's web presence.  Other members of the group include leaders from the offices of the Dean of the College, Development, HR, Admissions and Financial Aid, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Computing, Alumni Relations, and Finance and Administration. 

Next-Gen Library Systems Taskforce.  I have also just been appointed to a small workgroup to help the College Library articulate how it needs our "finding systems" to behave and interact in order to navigate the physical and digital information resources we have access to.  (Think: should we replace the catalog with something else?) 

CTSA (Clinical and Translational Science Award).   Clinical research--also known as "translational research," and "bench-to-bedside-to-practice"--is the current emphasis in NIH-funded biomedical research.  It's where the NIH is directing more of its funding and where DMS/DHMC and other medical schools/academic medical centers are trying to position ourselves. 

"Bench-to-bedside-to-practice" actually captures the concept pretty well:

• "bench-to-bedside:" translating basic research from the laboratory to the care of actual patients.
• "bedside-to-practice:" extending the care of individual patients to community and medical practice research; to the health and wellness of populations of patients.

I'm working with folks across DMS and DHMC to craft a grant proposal for a Clinical and Translational Science Award from NIH. Specifically, I'm on the team writing about biomedical informatics.   

Helmut Schumann Lecture.  The Hitchcock Foundation's Helmut Schumann Lecture since its inception in 1983 has focused on "studies in healthful living" for an informed lay audience.  Speakers are nationally known and the lecture typically attracts hundreds of attendees.  I chair the selection committee. 

The purpose of the Hitchcock Foundation, as stated in the bylaws, is "to aid and advance the study and investigation of human ailments and injuries, and the causes, prevention, relief, and cure thereof, and the study and investigation of problems of hygiene, health and public welfare, and the promotion of medical, surgical and scientific learning, skill, education and investigation, and to engage in and conduct and to aid and assist in medical, surgical and scientific research in the broadest sense." 

Our first pick for 2008's lecture was Bill McDonough to speak about sustainable living, but that didn't pan out.  We're now working on Plan B--Harvard's Daniel Gilbert.  Stay tuned! 

The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice.  Effective August 1, 2007, the Center for the Evaluative Clinical Sciences split from the Medical School and was renamed the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice  (DIHPCP, or, more commonly, TDI).  I am collaborating with TDI's and DMS's leaderships to re-define support of library and information resources and services. 

Quality Literature Program.  An effort led by TDI's Paul Batalden, MD (Pediatrics and Community and Family Medicine, and Director of Healthcare Improvement Leadership, TDI), Frank Davidoff, MD (Editor Emeritus of Annals of Internal Medicine), and David Stevens, MD (Vice President of the Association of American Medical Colleges and Editor-in-Chief of BMJ's Quality and Safety in Healthcare) seeks to change standards for quality improvement publication.  See this article.  The Dartmouth Biomedical Libraries are supporting the effort by reviewing draft publication guidelines and are developing a proposal for a regular "library column" in Quality and Safety in Healthcare about finding good evidence.

Dartmouth-Hitchcock Information Systems Steering Committee.  I am a member of the Information Systems Steering Committee (ISSC) for Dartmouth-Hitchcock (D-H).  This committee reports to the D-H Board of Governors and sets direction, budget, priorities, resource allocation, and polices for and provides oversight of information systems at D-H.  The ISSC's current principal focus is replacing our home-grown clinical information system with a market-place solution (the two finalists being Cerner and Epic). 

The steering committee has also cleaved ourselves into multiple subcommittees; I chair the "Messaging, Collaboration, and ICT Support" subcommittee ("MCIS"), and am working there in collaboration with Bill Weyrick, Senior Manager of User Support for DHMC Information Systems.  I'm also a member of the "communication" subcommittee.   

Track the ISSC's work on the DHMC intranet here. 

The Dartmouth Summer Institute in Evidence-Based Mental Health.  2008's institute, our third annual, is August 7-9.  The course uses small-group sessions with hands-on, case-based training to introduce the evidence-based process using topics in various areas of mental health.  The audience is mental health professionals, including residents, trainees, and training directors, and medical librarians.  The institute's ultimate goal is for patients to benefit from the most effective services and care.

In 2006 and 2007, the institute's directors were Robert E. Drake, MD, PhD (Director, Dartmouth Psychiatric Research Center), Matthew R. Merrens, PhD (Co-Director, Dartmouth Evidence-Based Practices Center), and myself.  Institute faculty have included Pamela Bagley, Heather Blunt, and Karen Odato, each a Research and Education Librarian in the Dartmouth Biomedical Libraries, and Cindy Stewart, Associate Director/Health Sciences for the Biomedical Libraries.  In 2008, Karen, Matt, and Steve Bartels, MD (Department of Psychiatry, Dartmouth Medical School), will be institute directors, while Bob Drake, Alan I. Green, MD (Chair of Psychiatry), and myself will be institute sponsors.

In 2007, we also offered a fully-funded "librarian internship" as part of the institute, and will continue to do so in future institutes.  The goal here is to provide a (non-Dartmouth) librarian the opportunity to expand his or her evidence-based medicine instructional skills and knowledge.  After a competitive application process, in 2007 we selected Tagalie (Tag) Heister, MSLS, from the University of Kentucky Medical Center Library.  She is a medical librarian working directly in Kentucky's Department of Psychiatry.  Institute interns receive all instructional materials, participate in the small groups and exercises, assist institute faculty members, and socialize with the faculty and participants.

Institute in Evidence-Based Medicine for Librarians.  With a lot of inspiration (and perspiration!) coming from our work with the Summer Institute in Evidence-Based Mental Health, we (the Biomedical Libraries) are offering an annual institute specifically focusing on the librarians' role in evidence-based healthcare.  The first institute is July 28-30, 2008.  See here for more information. 

Science-in-Sight.  The to-be-constructed Life Sciences Center is planned to have a "virtual life sciences presence," likely via interactive, multi-media displays.  I'm helping facilitate the planning process, along with Mark McPeek (Biological Sciences) and Steve Campbell (Office of Facilities Planning, Design, and Construction). 

Fiscal.  The Dartmouth Medical School has some fairly significant fiscal challenges, in part due to contracting research funding from NIH.  The Biomedical Libraries will have to make some economies, including not filling the Associate Director/Research and Education Services position.  For FY09, I particularly have to watch operating expenses.  On the other hand, information resources have been protected status quo--given inflation in the cost of journals and databases, an 8% increase avoids net cancellations. 

Fundraising.  A director/chair/etc. should always have a list in his/her pocket of projects and priorities for development prospects.  I've got to update my list. 

Library space.  Any library's space should be continually assessed and re-engineered to meet the needs of its clients.  The Biomedical Libraries' Dana Library needs particular attention. 

• Dana Library space:
• outline the next round of possible improvements. 
• We've recently combined the reference/information desk and the circulation desk.  Side-by-side research librarians and circulation staff works very well at the Matthews-Fuller Library; we've been keen to emulate the model at Dana.  We're currently using the existing circulation furniture; since it's inadequate, we'll be specing a better layout. 
• The arts program has been launched.
• Matthews-Fuller Library space: with Cindy Stewart, thinking about changes to that space.
• Define long-term needs for health and life sciences/sciences library space on the Hanover campus.

Medical Informatics.  I'm working with Andy Gettinger, Jason Moore, (Director of the Bioinformatics Shared Resource in DHMC's Norris Cotton Cancer Center, and Associate Professor of Genetics and of Community and Family Medicine), and Jenica Nelan (manager of DHMC informatics program) to heighten Dartmouth's awareness of the utility of an institutional medical informatics program.  One of our prominent efforts is a monthly or bi-monthly speaker series.  Our first speaker was John Halamka, of Harvard, on April 11.  Our second speaker is Jim Cimino, of the NIH, on May 16.  DHMC is also launching a multi-faceted medical informatics program; I'm collaborating with Andy, Jason, and Jenica in this. 

DMS and Tuck.   Many universities are fostering, or would like to foster, heightened collaboration between their schools of business and medicine.  Dartmouth itself sees synergy between DMS and the Tuck School of Business, and the Biomedical Libraries and Feldberg are ramping up our collaboration to support joint programs. 

AAHLS's Future Leadership Task Force.  I'm responsible for the "workforce trends" effort, which seeks to quantify and characterize impending director retirements and recent director recruitments.  We've done a survey, and I'm parsing the data. I'll report here and elsewhere.

October Conferences.  See here for information about 2008's conference--"Space 2.0: Small-Scale Library Redesign Projects."