Resource Bank
Resource Bank
On-line news services provide mental health news
Manisses Communications Group in Providence, RI, recently launched an on-line news service, BehavNewsNet+ (BNN+), a weekly service that provides up-to-date, original news complied from Manisses' nine behavioral health newsletters, as well as newly researched information.
BNN+ provides updates on prescription drugs, behavioral health research, vital news from the mental health and addiction fields, a comprehensive industry events calendar, request-for-proposal announcements, and grant opportunities.
For a free four-week trial subscription, go to www.manisses.com/bnntrial/. For more information on subscription rates and how to subscribe, contact the customer service department at (800) 333-7771.
Health care executives share business smarts
Two health care executives have taken classic examples from their careers and turned them into a serious but fun primer on business management. AMACON Books in Saranac Lake, NY, recently released Goldilocks on Management, 27 revisionist fairy tales borrowing from such classic tales as "The Emperor's New Clothes" and "The Three Little Pigs."
"The 'Little Red Riding Hood' chapter is based on an experience in health maintenance organization [HMO] contracting where I devoured a new and inexperienced MBA in a negotiating session," says Gloria Gilbert Mayer, EdD, a former executive of a large California HMO and current president of the Institute for Healthcare Advancement (IHA) in Whittier, CA, a nonprofit educational organization. "I felt like the wolf, but was happy to get such a great contract for the medical group."
"We wrote this book to inform managers in any industry, but especially health care, about management theory as interpreted through culturally recognizable images," adds Thomas Mayer, MD, MBA, another former executive with a large California HMO, who now serves as executive director of managed care education for IHA. "Utilizing the fairy-tale format, we all can remember the principles easily and use them to describe our own organizations."
Tales included in this book are: sales and negotiation strategies from "Goldilocks and the Three Bears," contingency planning from "The Three Little Pigs," getting the most out of consultants from "The Pied Piper," effective rumor control techniques from "Chicken Little," and outside-the-box thinking from "Jack and the Beanstalk."
Each tale in the book is followed by a business lesson, interpretations that show applications of each lesson, and a real-world business tale that parallels the story, notes Mayer.
The book sells for $21.95 plus shipping and handling. Request ISBN #0814404812. To order, telephone AMACON Books at (800) 714-6395. For more on educational resources available from IHA, visit the company's Web site at www.iha4health.org.
Agency offers clinical practice guidelines, patient materials
The Agency for Health Care Policy and Research in Silver Spring, MD, has a wide range of clinical practice guidelines and patient guides available for sale from the Government Printing Office in Washington, DC. To order any of the publications listed below, contact the Superintendent of Documents, P.O. Box 371954, Pittsburgh, PA 15250-7954. Telephone: (202) 512-1800, or order on-line at www.ahcpr.gov.
• Acute Pain Management: Operative or Medi cal Procedures and Trauma costs $6. Ask for #SN 017-0022-01182-4. Also available in this series:
— Quick Reference Guide for Clinicians (Adult) costs $56 for a package of 50. Ask for #SN 017-022-01180-8.
— Quick Reference Guide for Clinicians (Pediatric) costs $43 for a package of 50. Ask for #SN 017-022-01183-2.
• Pressure Ulcers in Adults: Prediction and Prevention costs $3.75. Ask for #SN 017-026-00108-5. Also available in this series:
— Quick Reference Guide for Clinicians costs $28 for a package of 50. Ask for $SN017-026-00110-7.
— Patient's Guide costs $19 for a package of $25. Ask for #SN017-026-00109-3.
• Depression in Primary Care: Clinical Practice Guideline Vol. 1, Detection and Diagnosis costs $7. Also available in this series:
— Clinical Practice Guideline Vol. 2, Treatment of Major Depression costs $7.50. Ask for #SN 017-022-01198-1.
— Quick Reference Guide for Clinicians costs $49 for a package of 50. Ask for #SN017-022-01199-9.
— Patient's Guide costs $55 for a package of 50. Ask for #SN 017-022-01200-6.
Company offers guide to integrative medicine
Can St. John's Wort and Prozac be taken at the same time? How does vitamin C interact with chemotherapeutic agents? Are calcium supplements safe while taking digoxin? What effect does licorice root have on hypertension? Is Echinacea safe for patients with autoimmune conditions?
If you can't answer these questions, you may want to check out Interactions, an on-line and CD-based professional reference guide to interactions between prescription and over-the-counter medications, herbs, and supplements from Beaverton, OR-based Integrative Medical Arts. The guide gives medical professionals information that allows them to more safely prescribe, while considering all potential interactions between substances a patient is taking.
Interactions, the IBIS Guide to Drug-Herb and Drug-Nutrient Interactions, is available on CD and also as a section of the IBIS Web site at www. IBISmedical.com/Interactions.html. The guide includes up-to-date information based on scientific literature in concise and practical terms. It allows professionals to quickly identify drugs by generic name, trade name, or drug class and identify herbs by their common or botanical names, all with easily accessible reference tables. It also includes a tracking system for recording and reporting interactions and adverse reactions involving herbs and supplements. In addition, the site provides easy-to-print handouts for patient education.
To operate Interactions, you must have Win dows 95/98/NT or MacOS 7.1 or higher, 16 MB RAM, and 40 MB available on your hard drive. Also, 80 MB of free hard drive space is required for installation. For more details, visit the company's Web site at www.IntegrativeMedicalArts. com or call (503) 526-1972.
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