NCCU School of Library and Information Sciences

Dr. Swain Leads Health Informatics and Health Education Initiatives

[Dr. Swain] Dr. Deborah Swain was co-chair of the North Carolina Health Informatics Workgroup meeting on September 24 with Dr. David Potenziani, Senior Associate Dean, School of Public Health, UNC-Chapel Hill. The meeting and Webpage presentation was part of the NCHICA Annual Meeting in Asheville, NC, at the Grove Park Inn (http://www.nchica.org). Students from the MIS program have contributed to the webpage development of an E-Home for public healthcare workers http://www.ncphip.org/ while learning and teaching others about knowledge management, social networking, and health information needs in North Carolina. Student contributors include: Derek Brinson, Jerry Chiang, Bunmi Fadairo, Kristy Daughtry, Setaria Watson, Shantika Whitley, Patricia Petrusi, and Teebeh Toweh.

Dr. Swain is also part of grant development team at NCCU, which is being led by Dr. Lahoma Romocki, Chair of the NCCU Department of Health Education and Primary Investigator. The team of NCCU faculty, students, and staff will be part of grant development team that is creating special access to National Library of Medicine (NLM) for users in areas of North Carolina where health disparities exist. As announced in August, the United Negro College Fund Special Programs Corporation (UNCFSP) accepted the NCCU proposal to the HBCU National Library of Medicine eHealth ACCESS Program. Other 2007-2008 Grantees are: Coppin State University, Delaware State University, and Morehouse School of Medicine. The $20,000, one-year grant will fund the Eagles E-Health Project. Dr. Deborah Swain, Co-Investigator, will lead graduate student interns and volunteers to develop a front-end interface and training materials for the project.