Wrap-Up of Chapter Meetings and Countdown to MLA Annual Meeting

The final chapter meeting of the 2013/14 association year was hosted by the Philadelphia Chapter on April 24, in the Orrery Pavilion within the Kislak Center for Special Collections of the Van Pelt Dietrich Library at the University of Pennsylvania. Theme for the meeting was “Systematic Reviews on the Schuylkill.” In keeping with that theme, plenary speaker Craig A. Umscheid, MD, MSCE, Director of the Penn Medicine Center for Evidence-Based Practice, spoke on “Leveraging the Library to Improve Evidence-Based Practice across an Academic Healthcare System.” He gave a brief history of using the literature to drive evidence-based practice and an engaging, “Field of Dreams-esque” explanation of the evolution of approaches to close the implementation gap:

Passive diffusion – If you publish, they will come.
Guidelines and systematic reviews – If you read it for them, they will come.
Industrial-style quality improvement – If you standardize it, they will come.
Systems re-engineering – If you redesign it, they will come.
Evidence-based quality improvement

He went on to discuss evidence-based medicine in comparison to comparative effectiveness and health technology assessment. Penn’s EB Center includes two clinical liaison librarians and conducts 30-40 rapid systematic reviews per year. Dr. Umscheid further described how EBM is integrated into the medical student curriculum at Penn. It was gratifying to hear that he believes librarians are important to the systematic review process.

The meeting also included a breakfast with exhibitors, coffee break with exhibitors, an update by Missy Harvey from the NN/LM MAR, an update by me on behalf of MLA, and a chapter business meeting—all that morning! Chapter Chair, Barbara Kuchan, presided over the business meeting. Awards presented included Chapter Achievement Award to Anne Seymour, Honorary Lifetime Membership to Prudence Dalrymple, and the AHIP Applicant Award to Linda Katz. Congratulations to all three ladies! Box lunches were provided for attendees. After lunch, Susan Fowler of Washington University in St. Louis presented a continuing education course on systematic reviews. The day ended with dine arounds. Kudos to Jenny Pierce, Chair-elect and Program Chair, for planning an excellent meeting and thanks to her for squiring the out of towners to Pub and Kitchen for a great dinner on the eve of the conference. (See photos at the end of this blog post.)

Now it’s only about three weeks until MLA’s annual meeting in Chicago. I can hardly wait to see everyone, talk with exhibitors, hear the plenary speakers, attend section-sponsored sessions, participate in one of the forums and network at social events. I hope that you will participate in the party with a purpose, either by donating something for the silent auction or bidding on items. Proceeds will go to the MLA Scholarship Fund, the Chapter Project of the Year Award, and the Chicago-based Literacy Works.

It’s been a true privilege and honor to serve as MLA president this year. The organization is in good hands as we move toward our information future and demonstrate that librarians are without limits!