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Prime Times Going to the Source Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell photos Retired nurse Doris MacClelland works as a volunteer at the Bartels Community Health Library, where visitors can find medical journals and videos and gain access to Internet medical sites. Volunteers assist clients free of charge. Inquiries at the library range from requests for background on heart surgery to questions about gallstones. By John Darling MEDFORD � Have you or a relative just been diagnosed with a disease? Are you desperate for quick and accurate information about its effects and treatment? Don�t be discouraged. The information probably can be found in the Bartels Community Health Library at Rogue Valley Medical Center. Not only is there access to medical journals, magazines, books, videos and Web sites, but friendly volunteers will help you with the research free of charge. ABOUT THE BARTELS COMMUNITY HEALTH LIBRARY COST: Free and open to public. HOURS: Open 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Monday and Friday, and 10 a.m.-4 p.m.Tuesday-Thursday. WHERE: In the Smullin Center, west of Rogue Valley Medical Center. RESOURCES: Video rentals, books, medical journals, Internet research. SATELLITE BRANCH: Located in the Education Resource Center on the lower level of Rogue Valley Mall, next to Mervyn�s. ADDITIONAL SERVICES: Will research questions and mail copies of articles requested by phone at 608-5913. The library, nestled in the Smullin Center just west of the hospital, was started in 1991 by retired pediatrician Brandt Bartels to help people better understand their ailments. "Sometimes you�re at the doctor�s and you get startled by the news he tells you," said library volunteer Dixie Reynolds. "You can�t think of any questions or remember anything they said. It happened to me." Bartels� job, said Asante marketing and public relations director Sally Melton, "is to prepare people so they feel more confident and can carry on a conversation with their doctor and say: �What about this and what about that.� " This is especially important for people in the generation preceding the baby boom, she said, "because they�ve been taught to be more mild-mannered and trusting of doctors." "Some doctors still resent it if the patient comes in with information," said Dr. James Patterson, library adviser and retired Tufts Medical School teacher. However, most are getting used to dealing with patients who may arrive carrying printouts from the Net. Some patients even tape-record the doctor�s diagnosis to make sure they don�t miss anything, Patterson said. Bartels stocks hundreds of rentable videos, the Journal of the American Medical Association, the New England Journal of Medicine and journals of the Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins University Medical School and Harvard, all in layman�s language. Staff members and volunteers are trained on Internet use. And they�ve put all the most credible and complete medical Web sites onto clickable "favorites" lists in their Internet browsers. "There�s a lot of hype on TV and in magazines about new medical discoveries, and often they�re not yet tested or reliable and they turn out not to be of much help,�� Patterson said. On the Net it�s especially important to be able to separate the good from the bad, he said. The library staff�s favorite Web site? MedlinePlus ( www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus ), which is a fount of information run by the National Institutes of Health and covering everything from symptoms, treatments and drugs to research and expected lifestyle changes associated with specific ailments. Melton said people often come to the library after they or relatives have been diagnosed with a disease. "You can sense they�re distraught and frightened, so we do our best to support them and gently guide them to the best information." "The library has given us hope," said Janet Brown of Central Point, whose husband has just been diagnosed with diabetes. "Our appointment with the specialist is six weeks off and we needed to understand diabetes now. Doctors are busy and don�t have time to teach patients all about it. And the staff here has been so helpful." The help even included information about where to get the best prices on drugs, she said. Library staffers do not diagnose ailments or prescribe treatments, Patterson stressed, but they will do hands-on research with clients and copy any documents needed. People unable to get to the library, are urged to call 608-5913 and staff members will do the research and mail the information to them. Library visitors look for information on subjects as wide-ranging as arthritis, diabetes, heart surgery, gallstones and fibromyalgia, said volunteer Herb Robisch. "We can usually get them on a mailing list for (information about) the ailment and hook them up with a local support group, which really helps them get past any fear and isolation and into coping and hope." But staffers are careful not to overload people, Reynolds added. "We back off when we see their eyes glaze over," she said. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.