Embedded librarians: An innovative experience in health and wellness communication.

The article discusses the experiences of Italian librarians taking part in an institutional project to produce a new general-public-oriented health web portal. The web portal was set up to provide verified and easily understandable health information, and to debunk health-related fake news circulating on the internet. The different roles, knowledge and skills acquired in during the project this are discussed and show how the librarian's knowledge and skills were of fundamental importance for the success of the Web Portal. By collaborating with other professions new skills such as social media management, video creation and Search Engine Optimization were gained, which enhanced the information literacy role of the service.

How can we manage the COVID-19 infodemics? A case study targeted to health workers in Italy.

INTRODUCTION: The Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS) has been asked for rapid technical and scientific advice to the State and Regions during Sars-CoV-2 pandemic preparedness. METHODS: An ad hoc Working Group on Scientific Literature updates (WG SL) was set up at ISS (March-May 2020) to screen pre-prints and peer reviewed papers from arXiv, medRxiv, bioRxiv, and Pubmed to provide a real time knowledge and empirical evidence addressed to health-workers. RESULTS: The WG SL screened a total of 4,568 pre-prints and 15,590 peer reviewed papers, delivered as daily summary report of pre-print selection for ISS President activity in the National Scientific Technical Committee framework and a weekly open access publication (COVID Contents) on peer-reviewed papers of interest for health professionals, monitored by a satisfaction questionnaire. CONCLUSIONS: Promoting heath literacy, with a cross-cutting approach is a powerful heritage of Public Health Institutes and a proven effective non pharmacological intervention.

[Mobile applications for the health sector: apps to support scientific information and medical practice]. / Iniziative "mobili" a supporto della salute: le app per l'informazione scientifica e la pratica medica.

The market of mobile applications (apps) and wireless technology infrastructures is rapidly widening and diversifying to better meet users' needs. Over the last few years, the use of mobile technologies and applications has been increasingly expanding in many professional fields. Research and academic institutions, hospitals, and drug companies are heavily investing in this sector, also in Italy, even though the offer seems to be still limited at the moment. As far as the industry of scientific publishing is concerned, the main Italian publishing groups show an increasing interest in developing apps aiming at spreading their own products, following the example of international publishing companies. The purpose of this paper is to provide a general overview of the mobile applications and services available in the domain of scientific information relating to health disciplines and medical practice, especially within the Italian context. This study intends to inform professionals and users in the health sector about the benefits offered by the mobile technology, and to help them to become familiar with these tools. The two main online markets (iTunes and Google Play) have been analysed; search engines for apps and Italian STM publishers' websites have also been considered. Within this fast moving scenery, innovation is supported by the pressing demand for mobile access technology which has increased enormously. Not surprisingly, the most promising target of mobile technology is represented by scientific information tools relating to health.

Health information in Italian public health websites: moving from inaccessibility to accessibility.

AIMS: In January 2004, the Italian government passed new legislation designed to give people with disabilities access to online services. Starting from the new legislation requirements, the purpose of this study is to investigate whether Italian Local Health Authorities websites are accessible to users with different abilities. METHODS: One hundred and seventy websites were analysed evaluating their compliance to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Priority 1 guidelines via a combination of appropriate accessibility testing methods. This review was carried out twice: the first time it took place between the end of 2003 and May-June 2004. The same survey was repeated again in December 2004, after the issuing of the draft of the Implementation Regulations for The Stanca Law in July 2004. In this second survey, all the websites analysed before were checked again to establish if some measures to make those sites accessible were taken. RESULTS: Seventy-six per cent of the analysed websites fail to satisfy the most basic W3C requirements, but Italian Local Health Authorities websites are likely to present significant improvements to access for some disabled user groups: the number of accessible websites increased consistently between the first and the second review. CONCLUSIONS: It seems that awareness of web accessibility issues is increasing among developers of health information websites because of law enforcement. Recommendations for future research and development are offered.