MLA '07: Featured Speakers/Plenary Sessions
- Arthur Caplan
- Henry L. Lemkau Jr., FMLA
- Kent A. Smith, FMLA
- Health Information Literacy: rEvolution in Roles/Janet Ohene-Frempong
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John P. McGovern Lecturership
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Caplan is the Emmanuel and Robert Hart Professor of Bioethics and founding director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania–Philadelphia. He completed his undergraduate work at Brandeis University and graduate work at Columbia University, where he received a doctorate in the history and philosophy of science. He taught at the University of Minnesota, University of Pittsburgh, and Columbia University. He was the associate director of the Hastings Center from 1984–l987. Since 1994, Caplan has presided over the Center for Bioethics. Released in November 2006, Caplan’s most recent book, Smart Mice, Not So Smart People: An Interesting and Amusing Guide to Bioethics, is a compilation of provocative opinions. Altogether, he has authored or edited over 25 books and more than 500 articles in peer-reviewed journals in medicine, science, philosophy, bioethics, and health policy. He has served on national and international committees, as chair of the Advisory Committee to the United Nations on Human Cloning, and member of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Gulf War Illnesses and the Special Advisory Committee to the International Olympic Committee on Genetics and Gene Therapy. In addition, he writes a regular column on bioethics for MSNBC.com; and is a frequent guest and commentator on National Public Radio, CNN, MSNBC and in the New York Times and Washington Post; and has contributed to other media, including television’s ER. Recently, Technology Review, in “Q&A, Arthur Caplan: Who Elected You King?”, interviewed Caplan. In describing him, one commentator states, “Round and brash, with the gravelly voice of a street fighter, Arthur Caplan looks and sounds more like a boxer than an ethical philosopher.” Even his critics agree that his commitment to the ethical issues in medicine and the life sciences is compelling. |
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Janet Doe Lectureship Henry L. Lemkau Jr., FMLA
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Since March 1979, he has been professor, director, and chairman of the Department of Medical Library and Biomedical Communications at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Prior to his appointment at the University of Miami, Lemkau was director of the Edward G. Miner Library at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, in Rochester, NY. He has proved to be an exceptional leader in the association as well as the health sciences information profession for over forty years. Lemkau served on the MLA Board of Directors from 1989–1991 and as chair of three different MLA chapters over the years. He is recognized as a lecturer and consultant at various institutions in the United Stastes and abroad and is known for his long-term efforts to guide his staff to commit to the association and the profession. He designed and developed a computerized serials system for the Mount Sinai School of Medicine Library and has published numerous papers, the most recent appearing in the January 2003 issue of the Journal of the Medical Library Association. A native of New York, Lemkau did his undergraduate work at St. John’s University in Jamaica, NY; he received his master's in library science degree from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY; and, in 1994, he received his law degree (JD) from the University of Miami. The combination of his educational attainment, institutional achievement, and association activity led to the conferring of MLA fellowship in 2004. |
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Joseph Leiter NLM/MLA Lecturership
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This session will look at the important issues of roles and partnerships for health sciences librarians and public librarians in dealing with health information literacy. Meet people who are actively involved in this critical issue. After a keynote presentation by Janet Ohene-Frempong, a noted speaker and health literacy advocate, a panel of librarians, moderated by Amy Louise Frey, AHIP, Hospital for Special Care, New Britain, CT, will discuss how they have addressed health information literacy. Panel members include: Micki McIntyre, Campus Library, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey–Stratford; Andrea Kenyon, Library, College of Physicians of Philadelphia; Lynda Barker, Library and Information Sciences Program, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, and Marge Kars, AHIP, Bronson Health Sciences Library, Bronson Methodist Hospital, Kalamazoo, MI. Vignettes and posters will also be offered during the session.
Ohene-Frempong coauthored Literacy, Health and the Law: An Exploration of the Law and the Plight of Marginal Readers within the Health Care System, a book for health system and pharmaceutical industry administrators. She also cowrote Health Care for African Americans in Rethinking Ethnicity and Health Care, a discussion of the role of marginal literacy as one barrier to optimal care. She has served on several national advisory committees and is a founding member of the Partnership for Clear Health Communication. She is also cofounder and principal of the Clear Language Group, a consortium of nationally recognized health literacy experts.
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Janet Ohene-Frempong, president of J O Frempong & Associates, is a plain language and cross-cultural communications consultant with over twenty-five years of experience in patient–provider communications. She has conducted workshops and consulted for a wide range of health information providers, including health care systems, government agencies, health insurers, pharmaceutical companies, medical publishers, health and human service agencies, and schools of medicine, nursing, and allied health.
