Contact Information for
Women's Health at UCSF

For information or to make an
appointment, please call:

Primary Care
or
Gynecology

at Mount Zion, Parnassus or Serramonte

(415) 885-7788

Obstetrics

at Mount Zion, Parnassus or Serramonte

(415) 353-2566

Patient Health Library Seeks to Inform
and Empower

The UCSF Patient Health Library is a cozy, somewhat unassuming place tucked away along a corridor in Mount Zion’s A Building.

The library, open since December 2009, has some very large goals: to offer comprehensive information about a wide range of medical conditions, and to empower patients and their loved ones as they seek to educate themselves about their health.

Searching for information on your own can be overwhelming so the library hired Ari Kleiman, a medical librarian and expert searcher. Ari provides free research services and teaches people how to locate and use authoritative resources. Kleiman finds that "a lot of fear and anxiety can be allayed just by having somewhere to go where questions are welcomed."

The library includes three computer stations with access to Internet health resources such as the National Library of Medicine’s MedlinePlus service and UCSF Medical Center’s online library — resources that can also be accessed from home the library’s website. In addition, patients can browse through a variety of medical books and access online medical journals. The library offers information on all kinds of diseases, procedures and lab tests, but also on wellness, for people interested in prevention and staying healthy.

“Expanding library services in this way is very innovative,” said Josie Vanfleet, an analyst at the Women's Health Resource Center, located just across the street from the library. “It’s a great resource.”

The UCSF Patient Health Library is an extension of the H.M. Fishbon Memorial Library at the UCSF Medical Center at Mount Zion. Over the years, patient demand for lay health information exceeded Fishbon Library’s capacity, and in 2008 plans were developed to create a separate patient-oriented library.

The project was funded by the Mount Zion Health Fund, and a donation from longtime UCSF clinical professor Leonard Rosenman, MD, paid for the hiring of a medical librarian.

The library is open Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. It is located at 1600 Divisadero St., on the first floor of the A Building.

Sources:
Robin Hindery, UCSF News Services
Catherine Metzger, UCSF Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Center Newsletter

Women's Health Shortcuts

Patient Health Library Seeks to Inform and Empower

Patient Health Library Seeks to Inform
and Empower