In the wake of COVID-19, organizations around the United States worked tirelessly in order to present important health information to the public that would result in a decrease in the number of positive cases.

As researchers began to learn more about the coronavirus and information rapidly increased, a new unique set of challenges was presented, how to disseminate accurate and reliable information to the public that would enable them to make informed health decisions?

The Alabama College of Osteopathic Medicine (ACOM) Library and Learning Resource Center acknowledged these challenges and, as a result, was awarded the COVID-19 Health Information Outreach Award from the Southeastern Atlantic Region of the Network of the National Library of Medicine (NLM).

The grant’s purpose is to enable organizations to develop and offer programs that will increase access to and use of authoritative health information resources that will impact health and health literacy related to the global pandemic.

ACOM’s librarians recognized the need to disseminate appropriate, timely, and accurate information to the general public in their grant proposal, presenting the idea to set-up state-wide training for health care providers and consumers on how to find reliable information sources.

The proposal outlines the creation of TEACH Across Alabama: Training, Educating, Advising, Connecting, and Helping Alabama’s Healthcare Workforce and Healthcare Consumers to engage with ACOM’s clerkship sites, affiliated physicians and medical students in order to build a self-sustaining network distributing information to healthcare providers, patients, and families. The librarians plan to mentor students to teach the community how to use resources from the CDC, National Institutes of Health, and NLM.