How to webcast lectures and conferences

This is the title of an article published in the British Medical Journal earlier this year, written by three British cardiologists, "without remarkable pre-existing internet skills". It describes how doctors (and others) with little technological experience can go about recording lectures and conferences online. As the authors say, "Being unable to attend a key talk or conference can be frustrating. But it is now technically straightforward, with computer software, for anyone to record presentations as a movie for permanent access on the internet. Such recordings can act as an invaluable library and learning resource long after the event is over. They greatly increase the potential reach of a message, aiding medical education, research, and the originators—think YouTube for medicine—as well as potentially reducing the relative carbon footprint and cost of medical education."

General Practice report

The AIHW has just released its report, General Practice in Australia, health priorities and policies 1998 to 2008. It looks extensively changes in the activities of GPs from in those years in the light of numerous government initiatives and changes in the GP workforce and in the population. "It shows that GP activity generally correlates well with health policy initiatives and clinical guidelines, notably with Type 2 diabetes and the control of asthma and high blood cholesterol levels." Some possible concerns are also raised about the costs incurred for pathology testing and the challenges in dealing with an ageing population.

Memory boosters for medical info

A great site for studying for those tricky medical and nursing exams is The World's Database of Medical Mnemonics, medicalmnemonics.com. The Lancet reviewed the site with a couple of examples of content: "'With vomiting, both the pH and food come up. With diarrhea, both the pH and food go down.' How to remember the path of sperm in the male reproductive tract? 'SEVEN UP': seminiferous tubules, epididymis, vas deferens, ejaculatory duct, nothing, urethra, penis. These and many more amusing mnemonics await users of the Medical Mnemonics database..."
You can add your own mnemonics to the database, or search hundreds of different mnemonics in 36 categories from Anatomy to Urology. You can even download the database to your pda or palm pilot.

Breastfeeding outcomes

Breastfeeding and Infants' Time Use is the title of a paper by Jennifer Baxter and Julie Smith from the Australian Institute of Family Studies. The reasons why breastfeeding seems to improve developmental outcomes remain unclear. This paper looks at the hypothesis that breastfed infants may spend their time differently to infants who are not breastfed.

The results of the authors' analysis show that breastfed infants spend more time being held and being read or talked to, and less time sleeping, eating and drinking. They also cried slightly more, and watched television slightly less than infants who were not being breastfed. Those who breastfed spent more time with their parents, and in particular, almost one additional hour a day alone with their mother compared to non-breastfeeding infants. The cognitive advantages this time use may or may not have is posed as a question for future research.

Online clinic for mental health

Virtual Clinic is a joint project from St Vincent's Hospital Clinical Research Unit for Anxiety and Depression (CRUfAD) and the School of Psychiatry at UNSW. It is an online resource aiming to develop and provide free education and treatment programs for people with anxiety and depressive disorders who cannot readily access face to face treatment. Currently the site includes programs for anxiety, social phobia, depression and panic disorder. People need to register for the programs which involve online tutorials, homework assignments, online forums and regular contact with a Psychiatrist or Psychologist.

Health literacy in Australia

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has issued a Health Literacy report as part of it's latest issue of Australia's Social Trends. Health literacy is the ability of consumers to access and use health information, and it is an important skill in allowing people to maintain their basic health. "Adequate levels of health literacy may help to reduce some of the costs in the health system, prevent illness and chronic disease, and reduce the rates of accident and death."

The report is the result of a survey conducted in 2006, which showed that 41% of adults were considered to have at least adequate health literacy skills. 19% of adults had the lowest level of these skills, meaning that they had difficulty with tasks such as locating information on a bottle of medicine about the maximum number of days the medicine could be taken, or drawing a line on a container indicating where one-third would be. Older and less well-educated people had a lower level of health literacy.

Searching for Occupational Health and Safety info

Two databases you may not know about when you are looking for OH&S information including accident prevention are:
NIOSHTIC-2 (Free version) A free bibliographic database of occupational safety and health publications, documents, grant reports, and other communication products supported in whole or in part by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health part of the CDC.
CISDOC (Free version)CISDOC is the fruit of 30 years of screening the occupational safety and health literature of the world for interesting and useful books, articles and audiovisual materials that occupational safety and health specialists can use in their fight against workplace accidents and diseases. It already guides users to over 62,000 publications, and 2000 more references are added every year.

More PEARLS – Practical Evidence About Real Life Situations

PEARLS are short summaries of Cochrane Systematic Reviews for primary care practitioners and provide guidance on whether a treatment is effective or ineffective. They are designed as an educational resource and are developed by the Cochrane Primary Care Field, New Zealand Branch of the Australasian Cochrane Centre at the Department of General Practice and Primary Health Care, University of Auckland and funded by the New Zealand Guidelines Group. Some of the latest Pearl topics include metabolic control in type 1 diabetes in adolescents, early mobilisation after stroke and clinical trials and publication bias.

Less medicine is more

With the events of the past week unfolding, the BMJ 'editors choice' by Fiona Godlee, focuses on on the risks of overtreatment and the problems of medicalisation. She says "if you give patients complete and unbiased information about the likely effects of an intervention they may well say no to it." Read more of the editorial here.

Soft Drink, Weight Status and Health

Who consumes soft drinks in NSW and why? ; How much is consumed? ; What are health consequences of soft drink consumption? ; and, What are strategies for reduction of soft drink consumption. In this 59 page report, the NSW Centre for Public Health Nutrition aims to answer these questions.

The report is available to download from the NSW Health resources page.

Sexually Transmitted Infections Campaign

The Australian Government has launched a national campaign that aims to reduce the rate of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among Australians, especially young people and Indigenous people. The campaign theme is "STIs are spreading fast – always use a condom". The Government has committed $9.8 million to the National STI Prevention Program to address a worrying rise in chlamydia, HIV/AIDS, and syphilis infections. There were around 70,000 reported cases of STIs in Australia in 2008 – 13 per cent more than in 2007, and it's young people who are most at risk. Three quarters of known cases occur among people aged between 15 and 29 years. The website for the campaign is http://www.sti.health.gov.au/ and the media release Campaign Targets Sexually Transmitted Infections has some statistical information about STIs. HealthInsite also has topic pages on Sexual Health, including pages on Safe Sex and Sexually Transmitted Infections.

Historic Step Forward for Midwives and Nurse Practitioners

Last week in Federal Parliament, legislation was tabled that will give Australian nurses and midwives access to the Medical Benefits Schedule (MBS) and Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) for the first time. The Health Legislation Amendment (Midwives and Nurse Practitioners) Bill and a Professional Indemnity Bill covering midwives are included. These changes will provide all Australians with greater choice about their healthcare via improved access to the skilled services of our nurses and midwives. The media release from Nicola Roxon Minister for Health and Aging is available here.

Australian College of Nurse Practitioners (ACNP) has also given excepts from the Lancet and The Australian Doctor in their Latest News section.

US National Library of Medicine's Images from the History of Medicine

The History of Medicine Division of the US National Library of Medicine announces the launch of a new image platform for its premier database, Images from the History of Medicine (IHM). Using award winning software developed by Luna Imaging, Inc., NLM offers greatly enhanced searching and viewing capabilities to image researchers. Patrons can view search results in a multi-image display, download high resolution copies of their favorite images, zoom in on image details, move images into a patron-defined workspace for further manipulation, and create media groups for presenting images and sharing them via e-mail or posting on blogs free of charge. With these new capabilities, NLM greatly enhances usability of its image collection, where inspection and comparison of images is often as important as access to bibliographic data.

Comprising almost 70,000 images from the Prints and Photographs and other collections held in the History of Medicine Division, IHM is one of the largest image databases in the world dedicated to images of medicine, dentistry, public health, the health professions, and health institutions. The collection includes portraits, photographs, caricatures, genre scenes, posters, and graphic art illustrating the social and historical aspects of medicine. Most types of printmaking are represented: woodcuts, engravings, etchings, mezzotints, aquatints, and lithographs. Also included in the collection are illustrations from the historical book collection. Newly acquired posters and other materials are continually being added to IHM. The collection is administered by the NLM History of Medicine Division.

The purpose of the IHM database is to assist users in finding and viewing visual material for private study, scholarship, and research.

Michigan Informatics: Informatics for the Public Health Workforce

As health care job opportunities continue to expand, a number of institutions have been developing online training materials to help support academic public health programs. One such program is the Michigan Informatics (MI-INFO) website, which contains a variety of tutorials that deal with health information and computer skills. All told, the site contains nine tutorials which include titles like "Evidence Based Public Health", "Finding Health Statistics Online", and "Searching the Public Health Literature". Each of the tutorials features key concept overviews, exercises, and case studies. Near the bottom of the site, visitors can find a user manual for the tutorials, and a place where they can offer their own feedback. The site is rounded out by the "Other Resources" area, which contains links to other relevant sites, such as the Michigan Public Health Training Center and the Greater Midwest Region of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine. [KMG] (The Scout Report - June 19, 2009)

Child health report

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has just released A Picture of Australia's Children 2009. This report delivers the latest information on how, as a nation, we are faring according to key indicators of child health, development and wellbeing. Death rates among children have fallen dramatically, and most children are physically active and meet minimum standards for reading and numeracy. But it is not all good news. Rates of severe disability and diabetes are on the rise. Too many children are overweight or obese, or are at risk of homelessness, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children fare worse on most key indicators.