Tools for evidence-based health policy making

"SUPPORT Tools for evidence-informed health Policymaking (STP)", a series of 19 guides for evidence-informed health policy making, were published recently on open access in Health Research Policy and Systems. This is relevant to anyone who uses research evidence to inform policymaking, and specifically to people responsible for making decisions about health policies and programmes.

The series addresses four areas: 1. Supporting evidence-informed policymaking 2. Identifying needs for research evidence in relation to three steps in policymaking processes, namely problem clarification, options framing, and implementation planning 3. Finding and assessing both systematic reviews and other types of evidence to inform these steps, and 4. Going from research evidence to decisions.

Drug and alcohol lectures - free online

The University of Sydney's Discipline of Addiction Medicine has collaborated with NSW Health in providing thirteen freely available online drug and alcohol powerpoint lectures covering ten subjects.

These lectures are an educational resource designed for GPs, students, nurses, AOD healthcare workers and those interested in drug and alcohol education. The series covers core drug and alcohol topics and has been developed by leading experts. Find them at http://www.addiction.med.usyd.edu.au/lectures/

Aboriginal Science Symposium - Canada

''Aboriginal science symposium: enabling Aboriginal student success in post-secondary institutions" - Mainstream education has consistently undervalued Indigenous knowledge and this can be quite frustrating for educators and students of Aboriginal origin. Has this failure to teach from a broad cultural orientation resulted in the under-representation of Aboriginal persons in health and science occupations? A unique collaborative initiative grew from Canada's University of Lethbridge Support Program for Aboriginal Nursing Students: the 2009 Aboriginal Science Symposium. Academics worldwide interested in developing more inclusive curricula should review the recommendations from this Symposium. (From: NRHA eforum - 27 January 2010)

Dental Health of Australian Children

Dental health of Australia's teenagers and pre-teen children: The Child Dental Health Survey, Australia 2003-04 was recently released by AIHW.
Teenage children have been identified as being at increased risk of dental disease, and among pre-teen children nearly half of all 6 year olds had a history of decay in their baby teeth. The Child Dental Health Survey provides national information on the dental health of children attending school dental services in Australia, and shows decay experience is relatively common in both teenage and pre-teen Australian children. Download the report here.

Child protection Australia 2008-09

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has released a new report today:
Child protection Australia 2008-09. During 2008-09 across Australia, over 200,000 children were the subject of one or more child protection notifications; almost 33,000 children were the subject of one or more substantiations; over 35,000 children were on care and protection orders; and around 34,000 children were living in out-of-home care. This report contains comprehensive information relating to state and territory child protection and support services, and the characteristics of Australian children within the child protection system.
Download the report here.

Highlights of New and Updated Cochrane Reviews

Highlights Issue 1, 2010 gives a collection of press summaries of the new and updated reviews in The Cochrane Library. Selected reviews in this issue include:
Cervical Cancer: Combined Drug and Radiotherapy Improves Survival
NSAIDs May Be More Effective Than Paracetamol For Period Pain
Vitamin D Supplementation Can Reduce Falls In Nursing Care Facilities
Hypertension: Beta-Blockers Effective In Combination Therapies
Parkinson’s: Treadmill Training Improves Movement
HIV: Positive Lessons From Home-Based Care

This is only a small selection above but you can go to the Cochrane Library to view the 98 new reviews, 139 updated reviews, 141 new protocols and 2 updated protocols.

The State of the World's Indigenous Peoples

This United Nations report reveals that there 370 million indigenous people in some 90 countries, living in all regions of the world. Their situation is critical, with poverty rates being significantly higher among indigenous peoples compared to other groups. While they constitute 5 per cent of the world's population, they are 15 per cent of the world's poor. The life expectancy of indigenous peoples is up to 20 years lower than their non-indigenous counterparts and they experience disproportionately high levels of maternal and infant mortality,malnutrition, cardiovascular illnesses, HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases.

The authors of the report do find some cause for optimism, however. "The international community increasingly recognizes indigenous peoples' human rights, most prominently evidenced by the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Indigenous peoples themselves continue to organize for the promotion of their rights. They are the stewards of some of the world's most biologically diverse areas and their traditional knowledge about the biodiversity of these areas is invaluable."

Quality end of life care

Presentations from the Palliative Care Australia Together : 2009 Conference are now available for download. "Together! Cultural connections for quality care at the end of life", was held in Perth in September 2009 and has over 50 presentations including clinical, spirituality, rural, ethical, aged, paediatric and nursing issues. Palliative Care Australia also have some excellent Resources to download.

Reposted from GWAHS Libraries blog

Australian Infection Control Guidelines - Draft for comment

The National Health and Medical Research Council and the Australian Commission for Safety and Quality in Healthcare has released for public comment the Australian Infection Control Guidelines: preventing and managing infection in health care (the draft Guidelines).

The Guidelines are written from a care delivery perspective, focusing on safety and quality and using a risk management framework. "This approach differs from the current Department of Health and Ageing (DoHA) 2004 Infection control guidelines for the prevention of transmission of infectious diseases in the health care setting which are disease and setting specific."

Submissions are invited for comment on this draft until the closing date of 10 March 2010.

Aboriginal health expenditure report

Expenditure on health for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people 2006-07 has just been published by the AIHW.

Expenditure on health and high care residential aged care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people amounted to $2,953 million in 2006-07, or 3% of national expenditure on health and high care residential aged care. The average expenditure per person on health and high care residential aged care was $5,650 for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. For non-Indigenous people, the average expenditure per person was $4,621.

OECD addresses obesity

A joint report from the OECD and WHO, attempts to strengthen the existing evidence-base on the efficiency of interventions to tackle unhealthy diets and sedentary lifestyles. This economic analysis, Improving lifestyles, tackling obesity: the health and economic impact of prevention strategies, recognises that many governments have implemented a range of policies to promote healthy lifestyles but that they have been hindered by the limited availability of evidence about the effectiveness of interventions in changing lifestyles and reducing obesity.

"The adoption of a “multi-stakeholder” approach is increasingly invoked by many as the most sensible way forward to prevent chronic diseases linked to unhealthy diets and sedentary lifestyles. No party is in a position to meaningfully reduce the size of the obesity problem and associated chronic diseases without the co-operation of other stakeholders."

Where can you find the birth statistics for your local hospital?

www.mybirth.com.au collected all the publicly available birth statistics so you can easily check the birth outcomes at your local hospitals and care providers. For the first time you can now get a snapshot of the overall performance of your local hospitals when choosing where to birth - normal vaginal birth rates, epidural and induction rates, caesarean section rates and more.

Enter your post code into our Birth Services Revealed Database to see the performance statistics of your local hospitals.

Unfortunately not all States & Territories in Australia choose to make this information publicly available for each hospital so they are not able to provide the statistics for all States in the Birth Services Revealed database.

Looking ahead with 2020 vision

A decade from now, doctors could well be giving checkups to the bacteria in your digestive tract, super-smart computers could be responding to your unspoken thoughts, and a new green revolution could be well under way. At least that's the way more than a dozen experts on science and technology see it in a series of essays offered up today by the journal Nature.

For Doctors, burnout goes beyond overwork

Sadly, a top search for the New Year had to do with physician burnout. Physicians least likely to be satisfied with their work are young, have little control over their situation, and have a history of harassment, according to the report. Women tend to respond differently than men, and may burn out more slowly.
Last September JAMA published an article about the growing body of work that highlights the connection between a lack of meaning in work and physician burnout. The article links to a study that proposed a solution to the problem: a form of behavior therapy known as mindful meditation. Another article, published last spring for junior doctors in the UK, offers advice about preserving their mental health while pursuing their profession.

Find these articles and more by following the Search Medica links below.

1. "demands values and burnout"
2. "how to handle stress and mental health"

TV health reporting in Australia

Still on the media, the MJA published an article last month by Simon Chapman et al, entitled "The content and structure of Australian television reportage on health and medicine, 2005–2009: parameters to guide health workers."

The authors reviewed the content of all health-related evening news and current affairs items recorded over 47 months in Sydney. In total they analysed 11 393 news items and 2309 current affairs items and they concluded that "complex issues are reduced to fit the time constraints and presentational formulae of the news media. Advocates should plan their communication strategies to accommodate these constraints."

Contact your library if you have trouble accessing the fulltext of this article.

Health stories of the decade

The BMJ has published a list of the most important health stories in the UK media over the past 10 years, courtesy of Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor of The Independent. Leading with pandemic flu, the list also includes the MMR vaccine, hospital-acquired infections and of course obesity.

Click here for Laurence's article and here for a podcast of an interview he had with Annabel Ferriman, the BMJ news editor, where they discuss the issues.

Dementia web resource

The Dementia Gateway has been developed by the UK organisation, SCIE (Social Care Institute for Excellence). The site has been set up for health workers who deal with people with dementia in nursing, residential or domiciliary settings. It includes lots of practical tips, tools and activities and each section has been written by a national dementia expert to ensure that the information and guidance is up to date and reflects what is known about best practices in dementia care.