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.

Mental Health of Australians

This report from the Department of Health and Ageing, Mental Health of Australians 2, presents a comprehensive summary of the results of the 2007 National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing. It provides information on the prevalence of mental disorders, their severity, associated suicidality, and comorbidity with other mental disorders and physical conditions, as well as what services people use for their mental health problems.

"One in five Australians continued to experience mental illness. Just over one third had received services for their mental health problems and the majority of those that didn’t use services reported that they didn’t need them ... In short, these results do not provide the evidence of improvements in access to mental health services and the mental health of Australians that were anticipated given the increasing investment in mental health services and targeted initiatives over the previous decade."

Innovations in autism

This is the title of a special issue of the E-Journal of Applied Psychology. David Austin is the editor of the issue, and he is alarmed by the dramatic increases in the rate of autism in children in recent years. He writes, "In 1943, Leo Kanner wrote the first paper reporting on 11 cases of a seemingly new disorder that would come to be known as autism. In the 60 plus years since that paper, many theories of cause have been advanced and countless therapies tried and, yet, the tragic position we find ourselves in right now is that autism is of unknown aetiology and there are no treatments that may validly lay claim to cure or recover.".

Austin has taken a broad minded approach to the articles he has chosen for this issue, addressing autism in unusual and innovative ways.

Almost Quarter of Suicides Involve Intoxication

THURSDAY, June 18 (HealthDay News) -- Almost 25 percent of people who take their own lives are intoxicated when they commit the act, U.S. health officials report. From 2001 to 2005, there were an estimated 79,646 alcohol-attributable deaths each year and some 5,800 of those deaths were associated with suicide, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"This is the first study that shows alcohol is connected to suicide in a number of population groups," said report author Dr. Alex Crosby, a medical epidemiologist in the division of violence prevention at the CDC's Injury Center. "There are some groups that may be at greater risk for alcohol being related to a suicide event."

Other studies have shown that alcohol is a risk factor for suicide, Crosby added.
The report is published in the June 19 issue of the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. To reach its conclusions, Crosby's team used data from 17 states, sourced from the National Violent Death Reporting System for the years 2005 and 2006. They studied the relationship between alcohol and suicide in different racial/ethnic groups. Dr. David L. Katz, director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine, said the study sheds light on how alcohol and suicide interact.

Anatomy Report Card: Public Gets an 'F'

FRIDAY, June 12 (HealthDay News) -- Despite access to the Internet and advances in health education, people still don't seem to know their bodies very well. A study by British researchers found that many people are ignorant of basic human anatomy and unable to pinpoint the location of several major organs, including the heart and lungs. This was true even if the organ was related to a person's current medical treatment. The researchers expressed concern that the finding, which duplicates the results of a similar study done 40 years ago, might be another factor that hampers critical doctor-patient communication, causing delays and confusion in diagnosis and treatment.
"Recent evidence has shown that when doctors' and patients' vocabulary are matched, significant gains are found in patients' overall satisfaction with the consultation as well as rapport, communication comfort and compliance intent," study leader John Weinman, a professor at King's College London, noted in a news release from the publisher BioMed Central. The is in its online journal BMC Family Practice.
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2296/10/43/abstract

National Breast and Ovarian Cancer Centre

The revised version of the NOBB Guide for Women with Early Breast Cancer is now available and it incorporates the latest evidence in a new user-friendly format. The resource provides information to support women with early breast cancer in making decisions about their treatment and care, as well as advice for family and friends. The Guide walks women through every step of their breast cancer journey and is broken down into five key areas: Breast cancer: the facts, Making sense of test results, Treatment, When treatment is over, and Finding support.
The National Breast and Ovarian Cancer Centre (NBOCC) is Australia’s national authority and information source on breast and ovarian cancer. Funded by the Australian Government, NBOCC works in partnership with health professionals, cancer organisations, researchers, governments and those diagnosed to improve outcomes in breast and ovarian cancer. There are a number of other free publications on their Resources page.

Best Evidence Topics (BETS)

Physicians need rapid access to the best current evidence on a wide range of clinical topics. But where to find it? Textbooks are frequently out-of-date, and often clinicians don't have the time to perform literature reviews while the patient is waiting.
BETs were developed in the Emergency Department of Manchester Royal Infirmary, UK, to provide rapid evidence-based answers to real-life clinical questions, using a systematic approach to reviewing the literature. BETs take into account the shortcomings of much current evidence, allowing physicians to make the best of what there is. Although BETs initially had an emergency medicine focus, there are a significant number of BETs covering cardiothoracics, nursing, primary care and paediatrics. BETs bring the evidence one step closer to the bedside, by providing answers to very specific clinical problems, using the best available evidence. Each Topic answers a carefully worded 3-part question, using a structured approach to finding and reviewing the literature. BETs are designed specifically for Emergency Medicine.

Understanding what matters: A guide to using patient feedback to transform services

Last autumn, UK health secretary Alan Johnson said he wanted to see NHS Trusts collecting and using “immediate feedback” from patients to drive service improvement. To help the NHS harness the information it gathers, a guide – called ‘Understanding what matters: A guide to using patient feedback to transform services’ has been published. The guide sets out best practice in terms of collecting, analysing and using patient feedback to transform services. It also includes examples of how the NHS is already using feedback from patients to get results.
This resource, is one of a number being produced to help services understand and respond to what really matters to patients and their experiences of care. The 34 page guide is available to download here.

Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing - new issue

The latest issue of AJAN has just been published free online. Contents for the June-August issue are wide and varied and include:
- Living the experience of breast cancer treatment: the younger women's perspective
- Verbal, physical and sexual abuse among children working on the street
- Staff perspectives of a cardiac short stay unit
- Spirituality and spiritual engagement as perceived by palliative care clients and caregivers
- Predictors of nurses' commitment to health care organisations
- Relationship between clinical outcomes and quality of life for residents of aged care facilities
- Basic life support knowledge of undergraduate nursing students
- Nurse practitioners in drug and alcohol: where are they?
- E-portfolios: developing nurse practitioner competence and capability
- Couples perception regarding how lifestyle might affect fertility: results of a pilot study
- Comparison of pressure ulcer risk assessment scales for surgical ICU patients

Chronic back pain on The Health Report

On Monday, 15 June, Radio National's Health Report will look at research into the exercise preferences of people with chronic lower back pain and also ask when people with lower back pain feel it’s worthwhile to consider intervention. If you're a sufferer or caring for people with this affliction, it might be worthwhile tuning in at 8.30 am Monday. Alternatively you can get a podcast or download the transcript after it is aired from the Health Report website.

Hospital statistics

Australian hospital statistics 2007-08 presents a broad range of information on Australian public and private hospitals.
For those with a statistical bent, it is reported that in that year there were: 7.9 million hospitalisations, 60% of which were in public acute hospitals; 566,000 admissions from public hospital elective surgery waiting lists with a median waiting time of 34 days; 7.1 million presentations to public hospital emergency departments, with 69% of patients seen within recommended times for their triage categories; and 1,314 public and private hospitals. Public hospital expenditure was $29 billion.

Obesity in Australia

A new report from the Paliamentary House Standing Committee on Health and Ageing has found that better urban design to encourage more active lifestyles, and a greater focus on teaching children the importance of healthy eating and exercise are the keystones to overcoming Australia's obesity problems.
Weighing it up : Obesity in Australia calls for "national urban planning guidelines that encourage bicycle and pedestrian friendly communities and more facilities for physical activity. The committee would also like more support for school and community programs that teach children and adults to grow, prepare and eat fresh fruit and vegetables as an alternative to high fat, high sugar and high salt foods."

'Cell Phone Elbow' -- A New Ill for the Wired Age

TUESDAY, June 2 (HealthDay News) -- First came Nintendo thumb. Then, Guitar Hero wrist. Now, for the latest affliction of the wired age, it's cell phone elbow. Medically known as cubital tunnel syndrome, cell phone elbow is numbness, tingling and pain in the forearm and hand caused by compression of the ulnar nerve, which passes along the bony bump on the inside of the elbow.

Prolonged flexing of the elbow, such as when you hold a cell phone to your ear while closing sales, talking to your mother or keeping tabs on your teens while you're at work, puts tension on the ulnar nerve. In susceptible people, holding the bent-elbow position for extended periods can lead to decreased blood flow, inflammation and compression of the nerve. The first symptoms patients often notice include numbness, tingling or aching in the forearm and hand, a pain similar to hitting your "funny bone." As symptoms progress, they can include a loss of muscle strength, coordination and mobility that can make writing and typing difficult. In chronic, untreated cases, the ring the ring finger and pinky can become clawed, Evans and colleagues note in a report in the May issue of the Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine.

Ballerinas & Female Athletes Share Quadruple Health Threat

Young ballerinas who stop menstruating because they don't eat enough to cover their energy output face the same heart and bone health risks as other young female athletes in the same circumstances, new research suggests.

Inadequate food intake and lack of menstruation can place dancers at higher risk for the "cardiovascular and bone density deficits of much older, postmenopausal women," study leader Dr. Anne Hoch, a sports medicine expert at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, said in a news release from the college. Hoch and colleagues studied 22 young professional ballerinas to determine the incidence of disordered eating, lack of menstruation (amenorrhea), abnormal vascular function and low bone density.

The researchers found that 36 percent of the dancers had disordered eating habits, 77 percent had a calorie deficit, 27 percent were amenorrheic, 23 percent had low bone mass density, and 64 percent had abnormal artery dilation. "It was unknown if professional dancers without menstrual periods have evidence of vascular dysfunction, yet some characteristics ... were common in this group. Eighty-six percent had one or more components, and 14 percent had all four [risk factors]," Hoch said in the news release. The study was to be presented May 30 at an American College of Sports Medicine meeting, in Seattle. More information
The U.S. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development has more about amenorrhea.
(SOURCE: Medical College of Wisconsin, news release, May 30, 2009)

Clinical Excellence Commission

The Clinical Excellence Commission has a range of publications dealing with quality systems and patient safety. Scroll down until you find the one of interest to you (pdf format). Some of these may be available in hard copy from your Health Service Library.

Some examples are :

Incident Management in the New South Wales Public Health System
Quality Systems Assessent Report
Report from the Medication Safety Self Assessment (MSSA)
Enhancing Project Spread and Sustainability
Quality of Healthcare in NSW : Chartbook 2007
Collaborating Hospitals Audit of Surgical Mortality
Giving A Voice to Patient Safety in NSW
Quality Systems Assessment Program
Data Collections and Reports to Inform the Patient Safety and Clinical Quality Program
Patient SafetyA comparative analysis of eight Inquiries in six countries

Clinical handover: critical communications. MJA Spplement

Handover is a ubiquitous feature of health care. At least 7 million handovers occur annually within Australian hospitals. At times, its very existence is almost unnoticed — many health professionals do not think of a telephone referral as “handover” — and at other times it is seen as a mundane chore that has to be done in addition to the “real” work of clinical staff. There can be complacency with current practices and little recognition of the high-risk nature of handover.

The poor outcomes that arise from poor handover, as well as the scarcity of existing evidence, have motivated the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care to work on developing evidence-based solutions for improving handover. The articles in this supplement are contributed by teams participating in the Commission’s National Clinical Handover Initiative. Each provides a view into how handover can be improved. Handover should be viewed as part of the provision of safe patient care, rather than as extra, unnecessary work.

RESEARCH ROUNDup

RESEARCH ROUNDup a new PHC RIS resource aimed at keeping you up-to-date with current and recent health research in Australia. RESEARCH ROUNDup describes research relevant to key Australian Government health policy directions as defined by the Department of Health and Ageing.

Issue 6 (April 2009)- Dementia and primary health care
Issue 5 (March 2009) - The primary care role for people with cancer

Systematic Reviews: CRD's guidance for undertaking reviews in health care

Systematic Reviews: CRD's guidance for undertaking reviews in health care provides practical guidance for undertaking evidence synthesis based on a thorough understanding of systematic review methodology. It presents the core principles of systematic reviewing, and in complementary chapters, highlights issues that are specific to reviews of clinical tests, public health interventions, adverse effects, and economic evaluations. The final chapter discusses the incorporation of qualitative research in or alongside effectiveness reviews.

To see this review from The Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (CRD)please click here