Tuesday 30 September 2014

Bits of information a-cross the centuries - Bad Tidings & The Love Letter

As noted previously on W2tQ the significance of information practically and as a concept is very obvious in health and social care. Not just the debate about assuring privacy and confidentiality of clinical records and professional disclosure, but the meaning of information to an individual. This is assuming that the person concerned has the mental capacity to recognise what a particular circumstance, event, item of news means; and not just this morning, but tomorrow...

A diagnosis, lab result, a date for this procedure or that operation all can be a major source of anxiety and stress.

This week's visit to Amsterdam also included a visit to the Stedelijk Museum, where I saw Jobstijding (Bad Tidings), 1932 / Carel Willink (1900-1983). On Saturday I marvelled at Vermeer's The Love Letter and many other great works at the Rijksmuseum. ...

Through art and these works in particular we can contrast the social impact of information, of news - its meaning past and present with our ongoing preoccupation with binary representation and the information age.

Snail mail may be less common and yet the impact of decisions, news, life events ... remains.

individual
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
humanistic ------------------------------------------- mechanistic
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL
group

https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/SK-A-1595
Vermeer - The Love Letter
1 0
0 1
http://www.stedelijk.nl/en/artwork/3872-de-jobstijding
Carel Willink - Jobstijding (Bad Tidings)

0 1
1 0

Image sources:
The Love Letter, Vermeer
http://www.sai.msu.su/wm/paint/auth/vermeer/vermeer.love-letter.jpg

Jobstijding (Bad Tidings), 1932, Carel Willink (1900-1983)Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/567383253025365412/

Sunday 28 September 2014

ERCIM News No. 99 Special theme: "Software Quality"

Dear ERCIM News Reader,

ERCIM News No. 99 has just been published at
http://ercim-news.ercim.eu/en99

http://ercim-news.ercim.eu/en99Special Theme: "Software Quality"
http://ercim-news.ercim.eu/en99/special/

And on the occasion of ERCIM’s 25th anniversary, we published a selection of articles on the future challenges of ICST:
http://ercim-news.ercim.eu/en99/challenges-for-icst

Keynote by Willem Jonker, CEO EIT ICT Labs: "The Future of ICT: Blended Life"
http://ercim-news.ercim.eu/en99/keynote/the-future-of-ict-blended-life



This issue is also available for download as:
pdfhttp://ercim-news.ercim.eu/images/stories/EN99/EN99-web.pdf
epub: http://ercim-news.ercim.eu/images/stories/EN99/EN99.epub

Next issue: No. 100, January 2015 - Special Theme: "Scientific Data Sharing"

Thank you for your interest in ERCIM News.
Feel free to forward this message to others who might be interested.

Best regards,
Peter Kunz
ERCIM News central editor

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ERCIM offers fellowships for PhD holders from all over the world.
Next application deadline: 30 September 2014 http://fellowship.ercim.eu/
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is published quarterly by ERCIM, the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics.
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Follow us on twitter http://twitter.com/#!/ercim_news
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Saturday 27 September 2014

Rijksmuseum Amsterdam - health in art : art in health

I arrived in Amsterdam last night and spent today, 8 hours in the Rijksmuseum. It is an amazing experience, even to just scratch the surface. Early on it was not busy! Entering the building, is as publicised, to discover a remarkable series of spaces.

There are so many highlights of a rewarding day. One must be within the final hour 1610 finding one of Van Gogh's self portraits. Van Gogh finds himself placed in the interpersonal domain not just by virtue of this self portrait, but his struggle with mental health and  hospitalisations.
individual
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
humanistic ------------------------------------------- mechanistic
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL
group
http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en



The Anemic Woman
Samuel Dirksz van Hoogstraten [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
There were many other (ill-)health related examples (and many that are also bright and humorous).

The sick child. The Sick Woman....

When initially viewing Visiting the Sick you have some searching to do. The sick individual themselves and the doctor are rather lost in the background. The painting stresses the sociological, domestic aspects of health past and present.

In Visiting the Sick and The Anemic Woman we get a view of the way outside (possibly of spiritual significance?) and another room through doorways. From TV, reading and my visit today, this is a common device within Dutch genre painting. If we have a diagnosis now in the 21st century, we still need to look through the windows and doors that relate to the individual and their social situation. In the age of the interface and partitions we still need to negotiate themDoorways, windows and portals as changes in knowledge content, can in the form of care domains illuminate the boundary of what is objective and subjective. This is central in health and social care.


Van Gogh self portrait source:
http://historiek.net/chinezen-zeer-geinteresseerd-in-van-gogh/13217/#.VCb5mRbivTo

The Anemic Woman image source:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Samuel_van_Hoogstraten_-_The_Anaemic_Lady_-_WGA11719.jpg

Thursday 25 September 2014

1 in 3 will be older adults by 2025 in Japan

In June Dr Mayumi Hayashi described Japan's vision of 'total care' for its older population in HSJ. The article that prompts this post follows another with lessons for England.

Referring to a "2025 vision" this forward thinking has its roots in established systems of healthcare set up in 1961 and social care established in 2000 (p.25).

http://on.ft.com/1czk1Ak
Care integration is not new as a fundamental issue in health and social care. It is for me a career legacy issue. As a student nurse it was discussed and debated, closely allied with multidisciplinary and holistic (joined up physical and mental health) care. Even now 37 years later it will drive many arguments and policy deliberations in the run up to the next election here.

Many nations are faced with stark demographics. As the population ages and works its way through wooden blocks, Rubik cubes, it is the population pyramid that takes on increasing significance.


Dr Hayashi lists the need for inclusion, integration and continuation of four components that are essential to the realisation of this vision:
  • maximising the integration of healthcare and social care;
  • promoting policies for prevention and outreach together with safeguarding;
  • embedding supported living programmes and dementia friendly community initiatives; and
  • addressing “late life specific” housing needs.
I have mapped these to Hodges' model below:

individual
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
humanistic ------------------------------------------- mechanistic
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL
group
embedding supported living programmes and dementia friendly community initiatives integration of health and social care
"late life specific" housing needs
(integration of health and social care)
promoting policies for prevention and outreach, together with safeguarding


It becomes clear to see in Japan, China and other nations how telecare and smart homes have a role to play. Getting the basics of integrated care resolved firstly is the prerequisite whatever the culture.

Where achieved the integration of health and social care can act as a diagonal brace as it straddles two care domains. Perhaps the model also reflects the ongoing challenges of parity in esteem in mental health care and physical care; and the funding ambiguity for people living with dementia as opposed to other medical conditions?

In January 2014 the FT Weekend magazine also featured an article on ageing in Japan.

Hayashi, M. (2014) Japan's vision of a 'total care' future looks bright, Health Service Journal, 124, 6404, 25-27. 

FT magazine cover image:
https://www.facebook.com/financialtimes/photos/a.10150157857040750.297340.8860325749/10152119294570750/?type=1

Tuesday 23 September 2014

Agnostic qualities in Hodges' model

In the previous post I highlighted "Holistic approaches to learning are agnostic as to method." 

I added that there would be more to follow as Hodges' model can be viewed as agnostic on several levels. The following is taken from a paper on Hodges' model and its application in forensic nursing:
Hodges’ model claims to be person-centred and situated (Jones, 2008). What exactly does this mean for forensic nursing? The utility of Hodges’ model lies in it being agnostic. By ‘agnostic’ this means that the model is not dependent upon, dedicated to, sanctioned by, or owned by any particular discipline (even nursing). It was not designed with a particular media, clinical setting, situation or organization in mind. It is true, however, that the model was formulated within academia and health and social care, being taught and applied by community mental health nurses, learning disability and health visiting students. Apart from the history and universality of the model’s cruciform structure and its inherent 2 x 2 matrix form [often referred to as a Johari window (Luft and Ingham, 1955)], the model is also culturally neutral. This is an essential requirement to reflect and enact nursing values and codes of conduct (Nursing and Midwifery Council, 2008).
Doyle, M., Jones, P. (2013). Hodges’ Health Career Model and its role and potential application in forensic mental health nursing. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing. 20, 7, 631-640.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2850.2012.01961.x/abstract

Saturday 20 September 2014

Book: Teaching Crowds - Learning and Social Media

This book is available as an open access pdf. Here is an extract from chapter 2 on Social Learning Theories.
http://www.aupress.ca/index.php/books/120235Holistic approaches to learning are agnostic as to method. Drawing from connectivist and older models, they valorize diversity and the socially distributed cognition afforded by the read-write Web and other publishing models, accepting that every learning experience is unique, and every learner’s needs are different. Connectivist approaches, for all their extensive reliance on networks of people engaging socially, are at heart focused on the individual—specifically, the individual’s learning. Holistic models embrace the fact that it is sometimes more important that a group learns, rather than an individual, especially in collectivist cultures (Potgieter et al., 2006). Holistic models recognize that, sometimes, guidance is what is most needed, that people can learn without direct engagement with others and, even that transmittive instructionist models of teaching have a place. p.61.
In the next post I will explain the emphasis placed in the quote.


Jon Dron and Terry Anderson (2014) Teaching Crowds: Learning and Social Media, AU Press.

My source:
ITFORUM mailing list 
http://listserv.lt.unt.edu/mailman/listinfo/
This is a listserv of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology

Friday 19 September 2014

Wednesday 17 September 2014

The Lyon Declaration on Access to Information and Development

Dear all,

The Lyon Declaration on Access to Information and Development 
http://www.lyondeclaration.org/ was successfully launched at the World Library and Information Congress 2014 in Lyon. Since then, over 280 organisations from across the library and development community have signed the document and called upon United Nations Member States to incorporate access to information in the new post-2015 development framework. The Declaration has now been translated into 13 languages.

Following the release of the Open Working Group Outcome Document in July, IFLA is now waiting to see what UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon will present to the UN General Assembly later this year in New York. The Secretary General is currently overseeing preparation of a ‘synthesis report’ that will bring together the outputs of various processes on the post-2015 development agenda and help UN Member States find a way forward in negotiations over the next twelve months. The synthesis report is expected to be released at the end of October/early November.

What are the next steps?

Once the synthesis report is issued it is crucial that policymakers in the capitals of UN Member States get to hear what libraries want to see in the new framework. As outlined in the Lyon Declaration, IFLA wants the United Nations to acknowledge that access to information, and the skills to use it effectively, are required for sustainable development, and to make sure that the framework’s goals, targets and means of implementation reflects this.

Your voice will be needed for us to achieve this goal.

IFLA is currently preparing an advocacy toolkit which will help library representatives to approach decision-makers in order to talk to them about the importance of access to information in development. IFLA wants to help its members and partners to take the opportunity to position themselves inside development debates in their home countries, so that their governments recognise the value libraries bring to development. Ultimately, libraries can benefit from being included in the national plans that will implement the new development agenda from January 1st, 2016.

The advocacy toolkit will be available in early October 2014.

What can you do to help?
  • You can sign the Lyon Declaration and add your voice to the call at the United Nations.
  • You can translate the Lyon Declaration into your language and share it with colleagues in your own country.
  • You can encourage others in the library and development sectors to sign the Lyon Declaration.
  • You can organise meetings with policy makers in your country and use the toolkit provided by IFLA in order to make the library voice heard on a national level.
  • You can promote the principles of the Lyon Declaration throughout your network and ensure that the message gets spread as widely as possible.
The Lyon Declaration is available here.

Contact Julia.brungs AT ifla.org for more information on IFLA’s post-2015 activities.

Background

The Lyon Declaration on Access to Information and Development calls upon United Nations Member States to make an international commitment through the post-2015 development agenda to ensure that everyone has access to, and is able to understand, use and share the information that is necessary to promote sustainable development and democratic societies. It was prepared by IFLA and a number of strategic partners in the library and development communities.

Please also see the webversion.

Julia Brungs
Policy and Projects Officer
International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA)
P.O. Box 95312
2509 CH The Hague
Netherlands
Email: Julia.brungs AT ifla.org

My source: HIFA2015

Saturday 13 September 2014

In political hands person-centred care is a quantum phenomena (entanglement)

individual
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
humanistic ------------------------------------------- mechanistic
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL
group
Acute mental health needs
RISK
Self-harm

Local care?
Empowering the individual?
Accessibility
Cognitive distance
Let therapy commence
Continuity
(dist-ress)
Remote policy touch
Organisational (distance) dementia?

threshold  
RISK
 Self-neglect
personal hygiene
domestic environment


local-regional-national? 

metrics: Km or Miles or time?
Gallons or Litres?
Cost?
Illusory savings?

threshold
RISK 
 Harm to others


to integrated care 
multidisciplinary care




     threshold
Beds

Lintern, S. (2014) Mental health patients sent hundreds of miles for a bed, HSJ, 14 August.

Beds shortage = Gathered Sobs
Mental Health = Lethal Anthem?
Mental health = Lean Halt Them

Bed image:
By kieran jones (http://www.clker.com/clipart-bed-icon.html) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Thursday 11 September 2014

Technologies for Development: Project - founding ideas

Reading the website of the project (posted yesterday) I noticed that their founding ideas can be mapped to Hodges' model. As depicted below some are pretty obvious, notably the POLITICAL domain and the SOCIOLOGICAL.

Their first founding idea is placed in the interpersonal domain. This is very subjective exercise - literally playing with words - but here I am prioritizing individual cognitive access above physical access. I am thinking of individual participants. As Nanotechnologies for Development state the first idea also focuses on countries - the group. So maybe I am wrong, if there is a wrong when using models - idealisations - in this way?

Staying with the group, access and participation are also a crucial matter of human rights - education, health information, health and social care, employment, freedoms, and security - freedom from violence, unlawful imprisonment...

These founding ideas clearly denote underpinning values, note in-particular the way risks and benefits are included at the individual and the group level.

In the SCIENCES domain from the beginning acknowledges time, process, project management. Nanotechnology needs to be understood in terms of the environments we inhabit. Not just us, now; but grandchildren... too. Not just the physical environment, but that embodied under and within this other divide: skin.

Within the mechanistic domains how will consultation about benefits and risks be negotiated and communicated to the humanistic domains?

How will the individual - group : community - commercial enterprise and innovation be squared?
 
This individual-group distinction is becoming ever more significant - of which more to follow.
individual
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
humanistic ------------------------------------------- mechanistic
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL
group
The first founding idea of this project is that developing countries should not be denied participation in advanced modern technologies.The third core idea is that such developments entail risks and benefits that need to be addressed from the beginning.
The second that they should do that in their own culturally-specific ways. Our approach rejects any a priori distinction between traditional and modern technologies, but rather seeks innovative ways to connect indigenous and globalized knowledge and practices.
The fourth founding idea is that choices about those benefits and risks need to be made in a democratic way.

Source: Technologies for Development: Project Founding ideas

Wednesday 10 September 2014

Technologies for Development: Project Closing Conference - Nanotechnologies for Development in India, Kenya, and the Netherlands

[ This is a small but interesting interdisciplinary conference - pj ]

December 15-17, 2014. Maastricht University Brussels Campus

What is the challenge of development today? What is the role of science and technology in development? What are the problems and possibilities that emerging technosciences—such as nano-bio-technoscience—pose for development? What institutional and organizational configurations enable development? How can interdisciplinary inquiries into the social studies of science, technology, and innovation contribute to developmental agendas?

The closing conference of the NWO-WOTRO http://www.nwo.nl/en/about-nwo/organisation/nwo-divisions/wotro sponsored project, *Nanotechnologies for Development* http://fasos-research.nl/nano-dev/, invites proposals that reflect on the relationship between science, technology, development, and innovation.

We are interested in contributions that offer insights into the historical and contemporary principles and practices of development and the role of science and technology therein. These reflections can be empirical, conceptual, or methodological. We also welcome contributions that reflect on collaboration between researchers and development practitioners. We thus invite proposals from a broad range of participants: activists, academics, development practitioners, and beyond.

The conference programme will strive to strike a balance between various approaches and perspectives and consist of keynotes, panel presentations, and a closing roundtable discussion.

The conference will be held at the Brussels campus of Maastricht University (Avenue de l’Armée / Legerlaan 10, 1040 Brussels, Belgium) on December 15-17, 2014. Participation is limited to 50 participants.

To participate, please submit a title, 500-word abstract, a list of 5 keywords, and your CV (max. 400 words) to techdev-conf-fasos AT maastrichtuniversity.nl. The deadline for sending your abstract is September 14, 2014. The conference committee will notify their decision by September 30, 2014.

Tuesday 9 September 2014

UK: Health Insights - how innovations support in health and care communities


Hi Peter

We are delighted to introduce our new series of Health Insights. These free to attend events for healthcare professionals feature interactive round table activities, news on how the latest innovations support the health and care community, and best practice experiences from NHS Trust colleagues.

CLICK HERE TO SEE NEW DATES AND LOCATIONS

Starting in Leeds and Newbury this October and held in association with NHS England, each one day conference will feature:

Digital Discovery Sessions

- facilitated round tables exploring procurement issues

An update from NHS England on Tech Funds and Open Source Programme
Host Roy Lilley, popular Healthcare Broadcaster, with lively panel debates

Speakers will include Rob Webster, CEO of NHS Confederation, Tim Straughan, Director of Health and Innovation at Leeds and Partners, and Clive Kay, Chief Executive of Bradford Teaching Hospitals.

REGISTER FREE TODAY

We hope to see you at your local Health Insights.

Kind regards

Samantha Phillips
HIMSS UK

Monday 8 September 2014

Interviews: In the political melee don't forget the green corner...!

individual
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
humanistic ------------------------------------------- mechanistic
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL
group

Therapeutic
alliance



"Sir Robin cited research conducted by two psychologists on interviews during the 1987 general election campaign. Dr Peter Bull and Kate Mayer found that Kinnock and Thatcher avoided more than half the questions put to them. They concluded the party leaders used 31 different forms of evasion, among them ignoring the question, acknowledging the question without answering, questioning the question, attacking the question, attacking the interviewer, declining to answer, giving an incomplete answer, repeating a previous answer and claiming already to have answered the question." FT Weekend. p.1


Source:
Katz, Ian, (2014) The death of the political interview. FT Weekend, Life & Arts, September 6-7th. p.1.

Friday 5 September 2014

ICN and IHTSDO extend collaboration to advance harmonisation of health terminology

Press Information   .   Communiqué de presse   .   Comunicado de prensa


Geneva, Switzerland & Copenhagen, Denmark, 1 September 2014

The International Council of Nurses (ICN) and the International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation (IHTSDO) today announced an updated collaboration agreement to advance terminology harmonisation and foster interoperability in health information systems.  The new collaboration agreement signed today will be reviewed on completion of the work or in April 2016, whichever is earliest.

The overarching goals of this collaboration are to ensure that nurses worldwide have the tools they need to carry out their jobs effectively, that they are not disenfranchised from the global informatics infrastructure, and that they remain active in the collection of meaningful and useful health information.

As part of the collaboration agreement, ICN, owner of the International Classification for Nursing Practice (ICNP), and IHTSDO, owner of SNOMED CT, have agreed to undertake further work that defines the relations between SNOMED CT and ICNP to enable their interoperability in health information systems globally. It builds on work already undertaken to produce an equivalence table for nursing diagnoses.

In the coming years IHTSDO and ICN will focus on two key areas of work: joint publication of a completed equivalence table between SNOMED CT and ICNP for Nursing Diagnoses, and joint publication of a completed equivalence table between SNOMED CT and ICNP for nursing interventions.

“ICN is delighted to extend our collaboration with IHTSDO,” said David Benton, ICN’s Chief Executive Officer.  “This agreement will be of mutual benefit to both organisations as well as to patients and will improve the description and comparison of nursing practice locally, regionally, nationally and internationally.

“IHTSDO is pleased to be continuing its collaboration with the ICN”, said Jane Millar, Head of Collaboration at IHTSDO. “Our joint work in linking SNOMED CT and ICNP will be of benefit to the nursing profession worldwide to ensure a common understanding and interoperability, and also to support sharing with other members of the healthcare team.”

The first collaborative agreement between the two organisations was signed in 2010, and in January 2014 the cooperation was further advanced by the announcement of an equivalence table between ICNP concepts and SNOMED CT concepts.

Notes to the Editor:

ICN and IHTSDO are the developers of the International Classification for Nursing Practice (ICNP) and SNOMED Clinical Terms (CT), respectively. The ICNP terminology serves a critical role for ICN in representing the domain of nursing practice worldwide, thus providing nurses at all levels with data-based information used for practice, administration, education and research. SNOMED CT is a multidisciplinary healthcare terminology designed to support the entry and retrieval of clinical concepts in electronic record systems and the safe, accurate, and effective exchange of health information.

About ICN:
The International Council of Nurses (ICN) is a federation of more than 130 national nurses associations representing the millions of nurses worldwide. Operated by nurses and leading nursing internationally, ICN works to ensure quality care for all and sound health policies globally. (www.icn.ch).

About IHTSDO:
IHTSDO determines global standards for health terms, an essential part of improving the health of humankind. Its experts work collaboratively with diverse stakeholders to ensure that SNOMED CT, its world-leading terminology product, is accepted around the world as the common language for health (www.ihtsdo.org).

My source: Amy L Amherdt

Wednesday 3 September 2014

Five Domains - Five Gyres

There are five domains in Hodges' model that can help us assess, plan and formulate health and social care, support reflection upon interventions and evaluate progress over time. An aide-memoire indeed!
individual
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
humanistic ------------------------------------------- mechanistic
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL
group



Brain Plasticity


 
Plastic Brain

With five domains to support short and longer-term memory do we really need to force the oceans to remember when we fail to care...?