Southern Institute for Health Informatics 2013 Annual Conference 11 September 2013, Portsmouth, UK

The annual SIHI conference will be held in Portsmouth on Wednesday 11 September and we invite you to participate. 

The conference theme this year is the challenging question: 

“From ‘Big Data’ to Collective Wisdom?” 

The programme will address a range of topics related to how information can change practice and culture in health and social care. Why is there such tolerance of unsafe processes in the NHS? Will information transparency help to break down a bullying culture where it persists? Why is there still such an information gulf between care sectors? Can operational care data reliably guide individual patient management and service commissioning? Is the latest ‘paperless NHS’ aspiration achievable and, if so, how?

Fundamentally we are asking what is happening to the ‘wisdom quotient’ of health and social care and looking at inspiring examples of excellence.

The programme will feature keynote speakers and a range of invited and submitted presentations. In addition, the “Infomart”, an informal information marketplace area, will allow vendors and researchers to set out a stall to meet people and exchange information.

If you would be interested in contributing to the programme or if you have an idea you would like to discuss, please email us at SIHI at port.ac.uk. Proposals for presentations should be accompanied by a 100-150 word outline, and will be considered until the programme is finalised. The SIHI 2013 conference website is at www.port.ac.uk/sihi

RFID Tags Track Possible Outbreak Pathways in the Hospital

There is no substitute for providing evidence that confirms many common-sense assumptions about what happens in the clinical environment that is the ward - in this case paediatrics.

See the links below for details and explanation.

My source: John Matson. Graphic Science. Scientific American, November 2012, page 76.
See also the original PLoS ONE paper.

International Antibiotics Awareness Day

Dear HIFA2015 and CHILD2015 colleagues,

Today is International Antibiotics Awareness Day. The message below is forwarded from the forum of the International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IFMSA), which is a longstanding official HIFA Supporting Organisation.

"Inappropriate use of antibiotics has become a serious threat to public health globally". It is a major cause of needless death and suffering today, and threatens death and suffering on an unimaginable scale in the future. A major contributing factor is lack of access to relibable, unbiased information for prescribers and consumers. Information is either absent, or is restricted to biased marketing materials from big pharma.

I have invited Students Targeting Antibiotics Resistance Today (START) and IFMSA members worldwide to join us to promote a future where every prescriber and user has access to reliable, independent information on medicines, including and especially antibiotics.

A suggested starting point would be to make independent, reliable publications such as the British National Formulary freely available to all on the internet.

Best wishes,
Neil
-----

Today, Nov 18th  is International Antibiotics Awareness day.

What is the problem? Antibiotic resistance is now an everyday problem in hospitals across the globe. The selection and spread of resistant bacteria in hospitals is a major patient safety issue. Infections with antibiotic resistant bacteria increase morbidity and mortality, as well as the length of stay in hospitals. Inappropriate use of antibiotics may increasingly cause patients to become colonised or infected with resistant bacteria. There are few new antibiotics in the development pipeline. As resistance in bacteria grows it will become more difficult to treat infection and this affects patient care

Why do we need an  Antibiotic Awareness Day? The inappropriate use of antibiotics has become a serious threat to public health globally, Taking antibiotics for the wrong reasons or incorrectly causes bacteria to develop resistance against antibiotic treatments with a risk of rendering antibiotics ineffective in the future.

What is the aim of Antibiotic Awareness Day? The aim of European Antibiotic Awareness Day is to emphasis the importance of taking antibiotics responsibly by putting an end to unnecessary use of antibiotics and encouraging people to follow their doctor’s instructions on how to take antibiotics in the appropriate way. The purpose of the day is to build on and reinforce the success of national campaigns on responsible use of antibiotics

Why is responsible use of antibiotics important? Keeping antibiotics effective is everyone’s responsibility. Responsible use of antibiotics can help reverse the growing trend of antimicrobial resistance and keep antibiotics effective for the use of future generations. On this basis, it is appropriate to inform the public, health professionals and carers of the sick, elderly and children about when and how to take antibiotics responsibly.

How can I get involved? Here are several ideas on how to help support this initiative: Spread the word Talk about the International  Antibiotic Awareness Day and its significance with your friends, family, colleagues and your Patients Make use of the materials by advertising the International Antibiotic Awareness Day in newsletters, on websites, in the media and on the Internet, by inserting a link on your website, in your e-mail signature or in your blog. Organise and participate in activities.

LET'S SAVE ANTIBIOTICS FOR THE NEXT GENERATION.

On behalf of Students Targeting Antibiotics Resistance Today (START) Team
Cecilia Kallberg, Jannie Dressler, Oluwasaanu Bunmi Michael.

My source: HIFA2015

A question. An answer - in response to recent media (HSJ Ack.)

Here are a couple of quotes from HSJ Roundtable meetings:

"What I hear around the country is that we have masses of information but we need to turn that into something that is intelligible and can be used for strategic decision making."...

"We need to look at how information links together to get a holistic picture of the situation." p. 20.

Dr Shahid Ali, (2012) Commissioning Information. Full Measures. HSJ, June 28, 20-23.

 "I don't think we should be integrating systems, we should be integrating around patients."  p. 20.

Dr Shahid Ali, (2012) Integrated Care. Let the Data Flow. HSJ, June 21, 20-25. 

"There's no integrated view of integrated care. The danger is that you have an integrated care system and everyone says, 'I will do one as well', and you end [up] with six of them." p. 22.

Owen Powell, (2012) Integrated Care. Let the Data Flow. HSJ, June 21, 20-25.


A question or two, or three ...

Is there a generic framework that can be shared and utilised across all health and social care?

A free resource that can be deployed in imagination, in solo on paper, in tandem and within a group potentially shaping collaboration, innovation, change and transformation. Applied in the clinical environment, the home, the lecture theater, the sports field...

A tool that can help support reflective practice not only at a strategic level, but the tactical and operational. What is happening on the ground floor? A framework that can help represent not only processes and policy, but practice, individual and group purposes.

Yes, policy maker and CEO meet with your information manager ... and discuss strategy.

But what is data, information, knowledge ....? What is 'health care' for it appears above we do not know?

Is there really no integrated view - even at a basic level that deserves further study?

Yes, health care practitioner meet your patient (client), their carer, your other partners (social enterprise...) and pursue what really counts: the best quality of care you can deliver given several constraints.

What is the outcome to be?

For the majority of the population (those not living with a long term medical condition) the transformation must be self-efficacy:
if 'shift happens' it must be from ill-health to health through education.

One answer:
The health care system cannot do this alone.

1st Int. Workshop on Designing for Self-Care: Acknowledging the home-clinic difference

Hi,
We invite position papers and works-in-progress papers for the first international workshop on "Designing for self-care: Acknowledging the home-clinic difference" to be held alongside NordiCHI on 14th October, at the IT-University of Copenhagen.

Kindly consider submitting your work, and / or share with your network.

Regards,
Naveen Bagalkot

 ----------------------------- Call For Papers -----------------------------

Image source: The CfP website

Workshop theme: Supporting the movement of care across boundaries

Increasingly successful healthcare involves moving the care activities across the clinic-home boundaries. The field of HCI has increasingly explored ways to design digital technological tools to support this movement of care beyond the boundaries of a clinic.

However, the clinic and the home offer different settings, shaping the care activities in different ways. Acknowledging this difference of settings, opens up the space for various positions that designers can take for the design for self-care. We identify three key positions:

• Home as a place for caring: A focus on supporting the citizens to perform self-care activities at home that may (or may not) involve a larger network of family, friends, home care nurses, volunteers and home care workers.
• Clinic as a place for caring: A focus on supporting the care-givers at the clinic to prescribe home-based care activities to the citizens, and monitor how these are being complied with.
• Moving across the boundaries: A focus on supporting the citizens to move across the clinic-home boundaries, bringing with them materials from the clinic to home, and sharing the self-care activities from home with their care-givers at the clinic.

We offer these three positions as a starting point to invite researchers and practitioners working in this space of designing digital technological tools for self-care to become part of the workshop discourse. In particular we invite them to submit their positions in a 4-page ACM SIGCHI extended abstract format, based on their own empirical experiences and / or theoretical deliberations.

  

Workshop goals

• To bring together researchers from HCI and interaction design, and professional caregivers, to discuss and outline the challenges and promises posed by the different individual settings for care, and moving across these settings.
• To share insights from a range of cases about the challenges and successful strategies in designing digital technology for self-care.
• To explore promising design strategies and approaches for dealing with the challenges and promises posed by the different settings of care.

Workshop Outcomes

All accepted papers should bring a poster representing their paper to the workshop. This will be used during the workshop and its discussions. While shorter presentation of each paper will take place, the focus will be on more interactive sessions where the participants will interview each other, group work and plenum discussions. The workshop aims to share current work, methods, challenges and insights when working with, or designing for, home-based care.

  

Proceedings

The workshop will produce its proceedings in the form of an online database, which will be open to access by all interested researchers, practitioners and students. We are also looking into options to publish the proceedings with an ISBN number so that it is publicly available, and the possibility to make a journal special issue after the workshop. The proceedings will include:

• The call for position papers, which highlights the motivations and the theme of the workshop.
• The accepted position papers, and the respective posters.
• The minutes of the plenary discussions and the summary of the group work.

Submission format

Maximum four pages in ACM SIGCHI extended abstract format.

  

Contact details

Email the position papers to: rehabws2012 (at) yahoo.com

More details can be found on: http://users-cs.au.dk/gronvall/nordichi_rehab2012/index.html

[HIFA2015] International Nurses Day, May 12 "Closing the gap: From evidence to action"

Dear Colleagues / collaborators,

Nurses worldwide under the umbrella of the International Council of Nurses celebrates the International Nurses Day yearly on May 12. This is to pay tribute to the millions of men and women who put their lives to the service of humanity, in accordance with convention 149 of the ILO (Nursing Personnel Convention) passed in 1997. This celebration however has not yet gained the recognition it should, for how can one explain the fact that this day may even go by unnoticed in some countries, or are we therefore saying it is not worth it and why is this day not even a public holiday like for other professional groups.

I find it hard to believe that until now on this forum no one could think of it, when the celebration is due in barely 36 hours. I understand the delicate nature of health jobs, but this should not be an excuse for not paying tribute where is it due. I know this day should be meant for reflection among nurses and seeking for ways to improve nursing services. This will not happen in isolation, for nurses need the political will and inter sectoral collaboration to do their job effectively, shape a better future for the next generation of nurses consonant with current stakes.

This year, nurses are deliberating on the theme 'closing the gap: From evidence to action'. This topic is quite elaborate and needs lots of considerations both within and without the influence of nurses. Understanding evidence-based practice, seeking for sources of evidence, making the appropriate case for change and moving from evidence to action is the cycle in which nurses hope to reflect as they celebrate this year. Nurses will need new skills and expertise to deal with their clients in today's changing and challenging health environment. This is why this forum is of vital importance and I will continue to thank the team behind it. Nursing training programs may be subject to revision, expanding the legal and professional limits of practice while maintaining strict regulatory sanctions. This increased autonomy will enable nurses take up new functions within the confines of their practice and help in meeting the health needs of our population and not acting as physician substitutes or mini-doctors.

Therefore, I wish all nurses a happy celebration, calling on them to use the very rich celebration kit from the ICN, easily downloadable from their website, www.icn.ch, and share among themselves in all settings where nurses live and work. It is our day and we should be happy and honoured for the services we offer to the six billion people on earth, since nurses form the bulk of health care providers and work in remote areas in all countries.

In Cameroon, thousands of nurses from all the ten regions, shall be meeting in the economic capital Douala between June 14 to 16, to brainstorm on the activities. This event is usually opened by the Minister of Public health or his representative, various scientific presentations, round table conferences and other important activities grace the event and concluded by a closing ceremony during which important decisions taken are communicated to participants.

Tita Pale Isa Ndognjem, BSc, RN
Public Relation officer, Cameroon Nurses Association
2012 Fellow, Commonwealth Nurses Federation
paleisa AT yahoo.com 

Additional link:

C149 Nursing Personnel Convention, 1977
Convention concerning Employment and Conditions of Work and Life of Nursing Personnel (Note: Date of coming into force: 11:07:1979.) 
My source: HIFA2015

Dame Fiona Caldicott to lead confidentiality review

Dame Fiona Caldicott has agreed to lead an independent from Government review of the balance between protecting patient information and its sharing, to improve patient care.

The Department expects to respond to the panel’s recommendations when the review publishes during 2012.

The recommendation for a review of the balance between protecting patient information and its sharing, to improve patient care was part of the Future Forum’s recommendations to Government on the modernisation of health and care.

... more.

My source:
IHTSDO CoP

[CIOP] Welcome to new list - Community Informatics for Older Persons

There recently has been an expansion of technology applications for older persons. These efforts include communications for elderly with others, connections with families, medical monitoring, group activities, assistance with hospital transitions, and tele-health. An important aspect is the framework of communities, either as a way to view applications or the use of the inforrmation and communications technology application  in a group setting, such as a wii activity by a group.

Especially promising are the research activities being done internationally.
This is demonstrated by the latest issue of the Journal of Community Informatics on Technology and Older Persons, with a significant collection of varied current studies. The work on this journal included the cooperation of an international group of professionals for nearly a year.

It will be exciting and worthwhile to have the discussions and online meeting of professional minds.

To subscribe to new elist Community Informatics for Older Persons send an email
To: sympa@vcn.bc.ca
Message: subscribe ci-for-older-persons

Or go to http://vancouvercommunity.net/lists/info/ci-for-older-persons

Gene
Gene Loeb, Ph.D.

My source: ciresearchers

The International Council of Nurses (ICN) eHealth Bulletin - December Issue

In this Issue:

ICN eHealth SAG Meeting
ICN Accredited Centres News
eHealth Programme Activities
Conference Presentations
eHealth Team Publications
ICN Website
Conference Announcements

Download:

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