Showing posts with label quality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label quality. Show all posts

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:
pdf:  http://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

------------------------------------------------------------------------
ERCIM "Alain Bensoussan" Fellowship Programme
ERCIM offers fellowships for PhD holders from all over the world.
Next application deadline: 30 September 2014 http://fellowship.ercim.eu/
------------------------------------------------------------------------
ERCIM News
is published quarterly by ERCIM, the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics.
The printed edition will reach about 6000 readers.
This email alert reaches over 7300 subscribers.
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About ERCIM
ERCIM - the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics - aims to foster collaborative work within the European research community and to increase co-operation with European industry. Leading European research institutes are members of ERCIM. ERCIM is the European host of W3C.
http://www.ercim.eu/

Follow us on twitter http://twitter.com/#!/ercim_news
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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, 4 September 2014

Monday, 25 August 2014

Heat maps and hotbeds in Hodges' model

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





"Out of area placements are a good indicator of heat within the system and how over-stretched it is." p.5

Prof. Paul McCrone,
Lintern (2014).



Sources:
Image: http://www.usability.gov/sites/default/files/images/eye-tracking-full-option1.jpg

Lintern, S. (2014) Analysis reveals mental health trust funding cuts, Health Service Journal. 124, 6411, 4-5.

Monday, 21 July 2014

The Cost of Things: The quality of what is fixed and what is marginal

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

Internet of Things 
(IoT)
http://www.thezeromarginalcostsociety.com/
The Zero Marginal Cost Society

IoT is not just an incredible prospect it is an incredible happening.

Let us not forget however
the Fixed Costs of Social Care



Should some of the costs that assure High Quality be fixed, or remain intangible?

Saturday, 31 May 2014

At a glance 65: Better Life for older people with high support needs: the role of social care

I am referencing the following as I struggle to complete a piece of work for the TEL course. These key messages resonate with Hodges' model (back to work....):

Published: May 2014

Key messages

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has identified seven key challenges to be addressed for older people with high support needs to achieve a better quality of life. Social care has a key role to play in meeting these challenges.
  1. Old age is not about 'them': it is about all of us
  2. Older people are individuals and they are, as a group, becoming more diverse
  3. Relationships matter to us whatever our age; we have a fundamental human need to connect with others meaningfully
  4. Older people with high support needs have many assets, strengths and resources that they can also bring to the development and provision of services
  5. Whatever our age or support needs, we should all be treated as citizens: equal stakeholders with both rights and responsibilities
  6. The individual and collective voices of older people with high support needs should be heard and given power
  7. We need both to innovate and improve existing models
SCIE's role is to share knowledge about what works and use this to produce practical resources. Many of these resources will support people working in all aspects of social care to address these challenges.

http://www.scie.org.uk/index.aspx

Sunday, 25 May 2014

Contextual annealing: Research rolling - hotter, colder, hotter

In conducting research you focus on the question, then the method follows. You may have to go back to the question (in truth) as the methods available to you present their own opportunities and constraints.

Over the past two months this has been a questionnaire within residential care facilities.

Sometimes a confounding factor is to how to describe the study. It's a bit like the figure-ground illusion. One minute you are thinking of the individual, the care worker; the next moment the organisation.

Perspectives shift all the time. This is one of the roles of Hodges' model. The ability to switch from individual to group (population) and various other perspectives and contexts.

I’ve an image of an iceberg. At any one time the questionnaire study’s above the water, the institutional case study under: but then it rolls.


Tuesday, 20 May 2014

3-day Short Course in Systematic Reviewing and GRADE, 2-4 July 2014, UCL and NCCMH

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/clinical-psychology/CORE/Images/grade-approach-poster.png
Dear all,

I’d be very grateful if you could forward this onto any colleagues you think would be interested in attending. Many thanks.

Introduction to Systematic Reviewing and the GRADE Approach
3-day short course
UCL, London

Led by Dr Craig Whittington, with over 10 years’ experience developing NICE clinical guidelines and Cochrane reviews.
  • A practical approach to systematic reviewing taught by experts developing clinical guidelines for NICE.
  • Get the latest advice about GRADE, the sensible and transparent approach to grading quality of evidence and strength of recommendations, adopted by the Cochrane Collaboration.
  • Bring an idea for a systematic review; leave with a protocol and toolkit to get the work completed to the very highest standard.
Please visit:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/clinical-psychology/CORE/short-courses/grade-approach.htm

To book please email snaqvi AT rcpysch.ac.uk
Best wishes,
Sabrina Naqvi

Sabrina Naqvi
Project Manager
National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health
The Royal College of Psychiatrists
3rd Floor | 21 Prescot Street | London E1 8BB
Website: http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk

MEMO: .health as a top-level domain

m e m o r a n d u m
Date:20 May 2014
To: ICANN
From: PETER JONES
Subject:
Please do not try to put a full stop to ongoing efforts to utilise the internet to benefit the true health and well-being of the world's citizens.

The work is a challenge, much has been achieved and there is great promise for the future and not merely through the quantified self, personalised medicine, biotechnology and the virtual healthcare market. ...

The self, indeed this whole effort must be assured, integrated and qualified.

This means of course that the provenance, standards and values vested in health related data, information and knowledge must be of the highest quality.

Then - we can start to think about -




Yours sincerely,

Peter Jones

Additional link:
http://www.jmir.org/2014/3/e73/

Monday, 19 May 2014

[hifa2015] World Medical Association calls for a moratorium on the sale of the .health top-level domain

Dear colleagues,

The World Medical Association has called for a moratorium on the sale of the .health top-level domain (TLD). This is significant as the WMA 'is an international organization representing approximately 9 million physicians of all specialties and sectors.'

Below are extracts from a letter from the WMA Secretary-General dated 8th March to ICANN (the body that administers internet domains). The full letter is available here:

http://www.icann.org/en/news/correspondence/kloiber-to-chehade-et-al-11mar14-en.pdf
'By now the ICANN Board is aware that .health is one of the ten most opposed new gTLDs...'

'... We, the World Medical Association (WMA), add our voice to recommend that the auction of the .health gTLD not go forward.'

Best wishes,
Neil
-----
[ c/o Neil Pakenham-Walsh ]

Let's build a future where people are no longer dying for lack of healthcare knowledge: Join HIFA www.hifa2015.org

Sunday, 18 May 2014

ICN International Conference 19-23 June 2015 Seoul, Republic of Korea - Global Citizen, Global Nursing

http://www.icn2015.com

The International Council of Nurses is pleased to send you the link to the Call for Abstracts for the ICN Conference to be held in Seoul, Republic of Korea, 19-23 June 2015.  With the theme “Global Citizen, Global Nursing”, the ICN 2015 Conference will provide a global platform for the dissemination of nursing knowledge and leadership across specialities, cultures and countries.

The extensive ICN 2015 Conference scientific programme will feature keynote and main session invited speakers as well as a wide range of concurrent sessions including dynamic papers accepted through our highly competitive abstract selection process.

To share your ideas, research and expertise on how to provide quality care, improve populations’ equity and access to health care or contribute to further advance nursing knowledge and practice, you are invited to submit an abstract.

The Call for Abstracts provides you with all necessary information to enable you to actively contribute to the scientific and educational content of the ICN 2013 Congress by submitting an abstract on-line at www.icn2015.com

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS NOW AVAILABLE AT www.icn2015.com

Key dates

15 April 2014:
Online submission of abstracts opens
7 October 2014:
Online submission of abstracts closes (midnight GMT)
7 October 2014: 
Registration opens
9 December 2014:
Applicants notified of abstract acceptance
11 February 2015:
Deadline for registration of abstract presenters

My source: PAHO

Tuesday, 13 May 2014

Saturday, 26 April 2014

Alex through the Looking-Glass: How Life Reflects Numbers and Numbers Reflect Life

Alex through the Looking-Glass: How...

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




...Numbers Reflect Life
Life Reflects Numbers...



Image source:
http://pages.bloomsbury.com/favouritenumber/2

Saturday, 12 April 2014

Making learning visible dodging bullet points

Since January and the start of the course in Technology Enhanced Education there's been - and still is - a lot of reading to do. I've gained new and renewed insights into possible research methods and I'll share some of this in the next few weeks. The figure below is from:

Hay, D., Kinchin, I., Lygo‐Baker, S., 2008. Making learning visible: the role of concept mapping in higher education. Studies in Higher Education. 33, 295–311. doi:10.1080/03075070802049251

Figure 4 from Hay.
Over the years I've noticed and been rewarded when after a session on the care domains model some audience members have commented that the exercise made them think. There's nothing special in that of course, simple maths makes me think. Perhaps, people felt relief for a change from the passive absorption of facts, images, acting as static targets for a slew of bullet points. What comes across though is that there was some effort involved. In the figure above we can imagine the energy needed to not only create new and maintain existing concepts, but reject others. This might also constitute one front of the theory - practice gap?

This in a way reflects my thinking that although we refer to person-centred care in theory, practice and policy, this does not automatically follow. Person-centredness should take effort, work and energy. If that is the case, it also needs time.

Monday, 3 March 2014

The limitations of the healthcare sector


4
many
decades there 
have been recurring 
issues, austerity measures, 
requirements, policy challenges, 
policy initiatives, gaps between theory 
and practice, a crisis in compassionate care, 
rising waiting times and a plethora of other concerns.

All these then and much more 
affect the
 healthcare
 sector

Clearly, there is no 'magic wand', but there must be a way to address some of the difficulties? 
Within health and social care, locally, nationally and globally we need a tool to help improve interprofessional reflective practice, to support person-centered, holistic care across physical, emotional, social, political and spiritual domains of care. 

The future demands a resource (free, open, easy to learn) that can also facilitate self-care, health literacy and the many carers within families and communities.
 
So, how big is your picture?




Sunday, 23 February 2014

18th Annual International Philosophy of Nursing Conference

in association with the International Philosophy of Nursing Society
(IPONS)

September 8th, 9th and 10th, 2014

Hosted by the School of Health Sciences, University of Nottingham, England, UK

Brave new world?
Health, technology and evidence based practice

Nurses have seen some fundamental changes in the way that healthcare is delivered. Body care is at the centre of nursing practice but the nature of that care has been extended beyond the personal, human-to-human contact, and is increasingly refracted through the medium of technological/scientific interventions. The way that these technologies interact with the human dimension does, and should, require critical analysis.This is particularly the case for nurses who are increasingly expected to adopt methods and approaches that change the nature of the nurse patient relationship.  Added to this is the way that clinicians/academics/researchers interact with health care issues, locally as well as globally.

There is an established debate and tension within the evidence based practice literature that illustrates a deep ambivalence about how a holistic approach to clinical practice relates to, enhances, or is undermined by the new health technologies. These include care pathways, systematic reviews of knowledge, the enabling/disabling effects of technology and the putative implication that there is an empiricist and dehumanising process involved in these developments. For example, what happens to the complexity of ethical debates when they are shaped in the form of arguments based on literature reviews? These may wittingly or unwittingly serve as a means of translating complex moral issues into usable clinical regimes that partially mimic meta-analyses. Furthermore we may ask what place narrative knowledge and qualitative experiences may have in this new world of implementation technologies? And how do the new interventions of telemedicine and other policy drivers that emphasise the “hospital-at-home” impact on the ways that nurses carry out health care?

This conference intends to examine these and other issues related to ‘Health, technology, and evidence-based practice’.


CONFERENCE DETAILS

Details of the Conference can now be found at the following link:
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/conference/fac-mhs/healthsciences/aipnursingconference/index.aspx

These details include the list of Keynote speakers; the venue; a Call for Abstracts; conference registration and accommodation, and transportation. Abstracts of the Keynote speakers and the full Conference Programme will be available soon on the above link.

Any specific queries should be addressed to Dr Stuart Nairn
stuart.nairn AT nottingham.ac.uk


other IPONS posts on W2tQ

Saturday, 8 February 2014

HCA training: Knock, knock, knocking on the political domain's door

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

individual
emotional care

physical care


social care


FRANCIS - a year on: 
How much training do healthcare assistants have before their first shift on a ward?

25% = none
 
group - population


Although that 25% sits nicely in the POLITICAL domain, what is the impact of this finding across the domains overall? Whether or not the impact is equally shared across the interpersonal, sciences and social domain, upon which domain will it end up knocking?


Calkin, S. (2014) Francis impacts on culture and patient safety, HSJ, 7 February. 124, 6376, 4-5.

Wednesday, 4 December 2013

The EQUATOR Network: Support for “Declaration of transparency”

http://www.equator-network.org/

Following publication in the BMJ, in October 2013, of a proposed declaration of transparency a number of journals have now expressed their support for the transparency declaration and now ask lead authors to sign a declaration affirming that:
"this manuscript is an honest, accurate, and transparent account of the study being reported; that no important aspects of the study have been omitted; and that any discrepancies from the study as planned (and, if relevant, registered) have been explained".

The following journals have now expressed their support:

BMJ
BMJ Open
BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Canadian Journal of Anesthesia
NIHR Journals Library

Reference: Altman DG, Moher D. Declaration of transparency for each research article. BMJ 2013;347:f4796 [free full text].


My source: equator network - newsletter December 2013

Thursday, 7 November 2013

Calling all healthcare radicals!

Rocking the boat and staying in it: how to succeed as a radical in healthcare

 
 
Corporate Rebels United is a global movement of “corporate rebels” across multiple industries and sectors. Many healthcare rebels/radicals are part of this. This is the manifesto of Corporate Rebels United which perfectly captures the mission of organisational radicals in healthcare to deliver the new truth of healthcare transformation.

Through Hodges' model I am an advocate for 'radical history', nursing care lessons from the past can (must!) inform future health and social care.