September 2008

Something to bring a smile to your face after a dreary summer. James photographed this giant rabbit at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

Journal Watch

Journal Watch is a light-hearted review of the leading medical journals as seen from a GP's perspective. It is written by Dr Richard Lehman and is updated weekly. This week's instalment looks at topics such as the effects of vitamins on cardiovascular disease; arsenic and its link with type 2 diabetes; clinical leadership at NICE and drug pricing levels; a study of vitamin D levels in women with hip fractures and an argument for screening for haemochromatosis.
Read it at: http://www.primarycare.ox.ac.uk/journalwatch

INFOcus Learning Portal for the North West NHS

This learning portal is for NHS staff in the North West of England. It provides access to a range of e-learning opportunities covering project management, programme management and IT service management. A range of free e-learning courses are available via the portal. Following the completion of the e-learning courses, there would be opportunities to sit the associated industry-recognised exams.

The portal is available here: www.ilxportal.com/infocus/

National electronic Library for Medicines is relaunched!

The National electronic Library for Medicines (NeLM) is the largest medicines information portal for healthcare professionals in the NHS. The site has news, evidence-based reviews on drugs and drug therapy and health promotion material. It also provides a facility for sharing practice.
The NeLM has been relaunched with new software. This version is the first in a series of transformations as the site is redeveloped to provide a comprehensive medicines knowledge-base.
NHS staff with NHS e-mail addresses can register to receive the NeLM Newsletter, a daily e-mail update.
Find it at http://www.nelm.nhs.uk/en/

The NHS Workforce Review Team

A new website launched on the 18th August by the NHS Workforce Review Team (WRT). This is a group of dedicated healthcare workforce planners who provide objective modelling, analysis and evidence-based recommendations in order to enable patient-centred and clinically driven strategic decision making across the healthcare workforce. On the site you can find their workforce summaries and models for each specialty and profession, details of their publications and project work, more information about WRT and links to other organisations, as well as the latest news that will be of interest to workforce planners.

Find it at http://www.wrt.nhs.uk/