Measure clinical interventions

Take time to watch this 2 minute video about a new iPAD app that may be used for the following:

1. Evaluate your clinical practice interventions.

2. Conduct Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) in the field throughout assessment and treatment.

3. Conduct Randomized Controlled Trials

4. Track your clients’ progress and use the grpahical interface to educate them.

5. Local storage and data export (nothing stored in the cloud).

http://internationalgme.org/TRACT/IGME_TRACT_2015.htm

HIFA profile: David Cawthorpe is Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Calgary, Canada. His professional interests include: Human Development, Developmental Psychopathology, and Delivery of low bandwidth medical education curriculum. cawthord AT ucalgary.ca

3 more videos complete GHMP’s normal childbirth series

Today we released the last 3 videos in our Childbirth Series, covering the birth and early postpartum period.

Birthing the Baby shows how to assist a mother to safely birth her baby and minimize tearing of the vagina. Managing the Third Stage of Labor features the use of uterotonics to prevent postpartum hemorrhage and shows how to deliver the placenta. The Birth: Labor, Delivery, and Early Postpartum shows best practices for the full birth sequence, starting with labor through to immediate postpartum.

These 3 videos complete our series of 12 videos on normal childbirth. The series can help health workers improve the quality of care during childbirth and help protect the lives of birthing women. We feature a midwifery approach to care with a birth attendant working solo, the norm in small facilities in much of the developing world. The videos are available in English, French, and Spanish and can be downloaded free-of-charge for use in low-resource settings: http://globalhealthmedia.org/videos/

Producing teaching videos filmed in and for the developing world is challenging. It has been through the collaboration of many people, including a number on this forum, that we have been able to meet those challenges. HIFA members have been instrumental in serving as content experts, field-testers, clinical site hosts, translators and narrators, and in distributing the videos all over the world.

Looking ahead, we have a breastfeeding series in the pipeline, for both health workers and mothers. We are now in the planning stages of our next project, a series of teaching videos on care of preterm babies in low resource settings. We will be working closely with the American Academy of Pediatrics and other experts to produce these videos that will complement their new curriculum, Essential Care for Small Babies.

Warm regards,

Deb

Deborah Van Dyke, Director

Global Health Media Project

802-496-7556

HIFA profile: Deborah Van Dyke is the Founder and Director of Global Health Media Project, an organization producing videos that bring to life critical health care information for providers and populations in low-resource settings.  Capitalizing on advances in ICT will enable distribution worldwide at lower cost via the Internet and mobile devices.  She is a family practice clinician with extensive experience with MSF/Doctors Without Borders, based in the US. deb AT globalhealthmedia.org

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To send a message to the HIFA forum, simply send an email to: HIFA2015@dgroups.org

Interventions to increase the use of electronic health information by healthcare practitioners

No evidence that the use of EHI (Electronic Health Information) translates into improved clinical practice or patient outcomes, though it does suggest that when practitioners are provided with EHI and education or training, the use of EHI increases. We have defined use as the activity of logging into an EHI resource, but based on our findings use does not automatically translate to the application of EHI in practice. While using EHI may be an important component of evidence-based medicine, alone it is insufficient to improve patient care or clinical practices. For EHI to be applied in patient care, it will be necessary to understand why practitioners’ are reluctant to apply EHI when treating people, and to determine the most effective way(s) to reduce this reluctance.

Link to review: http://www.cochrane.org/CD004749/EPOC_interventions-to-increase-the-use-of-electronic-health-information-by-healthcare-practitioners

A few questions to ask are :

1. Is it because the trials are in high income nations and the realities in LMICs will be different ?

2. Is electronic health information distracting healthcare workers from actual clinical work.

3. It might be that due to dependence on point of care EHI healthcare workers are not acquiring skills and knowledge properly .

Best Wishes
Soumyadeep
in.linkedin.com/in/soumyadeepbhaumik/
Personal Blog @ www.soumyadeepb.wordpress.com

Apple’s smartwatch spurs wrist action

To observers of the secretive Swiss watch industry, its quiet, seemingly passive response to Apple’s plan to attack its centuries-old business could be mistaken for submission before an overwhelming adversary…..more

South African doctors perform world’s first penis transplant

South African doctors have successfully performed the world’s first penis transplant on a 21-year-old man whose organ had been amputated three years ago after a botched circumcision……more

Excessive insulin is driving obesity, diabetes

Insulin resistance is caused by the body adjusting to the presence of too much insulin over extended periods and is one of the causes of obesity…..more

Office space – the primary health frontier of any enterprise

Without good lighting, plants and privacy, the open-plan office can become a threat to the wellbeing of the people working there….more

Health professionals council probed

HEALTH Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has launched an independent investigation of allegations against the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA), including maladministration and fitness of its managers to lead it. The HPCSA is a statutory body established in terms of the Health Professions Act. Its responsibilities include dealing with complaints from the public about medical practitioners, and accreditation of doctors and training institutions. The minister has oversight of it…..more

Lawsuits blamed for medical crisis

HEALTH Minister Aaron Motsoaledi criticised personal injury lawyers on Monday, accusing them of creating a national crisis, with doctors scared of certain specialist areas due to the rising number of costly lawsuits. The government is faced with contingency liabilities amounting to R25bn for medical malpractice lawsuits, according to the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, while doctors in the private sector are battling to keep up with steeply rising premiums for professional indemnity cover…..more and more

‘Cosy relationship’ raises health costs

Dominance by private hospital groups and their cosy relationships with specialist doctors and medical schemes, coupled with gaps in regulation and a lack of transparency, have been identified as the major causes of expensive private healthcare. A Competition Commission investigation into the healthcare industry has received 68 submissions. Most acknowledged that private healthcare inflation was higher than general inflation and that private healthcare costs were too high. Many differed on the reasons for this…..more

South Africa in the age of austerity

While the battle against austerity in Europe has entered a decisive phase — with the election of the radical-left Syriza in Greece — the term is seldom heard with reference to South Africa. Despite this, and the global discrediting of austerity, Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene’s recent budget can only be described as austere….more

More than 100 Dept. of Health workers investigated for corruption

The Gauteng Department of Health has taken disciplinary action against 123 employees suspected of corruption since MEC Qedani Mahlangu took office in May…..more

Medicine shortage hitting poor hard

The shortage of medical supplies has forced an unemployed woman to use her disability grant to buy medication from a pharmacy for her 7-year-old brain-damaged child…..more and more

IMF calls for bold actions to reform SA

THE consumption-driven growth model that SA has relied on in the past few years is unlikely to be sustainable, and only structural reforms spearheaded by “bold leadership” will take the country forward, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says….more

With All the New Classes of Drugs, Is Metformin Still the First Choice?

This observational cohort study sought to determine the effect of initial oral glucose-lowering class on subsequent need for additional anti-hyperglycemia therapy. Participants included 15,516 patients who were not previously treated for diabetes, in whom therapy with metformin, a sulfonylurea (SU), a thiazolidinedione (TZD), or a dipeptidyl peptidase 4-inihibitor (DPP4) was initiated. The primary outcome was time to treatment intensification, defined as initiation of a different class of oral glucose-lowering medication…..more

Increase in negligence pay outs: department

Claims lodged against the Gauteng health department due to medical negligence were increasing, the department said on Tuesday…..more

Lost patient cards compound long queues

Patients say that lost clinic cards add to already long waits at the hospital (File photo)

When a trip to the clinic already involves three queues, lost patient cards are the last thing you need. Thembinkosi Mabena recently went to collect his antiretrovirals (ARV) at the Eastern Cape’s St. Elizabeth Hospital in Lusikisiki. After eight hours and three queues, Mabena received his treatment but only after the hospital’s chief executive officer interceded on his behalf…..more

One billion young people at risk of hearing loss from loud music: WHO

More than one billion young people risk damaging their hearing through listening to loud music, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday. The WHO estimates that around half of those between the ages of 12 and 35 in middle- and high-income countries are at risk due to unsafe levels of sound on personal audio devices or smartphones….more

A systematic review of web-based educational interventions

A HIFA member has kindly emailed to me the full text of this restricted-access paper (demonstrating that the ability to access free full text is inequitable – it depends on one’s contacts). Below are some key points from the full text:

1. A total of 19 studies met the selection criteria and were included in the systematic review. It was not clear where the studies were conducted. The focus was on patients recovering from heart surgery, such as corinary artery bypass graft and valve surgery.

2. Generally, the control group received a structured educational brochure, while most of the interventions comprised ‘a structured web-based patient education  intervention that consisted of pre-designed screens. This type of web-based education required the study participant to review each screen, in sequential order, prior to moving to the next educational screen. The content areas addressed throughout the structured web-based education were similar to those presented in the education brochure received by the control group study participants. … more than half (60%) of the websites contained information related to additional resources and references, 40% provided their study participants with access to an ask an expert chat forum, 30% created online discussion groups, and approximately 10% had an online skills workshop that could be accessed upon review of the education’.

3. ‘A statistically significant difference [in self care behaviour] between individuals who received the web-based intervention and those who received standard

patient education (i.e., structured educational brochure) in terms of number of self-care behaviors performed during post-discharge recovery is noted’ [see full paper for details, which vary according to study]

4. The findings suggest: ‘using an individualized web-based patient education intervention may be more effective than a booklet or standardized patient education website’ and ‘the most effective form of web-based patient education is one that is interactive and allows patients to navigate the online system on their own’.

Perhaps the most important conclusion (which is captured in the Abstract) is that ‘the most effective form of web-based patient education is one that is interactive and allows patients to navigate the online system on their own’. This suggests that the way in which content is developed and presented is critical. As we have discussed before on HIFA, the challenge of the coming decade is likely to shift from access to content. The development of reliable, appropriate and effective content (where possible open-access) and helping people to find it will be key to the realisation of healthcare information for all. It’s vital that global health funders recognise this and support it accordingly, both to sieze the opportunity and to mitigate the negative impact of commercial advertising (big pharma already spends 373 million US dollars per year worldwide on mobile phone advertising).

Best wishes, Neil

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

Hesperian Health Guides releases “Health Actions for Women”

Hesperian Health Guides has just released our much anticipated title, Health Actions for Women: Practical Strategies to Mobilize for Change.  This companion resource to Where Women Have No Doctor was field tested in 23 countries and provides a wealth of clearly explained and engagingly illustrated activities, strategies, and stories that address the social obstacles and practices that prevent women and girls from enjoying health lives.

This book strengthens efforts to:

-challenge violence against women

-improve access to family planning

-foster safe motherhood

-counteract the harmful effects of restrictive gender roles

-promote strategies for achieving better sexual health

-ensure that health services meet the needs of women and girls

Anyone who works, organizes, teaches, or even thinks about women’s health and equality will find accessible, actionable tools in Health Actions for Women. Whether you live and work in the US or overseas, this resource is a “must have” for your outreach and training work.

Cecile Richards, President of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, called Health Actions “A triumph!” saying that no other resource today provides such concrete tools to engage and empower women of all ages to build lasting change.

Dr. Paul Farmer, Co-Founder of Partners in Health, wrote to say that tools like Health Actions for Women bolster communities’ efforts to provide care to those whose voices have for too long gone unheard.

And Nobel Prize Winner Rigoberta Menchú Tum shared this endorsement: “Using this book, we can create enduring change by starting from the experiences of women, by respecting our knowledge, cultures, and traditions, and by bringing our stories to the fore as we work toward a brighter, more just future.”

Please explore this new resource on our website here: http://store.hesperian.org/HB/prod/B070.html , share the news with your networks, and don’t hesitate to contact me with questions about how this resource can support the work of your organization.

Thanks for supporting Health for all!

Libby Engles

Media and Communications Associate

libby@hesperian.org