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NAPC News 2 May 2012

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Created on Wednesday, 02 May 2012 09:34

Last Updated on Wednesday, 30 November -0001 00:00

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NAPC News 2 May 2012

Isabel Diagnosis And Referral Management System Now Available As iPhone App

Isabel Healthcare has just release an iPhone app version of its well regarded diagnosis and referral management system called Isabel (www.isabelhealthcare.com).

Isabel is designed to help you when you have doubt about a patient’s diagnosis, or to which specialist to refer them.  The patient’s signs and symptoms can be entered in free text to obtain a menu of his or her likely diagnoses.  Each diagnosis is linked to knowledge to help with further consideration of the patient’s condition.  A six month trial across four GP practices had a very positive impact on referrals.

The company has recently announced an agreement with the British Medical Journal (BMJ) to integrate its point of care product called Best Practice into Isabel.  This really strengthens the knowledge component of the system, as Best Practice neatly answers questions about other symptoms, for example, or tests to order, raised by Isabel’s list of likely diagnoses.

The new app can be downloaded by going to: http://itunes.com/apps/Isabel or by writing Isabel in the app store search box.  It’s already got a 12.5 star rating and some good reviews.

The app does not have the full functionality of the desktop version, particularly with the newer version with Best Practice, but it is still a very powerful tool and can really help if you are perplexed.

One of the company’s reasons for releasing the app was to increase accessibility so it has come out with a novel pricing structure.   The app is free to download but you will need to take out a weekly, monthly or annual subscription to access the system.  At £1.99 for a week this makes it very affordable for the occasional user and it could be very inexpensive if it helps you to arrive much more quickly at a patient’s diagnosis.

One IN 500 GP Prescriptions Contain Possibly Fatal Errors

Research commissioned for the General Medical Council has found that more than 45 million prescriptions written by family doctors every year contain errors.  One in about 500, or about 180,000, contains severe errors that could put lives in danger.

The research recommends a greater role for pharmacists in supporting GPs, better use of computer systems and extra emphasis on prescribing during training.  It also calls for improved communication between GPs and nurses within practices.

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society said that the study highlighted the need for GPs to give pharmacists a bigger role within their practices.

Nil By Mouth Before Surgery May Be Abandoned

Patients awaiting surgery could be allowed to eat instead of fasting, after it has been found that feeding patients before surgery helps them to recover faster.

Biggest Care Home Firm Falls To Hands

Britain’s biggest care home operator, Four Seasons Health Care, is set to fall into private equity hands, Terra Firma, just a year after the collapse of rival Southern Cross, which had been sold by investment firm, Blackstone, after quadrupling its investment.

The deal values the group’s debt and equity at £825m, after it was prevented from bankruptcy by the state owned, Royal Bank of Scotland’s rescue deal.

Stroke Patients Abandoned After Leaving Hospital

A report by the Stroke Association has revealed that two out of five stroke survivors are abandoned after they leave hospital and never get an assessment for their health and social care needs.

Hundreds of thousands of patients are missing out on physiotherapy, speech therapy and help with washing and dressing that could help them to maintain their independence at home, according to the Association’s report.

Qatar Tempts NHS Bosses With Double Pay And Perks

Qatar is preparing to take Britain’s top NHS brains to run its own health service as the Gulf state looks to spend its oil money on medical expertise.

Senior officials from Qatar are in talks with British executive headhunting group, Harvey Nash to help bridge the 4,000 mile gap.

Top managers, such as those running NHS Primary Care Trusts, could be earning up to £200,000.  Salaries offered by Qataris could be about 50 per cent higher than that, but the country’s tax regime would lead to an effective doubling in pay.  Furthermore, NHS staff are likely to be offered perks such as family accommodation while over in the Gulf state.

Talks are at an early stage but the first deals are likely to be struck in the next 12-18 months.

NHS Workers Vote Against Reforms

A ballot by the union, Unison, has shown that only 50.4 per cent of NHS workers disagreed with the Government’s pension reforms.

Of the 14.8 per cent of workers, who voted, 50.4 per cent were against the reform and 49.5 per cent in favour.  Unison said the low number of staff in England, Wales and Northern Ireland who took part in the ballot reflected the low morale and ‘difficult state’ of the NHS .

NHS Clinic To Treat Injured Ballerinas

The first NHS clinic dedicated to treating ballerinas and other injured dancers has opened at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in London.

Dance UK raised the money to set up the National Institute of Dance Medicine and Science.

NHS Pays £11m To Girl Severely Injured At Birth

The NHS has agreed a settlement deal that includes £10.8m in compensation after Lincoln County Hospital failed to adequately monitor a woman during labour.

The omission led to her daughter suffering catastrophic injuries when she was born.

Hopes For New Breast Cancer Test

A study conducted by Imperial College London researchers has concluded that women showing the highest levels of a chemical effect, methylation, which ‘switches’ genes on and off, affecting the ATM gene, were twice as likely to develop breast cancer as those with the lowest levels.

This development has raised the prospect of a simple blood tests to identify the women most at risk from breast cancer years before it develops.

New Hope Of Blocking Alzheimer’s

A natural chemical cocktail that could slow or even prevent the brain damage caused by Alzheimer’s disease has been discovered by researchers.

A study by the University of California found that potent flourene compounds disrupt the formation of toxic deposits in the brains of dementia victims. 

Most drugs will not pass from blood into the brain, but fluorine compounds will.

Professor John Voss, of the University of California, said: ‘We are very excited and hopeful that these unique compound can become extremely important.

Having A Lie In Can Help Reduce The Pounds

Sleeping for longer could help people to slim and stay slim, according to research.

Scientists found that sleeping less than seven hours a night, according to a study of 1,088 twins reported in the journal, Sleep, was associated with an increase in body mass index.

Dr Nathanial Watson, who led the study at University of Washington in Seattle, said: ‘Shorter sleep provides a more permissive environment for the expression of obesity related genes.  Or it may be that extended sleep is protective by suppressing expression of obesity genes.’

The Tiny VacuumThat Cleans Up Infections

A new device that ‘vacuums’ surgical wounds and hard to treat sores has the potential to help thousands of patients.

An estimated one in 20 patients develops infections following surgery, which occurs when bacteria enters the body through a surgical incision.  Many others suffer from chronic skin ulcers as a result of diabetes or other disorders.

The new vacuum machine works by drawing blood into the area, which increases the supply of healing cells.  A randomised control trial of 263 patients published in the Journal of Orthopaedic Trauma found that those receiving negative pressure therapy had about half the infection and wound reopening rates of patients given standard treatment.

Tanning Salons Failing To Check Teens’ Sun Bed Use

Tanning salons are still putting teenagers at risk of skin disease by failing to check the age of sun bed users, according to the latest research by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health.

Since April last year, it has been illegal to allow anyone under 18 to use a sun bed in a tanning salon.  But the study found that 32 per cent of tanning salons did not check whether a customer was old enough to do so.

The findings were presented at the CIEH’s public health conference yesterday.