The new NHS in 2013 infographic poster

NHS Employers have produced a simple poster that clearly illustrates the new structure of the NHS post April 2013.

The poster is aimed at both NHS staff and the public and shows the new structure on both national and local levels including some of the new organisations that have been created.

 The poster is available as a .PDF in both A4 and A3 sizes.

FindZebra - the search engine for difficult medical cases

FindZebra is a specialist search engine aimed at medical professionals for support in the diagnosis of difficult cases.  

FindZebra has a very simple search interface, is intuitive and very easy to use. The service allows you to enter a number of symptoms and then search. The results are ranked based on the number of hits for each diagnostic symptom with the most likely coming first.

Designed by staff at the Technical University of Denmark, the search engine contains links to over 31,000 medical articles focused on rare and genetic diseases from a variety of sources.

Incidentally, the name "FindZebra" comes from a University of Maryland professor who, when describing an unexpected diagnosis said  “When you hear hoof beats behind you, don’t expect a zebra.”

Or to put it another way, the famous (and fictional) Dr House said "I look for zebras because other doctors have ruled out all the horses." 

Spring bank holiday closure

All the libraries will be unstaffed on Monday the 27th of May for the spring bank holiday.

24 hour access is available as usual to our registered members by swiping in using your library card at the Berrywood and Richmond libraries.

We reopen as normal on Tuesday the 28th at all of our sites.

Eyes on Evidence from NICE

Eyes on Evidence is a free monthly bulletin from NICE Evidence Services (formerly NHS Evidence) which reviews significant new evidence as it emerges and what this may mean for current practice.

In the May issue you can find:

Premature death after self-harm
A cohort study reports that rates of death from both natural and external causes are higher in people who self-harm than would be expected in the general population.

Probiotics in antibiotic-associated diarrhoea
A systematic review suggests that probiotics can reduce antibiotic-associated diarrhoea.

'Anti-fat' bias amongdoctors
Results of a web-based survey, designed to assess attitudes towards weight, reveal implicit and explicit 'anti-fat' bias among doctors.

Domestic violence presenting in primary care
A survey examines knowledge, attitudes and clinical skills related to domestic violence in selected UK general practices.

Small benefits of Z drugs over placebo for insomnia
A meta-analysis has found that Z drugs reduce the time taken to fall asleep by 22 minutes compared with placebo. However, this result may not be clinically significant and any benefit of Z drugs must be balanced against their well-documented risks.

Hormone replacement therapy (HRT): cardiovascularoutcomes after recent menopause
Data from long-term follow-up of an open-label randomised controlled trial suggest that HRT reduces cardiovascular endpoints in women if started early after menopause. However, limitations of the analysis make interpretation of the results difficult.

Case studies from the Quality, Improvement, Productivity,and Prevention (QIPP) collection
We highlight 2 new examples from the QIPP collection, demonstrating how NHS organisations have implemented new local practices that have both cut costs and improved quality.

• Simple behavioural interventions that can reduce non-attendance 
• Reducing hospital admission rates for people with type 2 diabetes

Web site of the month: The NHS in Numbers

It is not always easy to find the statistical data you may want about the NHS. Often it is produced in a wide variety of formats and on a number of different sites.

Produced by the Nuffield Trust, the NHS in Numbers project  brings together  key performance and funding data from different sources and presents it using simple interactive charts. 

The information available includes:

• Expenditure
• Hospital activity
• Prescribing (including cost information)
• Performance (including waiting times, length of stay and mortality)
• Staffing and hospital beds

The data for the charts is drawn from official sources and they will be updated on an annual basis when new data becomes available. New charts may also be developed when different data sets become available.

Individual charts are available to download as .PDF or as an image in various formats. The NHS in Numbers is a really useful source of national NHS statistical data.