Web site of the month: The NHS Apps Library

Newly launched this month, the NHS Apps Library provides selection of safe trusted apps and digital tools to support the health care of patients and the public.

All the apps in the library have met NHS Digital standards around clinical safety, usability and security.

You can browse the apps by category, search for specific ones or you can scrolls through a list.

www.nhs.uk/apps-library/

Most of the apps in the library are free, although some have to be purchased and a few require a referral from a health professional to access.

With so many health related apps available, the NHS Apps Library is a great place to start to ensure you have a high quality product that will keep your data secure and do the job it is meant to.

Web site of the month: Almost a Doctor

Almost a Doctor is a free UK site aimed at medical students, junior doctors and other health professionals to help you (as the site says) "learn about stuff".




The site contains revision notes, flashcards, mind maps as well as  an online medical encyclopaedia which you can browse by category. 

The content of the site is written by both health professionals and students, but it is always reviewed by a doctor before publication to ensure all the content is accurate and of good quality.

Almost a Doctor is a really useful resource and highly recommended.

Web site(s) of the month: Medical terminology

Medical terminology can be highly confusing, with lots of technical terms, abbreviations and jargon (sometimes with the same term meaning different things).

Even for health professionals this can sometimes prove difficult.

To try and help to navigate through this maze, here are a selection of web sites to help explain what the terms mean.

Acronym Buster https://www.nhsconfed.org/acronym-buster
Produced by the NHS Confederation, this searchable A-Z list will give you the meaning of most of the acronyms used in the NHS

Care and Support Jargon Buster
www.thinklocalactpersonal.org.uk/Browse/Informationandadvice/CareandSupportJargonBuster/
An A-Z directory of the most commonly used words and phrases in health and social care translated into plain English by TLAP

Emedicine www.emedicinehealth.com/medical-dictionary-definitions/article_em.htm

An online dictionary of medical terms covering over 16000 items of medical terminology

Great Ormond Street Hospital Health Dictionary www.gosh.nhs.uk/children/about-your-condition/health-dictionary/health-dictionary

A simple A-Z list of medical terms

Mondofacto Medical Dictionary www.mondofacto.com/dictionary/medical.html
A UK based free online medical dictionary

Understanding Medical Words: A Tutorial https://medlineplus.gov/medicalwords.html

A tutorial from the National Library of Medicine which teaches you about medical words. You'll learn about how to put together parts of medical words. You'll also find quizzes to see what you've learned.

Web site of the month: Stoptober

The Stoptober website is full of information and resources to aiming to give smokers the best possible chance of quitting.

By answering a few simple questions, the site will help you develop a personal quitting plan with tailored resources to help you succeed.

It also features information on aids to help you stop smoking, including nicotine replacement and electronic cigarettes as well as technological solutions like the Stoptober App, a Facebook community Messenger chat, daily support by email, and links to local face-to-face support.

The Stoptober site is a really useful site for anyone thinking of quitting. Given that if you stop smoking for 28 days you are 5 times more likely to stay a nonsmoker, Stoptober is the perfect opportunity to start stopping for good...

Health professionals can also find all the latest campaign materials for Stoptober on the Public Health England Campaign Resources site.

Web site(s) of the month - health events and awareness days

There are a lot of health related events, awareness days, weeks and even months and it can be difficult to keep up with all the campaigns and know what is happening when.

Here is a few sites that can help you keep up with all the things going on throughout the year.

• Awareness Days UK Upcoming awareness events (not just health related), UK and international
• Healthline Health awareness calendar
• Inclusive Networks Diversity and awareness days calendar 
• NHS Employers Calendar of national campaigns 2018 to 2019 table
• Public Health England Campaign Resources Centre information on, and resources to support all of PHE's campaigns. 
• Time to Change Mental health calendar

Web site for the month: Critical Care Northampton

We have picked a site with a local connection this month, Critical Care Northampton. The site was founded by Northampton General Hospital consultant Jonny Wilkinson and is a great resource for anyone interested in FOAMed (Free Open Access Medical Education), emergency care, ITU, anaesthesia and POCUS (Point of Care Ultra Sound).

https://criticalcarenorthampton.com

With two other consultant colleagues acting as editors, the site features a variety of content and resources, practical advice, news and reviews including:

• ICU emergencies
• Guidelines
• How to guides
• Downloadable resources
• Evidence and research articles
•  Medical calculators
• Mnemonics
• And a lot more...

Critical Care Northampton is a great resource for consultants, junior doctors and medical students, designed to "keep you out of trouble" as the site says, it's well worth a visit.

Web site of the month: The NHS on Film

To Celebrate the 70th anniversary, the British Film Institute have made available a large selection of films about the NHS for free.

With films going back to the NHS's foundation in 1948, there is a wide range of material covering a selection of health related topics.

From the creation of the NHS and the wider welfare state in the 1940s, this is a fascinating (and sometimes amusing) collection of films including historical snippets, instructional and training items, documentaries, animated items and the ever-popular public information film (sometimes featuring some "interesting" period hairstyles and clothes).

These are as much a document of their times as they are of the NHS and the NHS on Film collection is well worth a look.

NHS on Film free at the BFI

Web site of the month: That's Nonsense!

It has been a while since we last featured web sites that allow you check the facts of an internet news story (see our post from January 17), so we thought it was about time to feature another.

That's Nonsense is a UK based site that "deals with debunking Internet hoaxes, hearsay, rumours and fake news". The site promises unbiased reporting and links to reputable sources.

The site features different sections covering:

• Latest Internet related news covering things like scams, circulating rumours and privacy issues
• Facebook related scams 
• The latest Internet based hoaxes and rumours
• A series of tutorials aimed at helping you improve your online privacy, avoid scams and stay secure on the Internet

Of particular interest to social media users (and you can also follow them on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter), That's Nonsense is a useful resource to help you spot the hoaxes, avoid the scams and stay safe on the Internet.

Web site of the month: MindEd for Families

MindEd is a free learning resource aimed at families and carers about the mental health of children and young people, and older adults.

https://mindedforfamilies.org.uk/

The young people section offers hints and tips on parenting, looks at child development and common problems as well as having information on all the services available to support child mental health.

The section on older adults has information on memory problems, sleep, as well as common mental health issues, medications and services that offer support.

MindEd was developed by Health Education England with funding from the Department for Education and NHS England.

Web site of the month: QNI Heritage

In the early stages of her training, a trainee District Nurse (left) injects a diabetes-sufferer with insulin during a home visit. She is accompanied by a Sister (right), on her first rounds. The original caption states that "whilst they are with the patient the sister says nothing, but afterwards she gives nurse her criticism of the way she has handled the case".

Launched by the Queen's Nursing Institute, the QNI Heritage site explores the history of nursing in the community since 1859 when the very first district nurse was employed in England.

The site contains a large gallery of photos, audio files and films (dating from the 1930s to the 1970s), as well as a section of stories and articles revealing the experiences and lives of district nurses.

There are even a selection of "invalid recipes" and "ration recipes" (fricassee of tripe anyone?) taken from the pages of the Queen's Nurses' Magazine, as well as exam questions (from 1914-18 and 1948-58) with answers that give an interesting incite into the medical knowledge of the day.

The QNI Heritage site offers a fascinating look at the history of community nursing since its inception and with such a broad variety of content it is well worth a look.

Web site of the month: Twitter. A guide to searching for research purposes

As it has become ubiquitous, social media is a useful source of information, but how do you get the most from it when looking for information?

Produced by an NHS Librarian from the North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust and hosted on the NHS Networks site, this short guide looks at using Twitter as a source of reference and for research purposes.

The guide takes you through the different kinds of content you can find on Twitter and the tools you can use to organise your Twitter account and some techniques to make the best of them.

The guide also includes tips of how to best search Twitter to find the information you need, including using the advanced search options.

Finally it also shows you how to cite a Tweet if you need to include it in your bibliography.

Web site of the month: eLfH - How to search for literature effectively

The Library Service offers regular training workshops and one-to-one sessions on literature searching, but if you have trouble making those, or just need a quick refresher, Health Education England's e-Learning for Healthcare programme can help.

There are currently three short modules on offer (each around 20 minutes in length) that give you a good introduction to the basic of literature searching:

• Module 1 Introduction to searching
• Module 2 Where do I start searching?
• Module 3 How do I start to develop a search strategy?

Each module can be used for reference or you can complete the whole thing to obtain a certificate (good for evidence of CPD!).

There are more modules currently in development, but if you want a good place to start to develop or refresh your searching skills, these modules might be just the thing.

You can also find a whole suite of videos on YouTube from NICE showing how to use the HDAS interface for searching the literature. 

Web site of the month: NIHR Search Signals

NIHR Search Signals

Designed to make important research evidence easily accessible to clinicians, practitioners and managers, the NHS National Institute for Health Research have set up a service called Search Signals as part of their Dissemination Centre Portal.

Each week they publish three or four new ‘Signals’ – short summaries of health research that have appeared recently in peer-reviewed journals.

This is a free, open access site and is fully searchable. Anyone can sign up on the website to receive a monthly update of all Signals that are published, or choose to receive Signals in particular categories.There is also an RSS feed available.

This summer the Dissemination Centre launched a new product: ‘My Signals’, which gives different readers’ personal perspectives on research published in the Signals format. The latest of these has been selected by two surgeons.

Search Signals is a great way to keep up to date with short summaries of the latest evidence and expert commentary.  Highly recommended.

Web site of the month: Fingertips: health and wellbeing indicators

Produced by Public Health England, the Fingertips site contains a broad selection of health profiles
containing a large number of statistical indicators across a range of health and wellbeing themes.

The profiles allow you to:

• Browse indicators nationally, regionally or down to individual CCG level
• Benchmark local data against regional or national averages
• Export the data 

The themes are organised by national public health priorities such as AMR (antimicrobial resistance), diabetes, mental health or sexual and reproductive health.

Web site of the month: Stoptober

Following on from the recent announcement from Public Health England that quitting success rates are at their highest level for a decade, come the Stoptober campaign.

The Stoptober website is full of information and resources to aiming to give smokers the best possible chance of quitting.

The site features information on stop smoking medicines and electronic cigarettes as well as technological solutions like the Stoptober App, Facebook Messenger chat and daily support by email, as well as links to local face-to-face support.

The Stoptober site is a really useful site for anyone thinking of quitting and you even have the option of announcing your intention to give up via the social media sharing options.

Given that  if you stop smoking for 28 days you are 5 times more likely to quit for good, Stoptober is the perfect opportunity to start stopping for good...

Web site of the month: Jane (Journal Author Name Estimator)

Have you been conducting research or written a paper but have no idea where to get it published? Jane can help.

Jane, or to give the site its full name, Journal/Author Name Estimator, is an easy to use tool that can find journals that publish the sort of content you have written about.

http://jane.biosemantics.org/

Simply enter the title or abstract from your work (you can also search by keywords) into the search box and Jane will compare your text with the millions of articles indexed in Medline and recommend the journals which best match your area of interest.

Not only that, you can also use Jane to find relevant articles to cite in your paper by doing the same thing. You can also search for authors who's work best matches your area of interest.

Jane does not retain the information you supply for longer than it needs it to return a list of results. If you are worried about protecting your work there is also a scramble button. This arranges your content into alphabetical order, rendering it very hard to read for anyone else trying to intercept it, but making no difference to the search functionality.

Jane is a simple, versatile tool that is really helpful for those considering writing an article for publication, as well as those looking for a publisher.

Web site of the month: Clinical Key

Clinical Key is a great resource containing lots of full text content and a host of other features. Aimed at practising clinicians, it's a really useful way to access evidence based information.

If you are a junior doctor, consultant, nurse or AHP, Clinical Key will have something to offer you.

Everything is discoverable using a simple search engine that recognises medical terminology and offers quick short cuts to the information you need.

The search engine offers a number of simple filters to increase the accuracy of your results and you can also select the type of content you want (books, journal articles, guidelines, etc.).  You can also browse for specific titles if you know what you are looking for.

Full text content includes

• 1,400 topic pages giving an overview of disease diagnosis, risk factors, treatment and more
• Over 600 electronic journals covering a broad range of specialities including the whole Lancet series
• Over 1000 electronic books 
• 850 First Consult monographs
• 17,000 + medical / surgical videos
• 300 + Procedures Consult videos
• 15,000 patient education handouts
• 2.2 million images
• You can find a full content list here

On top of all this content, Clinical Key also has a Presentation Maker which allows you to take images and add them to a PowerPoint presentation which you can download. It will even automatically add references as you go.

You can access Clinical Key online at www.clinicalkey.com, (and the site adapts well if you are using a tablet or smartphone). There is also a free app that allows for easy use on the go for Android and iOS (Apple) devices.

To access Clinical Key (and the app) all you need is your OpenAthens password (register online here if you don't have one) to get started. If you register for an account on Clinical Key once you have logged in you will also be able to save your searches and content.

Web site of the month: Educator Hub

Educator Hub is a new e-learning resource aimed at educators and supervisors of doctors, nurses, midwives, dentists, pharmacists, allied health professionals and healthcare scientists that has recently gone live.

The content, which is hosted on the Health Education England e-Learning for Healthcare (e-LfH) Hub, includes both academic and video-based practical modules, such as supervision, feedback, workplace based assessments and Annual Review of Competence Progression (ARCP).

These have been migrated from HEE Kent, Surrey, Sussex's e-Training for Trainers (etft) platform together with London's Multi-professional Faculty Development modules. Complementary content from other regions will also be included to produce a national resource.

Modules are linked to the new 'Professional Development Framework for Educators' which is being adopted in London and South East in the first instance. The framework domains map to professional regulatory standards for education and training including HEE's Quality Framework standards and are applicable to all educators working in clinical practice and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) as guidance for best practice.

Nearly 50 modules will be available initially, with complementary resources from elsewhere to be included in due course. All the resources are free to access (just browse the catalogue of modules). Registration with the site allows you to track your learning, provide feedback and keep copies of certificates of completion. 

Web site of the month: Medicines Learning Portal: Clinical problem-solving for pharamacists

The Medicines Learning Portal is designed for pharmacists in their first 1000 days of practice,
although the content may be of interest to the wider pharmacy community.

The site aims to support pharmacists in developing their clinical problem solving skills by:

• Providing knowledge about medicines, and addressing basic principles of medicines safety for key subject areas.
• Showing the right questions to ask when problem-solving.
• Recommending sources of information about medicines.
• Guiding pharmacists on how to apply their professional judgement.
• Advising on communication techniques for delivering expert advice.

The site is divided up into a number of areas including:

• Clinical tutorials which covers subjects such as adverse reactions and interactions
• Specialist clinical topics including mental health and palliative care
• Professional skills which looks at topics such as calculations, communication and decision making
• An on-call section to help prepare foundation level hospital pharmacists to undertake an on-call role.

The site is produced by University Hospitals Southampton in partnership with Health Education England and Thames Valley and Wessex Chief Pharmacists' Network, It is also endorsed by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

Web site of the month: Brexit and the NHS

Following the leave vote in the 2016 referendum, the European Office of the NHS (part of the NHS Confederation) has created a page called Brexit and the NHS for understanding the implications of the UK's decision to leave the European Union and the triggering of Article 50.


On the page you can find the latest information on the whole process including:

• Exiting the EU - details on the exit process
• The Implications for the NHS
• Commentary and analysis
• Brexit FAQs
• Other resources including publications, research and links to other web sites.

You can also sign up to receive a monthly newsletter by email.

Brexit and the NHS is a really useful resource for keeping up with this important issue and the likely implications for the health service.