A Strategy for Health & Social Care Research and Development in Northern Ireland

The Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety (DHSSPS) is seeking your views on a A Strategy for Health & Social Care Research and Development in Northern Ireland Allowing for public holidays, the draft Strategy has been issued for a 13 week consultation period from 29 September 2014. åÊResponses must be received no later than 5pm on Friday 2 January 2015

Proceedings of the National Conference on the assessment of Older People's Health and Social Care Needs and Preferences

The Conference took place on May 30th, 2002 in the Royal Marine Hotel, Dun Laoigaire. It attracted over 250 delegates from across the statutory, voluntary and private sectors and the interest that was expressed in the Conference was indicative of the growing recognition of the importance of establishing a more co-ordinated way of conducting health and social care assessments for older people. The Conference provided the opportunity to both discuss the necessity for a standardised approach to conducting assessments and to explore the merits of establishing a national framework for the multi-disciplinary assessment of older people’s health and social care needs and preferences.   Download document here

Joint Commissioning Plan of the Health and Social Care Board and the Public Health Agency: 2010-2011

Legislation enacted on 1 April 2009 created a new Commissioning system with the establishment of a region-wide Health and Social Care Board, including 5 Local Commissioning Groups (LCGs), and a Public Health Agency. In line with Departmental direction and guidance the objectives of the new commissioning arrangements were to: - Approach the future delivery of Health and Social Care from a region-wide perspective focused on outcomes. - Ensure local sensitivity through the creation of five Local Commissioning Groups reflective of their areas. - Give appropriate weight to the public health agenda to ensure that commissioning reflects the drive to reduce health inequalities in our society and works in partnership with others to improve health and wellbeing. In this regard the legislation signalled a new way forward which would first be expressed in a Commissioning Plan for 2010/11 and beyond. This plan outlines how the Health and Social Care Board and the Public Health Agency are approaching that task. It is our aim that this plan is straightforward and written in a manner which will encourage public engagement and understanding. We wish to show clearly how the commissioning task is to be approached and to signal the decisions necessary to ensure the maintenance of a health and social care system in Northern Ireland which responds to the population it serves.

National, regional, and global trends in fasting plasma glucose and diabetes prevalence since 1980: systematic analysis of health examination surveys and epidemiological studies with 370 country-years and 2·7 million participants.

BACKGROUND: Data for trends in glycaemia and diabetes prevalence are needed to understand the effects of diet and lifestyle within populations, assess the performance of interventions, and plan health services. No consistent and comparable global analysis of trends has been done. We estimated trends and their uncertainties in mean fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and diabetes prevalence for adults aged 25 years and older in 199 countries and territories. METHODS: We obtained data from health examination surveys and epidemiological studies (370 country-years and 2·7 million participants). We converted systematically between different glycaemic metrics. For each sex, we used a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate mean FPG and its uncertainty by age, country, and year, accounting for whether a study was nationally, subnationally, or community representative. FINDINGS: In 2008, global age-standardised mean FPG was 5·50 mmol/L (95% uncertainty interval 5·37-5·63) for men and 5·42 mmol/L (5·29-5·54) for women, having risen by 0·07 mmol/L and 0·09 mmol/L per decade, respectively. Age-standardised adult diabetes prevalence was 9·8% (8·6-11·2) in men and 9·2% (8·0-10·5) in women in 2008, up from 8·3% (6·5-10·4) and 7·5% (5·8-9·6) in 1980. The number of people with diabetes increased from 153 (127-182) million in 1980, to 347 (314-382) million in 2008. We recorded almost no change in mean FPG in east and southeast Asia and central and eastern Europe. Oceania had the largest rise, and the highest mean FPG (6·09 mmol/L, 5·73-6·49 for men; 6·08 mmol/L, 5·72-6·46 for women) and diabetes prevalence (15·5%, 11·6-20·1 for men; and 15·9%, 12·1-20·5 for women) in 2008. Mean FPG and diabetes prevalence in 2008 were also high in south Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and central Asia, north Africa, and the Middle East. Mean FPG in 2008 was lowest in sub-Saharan Africa, east and southeast Asia, and high-income Asia-Pacific. In high-income subregions, western Europe had the smallest rise, 0·07 mmol/L per decade for men and 0·03 mmol/L per decade for women; North America had the largest rise, 0·18 mmol/L per decade for men and 0·14 mmol/L per decade for women. INTERPRETATION: Glycaemia and diabetes are rising globally, driven both by population growth and ageing and by increasing age-specific prevalences. Effective preventive interventions are needed, and health systems should prepare to detect and manage diabetes and its sequelae. FUNDING: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and WHO.

Task Force on the Physical Sciences Report and Recommendation

Ireland has positioned itself to take advantage of technological change by encouraging the inward investment of high-tech industries and by providing a highly-educated workforce to sustain and enlarge them. Employment of science, engineering and technology graduates at all levels has been a hallmark of the modern Irish economy, as the educational sector responded to the mix of skills demanded by industry. An outstanding record of graduate output has contributed to the phenomenal growth in Irish-based technology. In an era of rapid technological change, the goal of "scientific literacy for all" has become a primary objective of a general education. Science is one of three literacy domains, along with reading and mathematics, that is included in measures of educational achievement by the OECD.

Regional Health and Social Care Personal and Public Involvement Forum: Annual update report

This is the first annual report of the Regional Health and Social Care Personal and Public Involvement (PPI) Forum. It gives a brief introduction into the concept of PPI, which seeks to involve service users and the public in the planning, delivery and commissioning of services across healthcare in Northern Ireland. The report also provides a background to the development of PPI in Northern Ireland and details on the establishment of the forum.The bulk of the report centres on how PPI is being implemented across all the partner organisations within the healthcare system. Each organisation is introduced and each provides a summary of PPI work it has delivered and planned for the near future. A list of relevant contacts is also included.

Regional Health and Social Care Personal and Public Involvement Forum: Annual Update Report 2012/13

Personal and Public Involvement (PPI) is an essential component in the delivery of truly person centred services.�It is also a statutory duty.�The PHA has leadership responsibilities in respect of the implementation of PPI across HSC.�One of the ways in which the PHA discharges that leadership function, is through the Regional HSC PPI Forum.�This body brings together all HSC organisations, working alongside service users and carers, to bring a focus on involvement.�It promotes the sharing of best practice, identifies and tackles issues of common concern and providers a platform for the active participation of service users and carers.� Each year in response to a Priorities for Action (PFA) target, the PHA, working with HSC partners, service users and carers in the Forum, develop an Annual Report on PPI work taken forward through the Forum.The report for 2012/13 details progress in a number of important areas such as training, development of standards etc.

Joint Commissioning Plan of the Health and Social Care Board and the Public Health Agency: 2010-2011

Legislation enacted on 1 April 2009 created a new Commissioning system with the establishment of a region-wide Health and Social Care Board, including 5 Local Commissioning Groups (LCGs), and a Public Health Agency. In line with Departmental direction and guidance the objectives of the new commissioning arrangementswere to:- Approach the future delivery of Health and Social Care from a region-wide perspective focused on outcomes.- Ensure local sensitivity through the creation of five Local Commissioning Groups reflective of their areas.

Regional Health and Social Care Personal and Public Involvement Forum: Annual Update Report 2013/14

The Regional HSC PPI Annual Report for 2013/14 provides an up-date of the work of the Forum and outlines the key areas that have been progressed including the development of PPI standards and the advancement of a generic PPI awareness raising and training programme.

The relationships between technology and open education in the development of a resilient higher education

The place of technology in the development of coherent educational responses to environmental and socio-economic disruption is here placed under scrutiny. One emerging area of interest is the role of technology in addressing more complex learning futures, and more especially in facilitating individual and social resilience, or the ability to manage and overcome disruption. However, the extent to which higher education practitioners can utilise technology to this end is framed by their approaches to the curriculum, and the socio-cultural practices within which they are located. This paper discusses how open education might enable learners to engage with uncertainty through social action within a form of higher education that is more resilient to economic, environmental and energy-related disruption. It asks whether open higher education can be (re)claimed by users and communities within specific contexts and curricula, in order to engage with an uncertain world.

Historical review of clinical vaccine studies at Oswaldo Cruz Institute and Oswaldo Cruz Foundation - technological development issues

This paper presents, from the perspective of technological development and production, the results of an investigation examining 61 clinical studies with vaccines conducted in Brazil between 1938-2013, with the participation of the Oswaldo Cruz Institute (IOC) and the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz). These studies have been identified and reviewed according to criteria, such as the kind of vaccine (viral, bacterial, parasitic), their rationale, design and methodological strategies. The results indicate that IOC and Fiocruz have accumulated along this time significant knowledge and experience for the performance of studies in all clinical phases and are prepared for the development of new vaccines products and processes. We recommend national policy strategies to overcome existing regulatory and financing constraints.

Aspidosperma (Apocynaceae) plant cytotoxicity and activity towards malaria parasites. Part II: experimental studies withAspidosperma ramiflorum in vivo and in vitro

Several species of Aspidosperma plants are used to treat diseases in the tropics, including Aspidosperma ramiflorum, which acts against leishmaniasis, an activity that is experimentally confirmed. The species, known as guatambu-yellow, yellowperoba, coffee-peroba andmatiambu, grows in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil in the South to the Southeast regions. Through a guided biofractionation of A. ramiflorum extracts, the plant activity against Plasmodium falciparum was evaluated in vitro for toxicity towards human hepatoma G2 cells, normal monkey kidney cells and nonimmortalised human monocytes isolated from peripheral blood. Six of the seven extracts tested were active at low doses (half-maximal drug inhibitory concentration < 3.8 µg/mL); the aqueous extract was inactive. Overall, the plant extracts and the purified compounds displayed low toxicity in vitro. A nonsoluble extract fraction and one purified alkaloid isositsirikine (compound 5) displayed high selectivity indexes (SI) (= 56 and 113, respectively), whereas compounds 2 and 3 were toxic (SI < 10). The structure, activity and low toxicity of isositsirikine in vitro are described here for the first time in A. ramiflorum, but only the neutral and precipitate plant fractions were tested for activity, which caused up to 53% parasitaemia inhibition of Plasmodium bergheiin mice with blood-induced malaria. This plant species is likely to be useful in the further development of an antimalarial drug, but its pharmacological evaluation is still required.