Health Information News September2015

This newsletter is intended for staff who provide health information to the public across the West Midlands to keep informed of latest news and resources available in the Health Information field. If you would like to submit a news item – email

News

Patient engagement hub for pharmacy teams - The Royal Pharmaceutical Society has launched a Patient engagement hub to encourage pharmacy teams to engage more with patients, carers and the public. The hub is a collection of resources that have already been developed and used by pharmacy teams to speak directly to patients, carers and the public. The purpose of the hub is to provide ideas and inspiration to stimulate and support other teams with engagement. Although the hub is aimed at pharmacy teams it may also be useful to patient groups.
Additional link: RPS press release

Community engagement: improving health and wellbeing and reducing health inequalitiesThis draft guideline covers approaches to community engagement to help communities improve their health and wellbeing and reduce health inequalities. The closing date for comments is 24 September 2015. Click here

Digital literacy: Jisc have a new guide to developing digital literacies- Digital literacies are those capabilities which fit an individual for living, learning and working in a digital society. Digital literacy looks beyond functional IT skills to describe a richer set of digital behaviours, practices and identities. What it means to be digitally literate changes over time and across contexts, so digital literacies are essentially a set of academic and professional situated practices supported by diverse and changing technologies. This definition quoted above can be used as a starting point to explore what key digital literacies are in a particular context eg university, college, service, department, subject area or professional environment. A new guide to developing digital literacies explores this topic.

Study investigates e-patients’ use of medical terminology- A study has been published that investigates patients’ use of medical terms in patient–patient online communication, where communication is not mediated by a health-care professional, and where patients communicate with each other without expert moderation or intervention.The authors theorise that growing numbers of ‘e-patients’ use the Internet to equip themselves with specialized biomedical knowledge that is couched in medical terms, which they then share on participatory media, such as online patient forums.The paper aims to promote theoretical understandings of patients’ evolving health literacy, given that it may be positively affected by Internet use. The researchers argue that understanding developments in patients’ health literacy is important, as high health literacy is associated with greater patient confidence and greater patient participation in health. Also, the fact that health literacy is promoted through supportive social networks is very relevant for the online forum setting, where patients learn from each other.The findings reveal that patients repeatedly use dictionary-defined medical terms like hematoma, papillary carcinoma thyroid cancer and tauopathies. The authors conclude that it would appear that many e-patients are familiar with these medical terms and are happy to use them actively in public forums. And that health-care professionals need to be able to assess this and tailor their use of terminology to the individual patient.The findings also reveal that e-patients use a variety of medical terms without glossary or further explanation, on participatory media, which suggests that other patients’ knowledge of these terms or their ability to cope with them is assumed.

The authors highlight that e-patients’ health literacy could be ‘high’ in relation to knowledge of their own specific condition, without necessarily being high when dealing with wider health related topics. This is described in the study as ‘a deep vertical knowledge of a health issue that is relevant to the patient’. They suggest this should be addressed within definitions of health literacy.The authors suggest an adaptive approach, where patients’ needs and abilities are established and addressed in a patient-centred way. Appropriate pitching of terms can avoid the potentially damaging effects of poor communication brought about by inappropriate (too complex or too simple) use of terms. Tailoring the terminological level to meet patients’ needs and expectations becomes all the more important as health-care professionals increasingly use written media such as email to communicate with patients.You can read the full study here.Fage-Butler, A. M. and Nisbeth Jensen, M. (2015), Medical terminology in online patient–patient communication: evidence of high health literacy?. Health Expectations. doi: 10.1111/hex.12395

Knowledge for Healthcare -Health Information and Libraries Journal, published by Wiley’s, is the key professional journal for research into knowledge management in health. The September 2015 issue editorial focuses on HEE’s new Library and Knowledge Services strategy, Knowledge for Healthcare. Written by three of the programme management team it provides an overview of the programme and its five strategic themes. Aiming to transform NHS library and knowledge services across England over the next five years, we will work in partnership with key players including Public Health England, NHS England and NICE to turn our vision into reality. For further information on the programme or to request the article please contact Louise Goswami, National Programme Manager for Library and Knowledge Services.

Access to Research for all - CORE and BASE – COREprovides access to over 25m articles and “supports the right of citizens and general public to access the results of research towards which they contributed by paying taxes. It also “ facilitates access to open access content for all by offering services to general public, academic institutions, libraries, software developers, researchers, etc.” BASEprovides more than 70 million documents from more than 3,000 sources. You can access the full texts of about 70% of the indexed documents

Strategies used by older people to obtain information about community health & social care services -Despite being frequent consumers of health-care services, older people often possess lower levels of health literacy when compared with other groups in society. Health Expectations Journal have published a study exploring strategies used by older people to obtain information about health and social care services in the community.Participants generally reported low levels of knowledge of local health and social services and perceived that it was difficult to access this knowledge. A series of vignettes were used in the focus groups to guide discussion regarding hypothetical situations that approximated real-life scenarios for older people.

The research identified that obtaining information about community health and social services is an ongoing process that requires continuous commitment by older adults.The researchers concluded that Older people in this study had a proactive approach to obtaining health information and identified the importance of taking responsibility for managing their own needs. Despite this, obtaining basic information about community health and social services was a challenging and time-consuming process. They believe this study provides new insights into the challenges faced by older people and suggest that future research should focus on using this knowledge to develop health literacy interventions which built upon existing information seeking strategies.You can read the full study here.Mc Grath, M., Clancy, K. and Kenny, A. (2015), An exploration of strategies used by older people to obtain information about health- and social care services in the community. Health Expectations. doi: 10.1111/hex.12408

Local

Stoke practices get engaged on social media - GP practices in Staffordshire are achieving genuine and meaningful patient and public engagement via social media following a dedicated programme to drive up online interactions. One in every two practices in Stoke-on-Trent is now linking in with their patients via Facebook, Twitter or YouTube – with plans to expand the scheme by using Skype, the software app that supports video chat and voice calls. The project started two years ago with an initial eight practices and has grown to cover 23 practices. More than 100,000 people have viewed the online information – including health tips and practice updates – since the launch. There are more than 11,000 patients regularly interacting with their practices on Facebook. A video promoting the services available in one practice with a 10,000-list size had 2,400 views and was shared by more than 100 patients.

Wolverhampton Information Network - A new website designed to help people in Wolverhampton remain independent for longer has been launched. WIN, the Wolverhampton Information Network website available at provides details of social care and support services in Wolverhampton, along with organisations which can offer help and guidance on a wide range of issues. WIN also highlights social and leisure activities in Wolverhampton and offers advice and guidance on finding employment and voluntary work, keeping healthy and safe, claiming benefits and paying for care, and getting out and about, including Motability and the Ring and Ride service. The website has been developed by Wolverhampton City Council and is managed by the libraries service. Providers of care and support services around Wolverhampton are being encouraged to register for account with WIN by logging on to which will enable them to provide content on the website about the service they provide.

Courses

Quality, Service Improvement and Redesign (QSIR): Practitioner - QSIR: Practitioner is a five-day programme spread across three months and is aimed at providing participants with the know-how to design and implement more efficient and productive services. Participants apply the learning from the programme to their own improvement projects during the course of the programme and are supported between workshops by virtual action learning sets. QSIR: Practitioner is suited to both clinical and non-clinical staff involved in service improvement projects within their organisation and/or system. Based on previous highly successful programmes, it covers tried and tested approaches, tools and techniques. The workshops will take place on 18-19 January, 17 February, 9 March and 12 April 2016 at the Novotel, Birmingham For further information and booking visit:

Events

Tuesday 22nd September 2015 - British Heart Foundation National Centre will be holding its annual conference on ‘Just good medicine’ – The role of physical activity in the prevention and management of long term conditions. Location: Loughborough University, Loughborough Price: Full delegate £195 This conference will provide delegates with the opportunity to:

examine the current and emerging evidence on the role physical activity plays in disease prevention and long term condition management
consider current commissioning priorities for the prevention and management of long term conditions and discuss where physical activity can help achieve these
discuss the opportunities, realities and practical ideas for integrating physical activity into primary and secondary care
unpick what the evidence says about how to design effective physical activity behaviour change interventions
join in the debate about genetics, physical activity, sedentary behaviour and tailoring physical activity prescriptions for people with long term conditions
network with a range of professionals from across academia, primary and secondary care, public health, health and social care and the voluntary and leisure sector.

For more information, to view the conference programme or to book your place please visit the BHFNC conference website

Tuesday 13 October from 9.45am – 4pm at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens Health and wealth economic summit comes to the West Midlands.The WMAHSN will be holding a high-profile summit in October, examining the links between health and wealth and the implications for the West Midlands. This free event will inform and educate industry, academics and clinicians of the opportunities available to improve health and create wealth and explain how to collaborate with other stakeholders via these new services. The innovation fund for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), the Innovation and Adoption Service and the industry gateway will also be launched to around 200 delegates. The event will provide an update on the developments made by the WMAHSN over the past 12 months, including a step by step update on the seven point growth plan and the announcement of the WMAHSN’s medicines optimisation and LEP strategist secondees. There will also be question time sessions, discussing the Innovation and Adoption Service and industry innovation support. Lunch and refreshments will be provided throughout the day, and on site car parking and wifi will be available. WMAHSN also has a variety of attractive and excellent value for money sponsorship packages available for this event. For more information, contact Sarah Millard r call 0121 452 5636. For more information, go to theWMAHSN summit event page, or to register,please click here.

Friday 16 October Create your own business case for informationOn Friday 16 October PiF is holding an event in London exploring how you can build and communicate a business case for information, and use meaningful evidence to demonstrate the value of your information services and projects. The learning from this event will be widely applicable, so whether you are wanting to develop a business case to influence internal managers, funders, healthcare professionals you work with, commissioners or policy makers, it should be relevant.The discussions will help each delegate identify the key stakeholders they need to influence, what their specific barriers or challenges are, the evidence they will need to collect, and how they might want to approach developing and sharing their business case.The day will also include an interactive learning experience that will focus on leadership skills relevant for the effective development and communication of a business case including developing resilience, influencing skills and the language of leadership.This session will be delivered in partnership with Education for Health.There will be an opportunity for delegates who want to continue the work from the day to be part of an informal action learning set, and continue to work with PiF and other delegates to develop and use their business case.As an output from the day PiF will create a template for use by PiF members to put together their own business cases for information.The event is free to attend for PiF members, and £75+VAT for non-members, but there are only 25 places available – so register today!You can view the draft agenda and details of how to register here.If you have any queries about this event please contact .

27th January 2016 - Making Every Contact Count ConferenceHEE is hosting a national conference on Making Every Contact Count, taking place in Manchester on Wednesday 27th January 2016. The conference aims to provide support to people who commission, develop or deliver training in Making Every Contact Count (MECC) or Behaviour Change. Further details, including the programme for the day will be available in due course, but in the meantime please save the date, or for more details and to register an interest you can contact

There a list of Health Awareness Events that is regularly updated and has moved to -

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