Things about blindness...
A revolutionary new gene therapy which restores sight will be provided by the NHS, chief executive Simon Stevens has
announced this week. Babies born with inherited retinal dystrophies disorder have poor sight which swiftly deteriorates, with most losing their vision completely in childhood. Until now no treatment has been available.
The life-changing treatment for children and adults – voretigene neparvovec – is the first in a new generation of gene therapies that can be directly administered to patients, in this case through an injection.
Things about respiratory health...
Public Health England have issued a report on
respiratory diseases in the Yorkshire and the Humber population, highlighting examples of good practice and opportunities for improvement in both primary prevention and disease management. Respiratory diseases can have a substantial impact on quality of life and are responsible for 13.6% of all deaths in Yorkshire and the Humber.
Mental health in paediatric primary care...
The pediatric primary care setting is ideal for addressing children's and adolescents' mental health needs. As a result of extensive training in health promotion, consultation, assessment, and treatment of psychological disorders, psychologists are uniquely positioned to support primary care pediatricians in this endeavor. This paper
'I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends' provides a review of models of psychology interventions in pediatric primary care including: care delivery, scope of practice, implementation and recent research. It concludes with a case example and recommendations.
Things about work life balance...
Published in Acta Pediatrica is this progress report
'The Evolving Educational Challenge: Balancing Patient Numbers, Conference Attendance, Sleep and Resident Wellness.' which although written from an American perspective may well be of interest.
Things to attend...
The
Brit Rock Film Tour 2019 World Premier takes place at 19.30 at the Pennine Lecture Theatre, Sheffield Hallam University, S1 2LW on 24th October 2019. With introductions by the filmmakers and climbers, free stuff, a chance to meet the rock stars and a film maker Q&A. It has all the best new climbing films from the UK’s top adventure filmmakers, featuring some of the country’s most popular climbers. Climbing Blind is a 60 mins documentary directed and produced by Alastair Lee, in association with Montane. Jesse Dufton was born with 20% central vision. At four years of age Jesse was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa: a rare genetic disease that breaks down the retinas’ cells. At aged 20 Jesse could no longer read, by the time he was 30 his vision was reduced to just light perception with around 1 or 2 % field of view. A life long climber, Jesse can more than hold his own, both lead-climbing classic routes that would challenge fully sighted climbers with his sight guide and fiancee Molly, to competing in world cup events (4th in 2019). As his sight degenerates his climbing continues to make remarkable progress. Despite his condition, Jesse only takes on bigger challenges by attempting to be the first blind person to make a ‘non-sight’ lead of the iconic Old Man of Hoy sea stack in Scotland.
Things about health inequalities...
Inequities have a profound impact on the health and development of children globally. While inequities are greatest in the world's poorest countries, even in rich nations poorer children have poorer health and developmental outcomes. From birth through childhood to adolescence, morbidity, mortality, growth and development are socially determined, resulting in the most disadvantaged having the highest risk of poor health outcomes. Inequities in childhood impact across the life course. This article in
BMJ Paediatrics Open discusses these issues.
Things about street food...
Sheffield Students Union Street Food Market will be taking place just down the road from the Acute SCH site on 26 September from 17:30 till 22:30
Things about automation...
This graphic from the
Health Foundation is about which health care jobs are the most likely to be affected by automation? The automation of work will impact the future labour market.
- Office for National Statistics (ONS) analysis suggests that 7.4% of jobs in England are at high risk of automation (defined as 70% chance of being automated).
- The ONS analysis estimates that medical practitioners have an 18% probability of automation, compared to over 50% probability for care workers and home carers.
- However there is optimism about opportunities technology could bring too, such as creating new roles. There are also limits to the tasks that technology can perform—human skills, intelligence and perception are likely to be of enduring value.
An item I won't be telling my mother-in-law... about given her lifelong phobia about robots.
Coffee opportunities...
Don't forget to sign up for the two Randomised Coffee trials available for SCH staff. One for
all staff in October and one for those attending the
SCH Clinical Summit.
More things about coffee...
I am not really a cake maker but for the evening reception of my son's wedding recently I was asked to make a coffee cake. It was well received (thanks Mary Berry) so I pass on
the recipe...sunflowers optional...they were to match the bride's bouquet! I used more butter icing than stated in order to cover the sides as well. On the hottest August bank holiday fortunately the venue was air-conditioned otherwise both I and the cake might have melted!
