New resources for Health and Life Sciences

The World Trade Center Medical Monitoring and Treatment Program offers a variety of services related to the health of 9/11 responders including yearly monitoring examinations, and free, confidential medical treatment for 'World Trade Center covered conditions' (aerodigestive and musculoskeletal disorders, mental health conditions). The website provides a full programme overview, exposure information/fact sheets, newletters, forms, work-related treatment resources, and information for health care providers,
http://www.wtcexams.org/

Understanding Epidemics is a website developed as part of a project funded by the Wellcome Trust which aims to improve public understanding of epidemics. The site is split into 8 sections including a section introducing the basic principles of epidemics, and a further 6 sections on different diseases or aspects of epidemics. These include HIV/AIDS, malaria and modelling, historical epidemics, sexually transmitted infections, epizootics, and epidemics as presented by the media. Learning materials are also provided including a quiz, a teacher's pack and a user's pack.
http://www.liv.ac.uk/geography/research_projects/epidemics/index.html

A report from the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (CRD) at the University of York carried out to conduct a review of how participation rates in cancer trials could be improved, as it is crucial to have enough participants to form an effective clinical trial. This 64 page systematic review is CRD number 32 and was published in March 2006.
http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/crd/projects/increasing_patient_participation.htm

A report from the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (CRD) at the University of York of the literature available on the barriers, modifiers and benefits of being involved in randomised controlled trials; This report aimed to consider on how participation rates in clinical trials could be improved. This 157 page systematic review is CRD number 31 and was published in March 2006.
http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/crd/projects/barriers_patient_participation.htm

Provided by NHS Education for Scotland and NHS24, Stroke Information Plus is a one-stop-shop for quality assured information for people with stroke, their families and carers, and interested members of the public. The website provides a gateway to quality stroke related information sources, patient leaflets, medicines information, and support groups. It also provides information about benefits, health and social services, learning resources, treatment guidelines, and evidence and research for in-depth information. Links to aspects of the patient journey are also provided including well-being, prevention, symptoms, treatment, and rehabilitation.
http://www.strokeinfoplus.scot.nhs.uk/cmspi/strokepi/index.aspx

This page is produced by the World Health Organization and focuses on climate change and human health. Information is provided about the current world state of climate change and human health, together with links to resources to help with learning about climate change, WHO climate change and health programme activities, current news, and recent publications.
http://www.who.int/globalchange/climate/en/index.html

WinkingSkull.com is an interactive study aid on human anatomy. Provided by international scientific and medical publisher Thieme, this resource is free to access (but free registration is required in order to access all features). Interactive materials are included on the back, thorax, abdomen and pelvis, upper limb, lower limb, head and neck, and neuroanatomy.
http://www.winkingskull.com/navigation.aspx

The Special Care Dentistry Association (SCDA) is an international organisation of oral health professionals and other interested individuals who are “dedicated to promoting oral health and well being for people with special needs.” This website provides detailed information about the Association with links to news, the members and board of directors, together with meetings and events, education and courses, publications and resources.
http://www.scdonline.org/

The Thalidomide Trust aims to provide support, relief and assistance for those people, born in the United Kingdom and suffering the consequences of their mothers having taken the drug Thalidomide (as manufactured by Distillers Biochemicals Limited) during their pregnancy. The website provides full details about the Trust, together with news, an information centre, frequently asked questions, contact information and other related links.
http://www.thalidomide.org.uk/

The Canadian Society for Pharmacology and Therapeutics (CSPT) is a non-profit organisation which promotes research and education in the fields of pharmacology and experimental therapeutics. The society is aimed at students, postdoctoral fellows, established researchers and clinical scientists from academic, governmental and industrial backgrounds. The website provides information about the organisation, its aims, membership types, membership benefits, sponsors, research awards, conferences and workshops of interest to pharmacologists, career resources, opinion papers and publications. The site provides links to Internet resources for pharmacologists. Some sections of the site are only available to CSPT members.
http://www.pharmacologycanada.org/

A clinical topic covering the topic of the assessment and referral of patients with tuberculosis (including people with HIV), created by the Clinical Knowledge Service which is part of the NHS. The clinical topic is aimed mainly at health professionals and is divided into sections covering how up to date the topic is, clinical evidence, management, drugs, and patient information relating to the topic.
http://cks.library.nhs.uk/tuberculosis

A clinical topic covering the topic of vaginal discharge, created by the Clinical Knowledge Service which is part of the NHS. The clinical topic is aimed mainly at health professionals and is divided into sections covering clinical evidence, management, drugs, patient information, and details about the revision of the resource.
http://cks.library.nhs.uk/vaginal_discharge

This action plan developed from the commitment made within the Scottish Government’s 2007 action plan for health and wellbeing ‘Better health, better care’ to the delivery of high quality palliative care across Scotland in a “consistent, comprehensive, appropriate and equitable manner across all care settings”. It establishes the principles of using a palliative care approach as appropriate alongside active disease management from an early stage in the disease process and with a focus on the person, not the disease, applying “a holistic approach to meeting the physical, practical, functional, social, emotional and spiritual needs of patients and carers facing progressive illness and bereavement”. The plan aims to identify measurable changes that can be made in the short, medium or longer term and to enable integration with existing policy initiatives and programmes. The action plan covers: the assessment and review of palliative and end of life care needs; planning and delivery of care; communication and co-ordination; education, training and workforce development; implementation and future development. In each case an aim is set out with explanatory points and references to appropriate tools, action points are identified and examples of good practice provided. This 46 page document was published by the Scottish Government in September 2008.
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/10/01091608/0

EuroGentest is an EU-funded Network of Excellence (NoE) with five units looking at all aspects of genetic testing. This page provides access to a series of 11 leaflets that EuroGentest has developed to provide general information for patients and families about genetics and genetic testing. The leaflets cover areas such as 'What is a genetic test?', amniocentesis tests, chromosome translocations, dominant inheritance, and others. All the leaflets are available in a wide variety of languages and are downloadable from the website as PDF files.
http://www.eurogentest.org/patient/

CRY was founded in 1995 to raise awareness of conditions that can lead to Sudden Cardiac Death (SCD) also known as Sudden Death Syndrome (SDS, SADS) in children and young people. The website provides full details about the organisation, medical information about the condition, screening, fundraising, news and research, and details of the counselling service.
http://www.c-r-y.org.uk/

The website of the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences at Queen's University, Belfast, whose aim is to develop an international school that becomes 'the foundation for excellence in education and research and compassion in quality patient care'. The website provides details of undergraduate and postgraduate courses, research and PhD studentships, together with details of the staff.
http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/mdbs/

Founded in 1948, the National Spinal Cord Injury Association (NSCIA) is the oldest and largest civilian organisation dedicated to improving the quality of life for hundreds of thousands of Americans living with the results of spinal cord injury and disease (SCI/D) and their families. The website provides full details of the Association together with the NSCIA national programs, public policy details, membership, board of directors, conferences and events, making a donation, and other related resources.
http://spinalcord.org/

Part of WebMD Health Professional Network Medscape offers specialists, primary care physicians, and other health professionals integrated medical information and educational tools. Resources available from the site include original, professional medical content, review articles, journal commentary, expert columns, patient education articles, book reviews, over 850 online CME activities, conference coverage, the Medscape Journal of Medicine, news, free subscription to Medscape's MedPulse (requires a one-off registration), and other related resources.
http://www.medscape.com/home

Published by the Royal College of Psychiatrists in March 2007, this information leaflet provides guidance on using complementary and alternative medicines (CAMs) for mental health problems. Topics covered include the effects of a variety of different plants on mental health, what complementary therapies are, herbal remedies and supplements and how to use CAMs safely.
http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/mentalhealthinformation/therapies/complementarytherapy.

The European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies is a partnership between the World Health Organization, government organisations, the European Investment Bank, the World Bank, the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). The Observatory exists to support and promote evidence-based health policy-making through comprehensive and rigorous analysis of the dynamics of health care systems in Europe. The website provides details about the organisation together with current news and events, research topics, and publications.
http://www.euro.who.int/observatory

Psychogeriatrics the official quarterly journal of the Japanese Psychogeriatric Society and publishes a wide range of psychogeriatric research. Areas covered include human and animal experimental studies, papers on gerontopsychiatric, neurobiological, genetic, diagnostic, social-psychiatric, and health-policy issues. Contents pages and abstracts are freely available with limited full text. Full content is available to subscribers.
http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=1346-3500

International Psychogeriatrics is a peer reviewed journal publishing original research papers in the field of psychogeriatrics. The journal aims to deal with all aspects of the mental health of older people throughout the world. Contents pages and abstracts are freely available together with limited full text. Full content is available to subscribers.
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=IPG

The European Association for Osseointegration is a non-profit organisation formed as an international, interdisciplinary and independent science based forum for all professionals interested in the art and science of osseointegration (implant dentistry). The website provides full details about the Association together with details about membership, current projects and events, and related links.
http://www.eao.org/

MedWatch is created by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) which has the responsibility for assuring the safety and efficacy of all regulated marketed medical products. MedWatch is the FDA Safety Information and Adverse Event Reporting Program, and the website is aimed at healthcare professionals and the public. The site provides clinical information about safety issues involving medical products, including prescription and over-the-counter drugs, biologicals, medical and radiation-emitting devices, and special nutritional products.
http://www.fda.gov/medwatch/

CETL4HealthNE is a consortium involving the Universities of Durham, Northumbria, Sunderland and Teesside with NHS partner organisations and Newcastle University as the lead partner. The consortium designs and delivers innovative learning and teaching programmes and develops new ways of sharing best practice in healthcare education. The main aim is to help future health professionals better meet the needs of a modernised NHS and the growing and changing expectations of its patients. The website provides full details of the consortium with links to current projects, news, events, and related links.
http://www.cetl4healthne.ac.uk/CETLPlone

The Centre for Excellence in Professional Placement Learning (CEPPL) aims to inform and engage all those with an interest in placement or practice learning. The organisation exists to support academics, educators in practice, students, service users, and employers. The mission of the organisation is to enhance placement or practice learning to the benefit of students, educators (HE and practice based), and service users. The website provides further details about the organisation together with staff students, news and current events, research, projects, and other related links.
http://www.placementlearning.org/

A systematic review carried out by the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (CRD) at the University of York to review clinical effectiveness and dose response in parenteral oestrogens for prostate cancer. This 108 page systematic review is CRD report number 33 and was published in September 2006.
http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/crd/CRD_Reports/crdreport33.pdf

Provided by NHS Education for Scotland and NHS24, Health Information Plus is a one-stop-shop for quality assured health information for patients, carers and the public. An A-Z conditions encyclopaedia is provided together with links to aspects of healthcare including well-being, diagnostic tests, conditions, medicines, help and support.
http://www.healthinfoplus.co.uk/cmspi/Involve/index.aspx

Provided by NHS Education for Scotland and NHS24, Diabetes Information Plus is a one-stop-shop for quality assured information for people with diabetes, their families and carers, and interested members of the public. The website provides a gateway to quality diabetes related information sources, patient leaflets, medicines information, and support groups. It also provides information about benefits, health and social services, learning resources, treatment guidelines, and evidence and research for in-depth information. Links to aspects of the patient journey are also provided including well-being, tests and diagnosis, treatment, living, and complications.
http://www.diabetesinfoplus.scot.nhs.uk/cmspi/diabetespi/main/home.aspx

HeadsUpScotland is the National Project for Children and Young People's Mental Health run by the Scottish Development Centre for Mental Health. It aims to make a major contribution to the activity already underway in Scotland to improve the mental health and well-being of children and young people by supporting the process of implementing the recommendations contained within the SNAP report for Child and Adolescent Mental Health (May 2003). The website provides full details of the organisation together with details about activities, participation, related intiatives, and other relevant links.
http://www.headsupscotland.co.uk/

The Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin (DTB) is a peer reviewed online journal produced by the BMJ group that aims to provide informed and unbiased information on medical conditions, medicines and other treatments to enable people to make informed choices. Contents pages and abstracts are freely available from 1994 to current with limited full text. Full content is available to subscribers.
http://www.dtb.org.uk/

On 19th July 2007 the Mental Health Bill received Royal Assent and became the Mental Health Act 2007. The Mental Health Act 2007 is available here by the Office of Public Sector Information in full text format.
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2007/pdf/ukpga_20070012_en.pdf

The EQUATOR Network (Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of Health Research) is a 'quality improvement initiative that seeks to enhance the reliability of medical research literature by promoting transparent and accurate reporting of health research'. The website provides full details about the network together with research projects, news and events, a resources centre, and links to other related resources.
http://www.equator-network.org/

The Geriatric Mental Health Foundation (GMHF) was 'established by the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry to raise awareness of psychiatric and mental health disorders affecting the elderly, eliminate the stigma of mental illness and treatment, promote healthy aging strategies, and increase access to quality mental health care for the elderly'. The website provides consumer/health information aimed at older adults and their families, a search facility to find a geriatric psychiatrist, news, and links to other related resources.
http://www.gmhfonline.org/gmhf/

The Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care Group (EPOC) is 'a Collaborative Review Group of the Cochrane Collaboration: an international organisation that aims to help people make well informed decisions about health care by preparing, maintaining and ensuring the accessibility of systematic reviews of the effects of health care interventions'. The website provides full details of the EPOC Group and the scope of their work together with news and RSS feeds, workshops and events, job announcements, and a directory of related resources.
http://www.epoc.cochrane.org/en/

‘Antihistamines as an adjunct to topical nasal steroids for intermittent and persistent allergic rhinitis in children’ is a Cochrane protocol for a review published in January 2008. The protocol is for a randomised controlled trial to 'assess the effectiveness and adverse event profiles of antihistamines used as an adjunct to topical nasal steroids for intermittent and persistent allergic rhinitis in children'. The protocol is available in full within this document.
http://www.mrw.interscience.wiley.com/cochrane/clsysrev/articles/CD006989/pdf_fs

The Malaria Atlas Project (MAP) is a joint project between the Malaria Public Health & Epidemiology Group, Centre for Geographic Medicine (Kenya) and the Spatial Ecology & Epidemiology Group (Oxford) with collaborating nodes in the America and Asia Pacific region. It aims primarily to 'communicate its ambitions and goals to those individuals and agencies involved in the control of malaria across the world and to provide a mechanism for their feedback'. The website provides an overview of the aims and objectives of the Malaria Atlas Project (MAP) together with details about the MAP team, public engagement, funding, vacancies, publications, and other related links.
http://www.map.ox.ac.uk/

The European Society of Pathology (ESP) is an open forum for all pathologists in Europe and elsewhere, to encourage closer professional contact and personal friendship. The website provides a full history and details of the society together with news, details of events and congresses, information for the public, working groups and contacts, and links to other related resources.
http://europathology.org/

An educational resource for health care professionals. The organisation's mission is 'to educate health care practitioners on the subject of endometrial neoplasia, and constructively apply scientific advances to improved diagnosis and management of women with endometrial cancer and its precursors'. The website provides links to online mini lectures, postgraduate educational courses, resources for diagnostic pathologists, resources for researchers, a data repository, and links to other related resources.
http://www.endometrium.org/

ecancermedicalscience is the open access cancer journal from the European Institute of Oncology. The website provides full details of the journal including information for authors, links to related resources, and a free full text archive (a one off free registration is required to gain access).
http://www.ecancermedicalscience.com/

PathologyOutlines.com is a free, no-registration website featuring a comprehensive, regularly updated textbook of surgical and clinical pathology. Links are provided from each chapter to images and references. The website also includes conferences, fellowships and books.
http://www.pathologyoutlines.com/

The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA) is a not-for-profit organisation founded in 1953 and is aimed at families, patients, parents, healthcare providers, policymakers and others. The website provides validated asthma and allergy information, downloadable online resources, online training and tools for health care professionals and members of the public. There is also information about research into asthma and allergies, support groups and an "Ask the Allergist" email facility.
http://www.aafa.org/

The Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) 'works with health care professionals and public health officials around the world to reduce asthma prevalence, morbidity, and mortality'. The website provides full details about the organisation, together with information about the GINA/WHO intitiative, World Asthma Day, regional initiatives, information for patients and the public, and links to guidelines and other related resources.
http://www.ginasthma.org/

Epilepsy Bereaved is the leading voluntary organisation in the UK and Internationally on Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP) and other epilepsy related deaths. The website provides full details of the organisation and its work, together with links to the latest news, a newsletter, and information for those who have been bereaved.
http://www.sudep.org/

Medpedia is a collaborative project between the Harvard Medical School, Stanford School of Medicine, Berkeley School of Public Health, University of Michigan Medical School and other leading global health organisations to collect the best information about health, medicine and the body and make it freely available worldwide. The goal of The Medpedia Project is to collaboratively build a living encyclopaedia of health, medicine, and the body. The site contains links to collections of encyclopaedic information on conditions, procedures, drugs, anatomy, genetics, and microbiology. The site is new and is currently in development (January 2009).
http://www.medpedia.com/

Founded in 1970 the International Society for the Study of Vulvovaginal Disease (ISSVD) exists to promote international communication among gynaecologists, pathologists, dermatologists, and related disciplines, and to establish international agreement on terminology and definitions of vulvovaginal diseases, and also 'to promote clinical investigation, basic research, and dissemination of knowledge in this field'. The website provides full details of the Society together with membership information, patient education, meetings and events, and links to other related resources.
http://www.issvd.org/

Created by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) this is the page of the Influenza Research Program. The program is diverse and scientists in NIAID labs, universities and medical research institutions around the world are working together to find better ways to prevent, diagnose and treat influenza. The website provides full details of the causes, transmission, symptoms, complications and diagnosis of the disease, together with details of the research programme, publications, and news and events.
http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/topics/Flu/

The European Committee for Hyperbaric Medicine (ECHM) works in the areas of 'Studying and defining common indications for hyperbaric therapy, research and therapy protocols, common standards for therapeutic and technical procedures, equipment and personnel, and cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness criteria'. It also acts as a representative body with the European health authorities, and promotes further cooperation among existing scientific organisations involved in the field of diving and hyperbaric medicine. The website provides full details about the organisation and its members, conference details, documents and books, and links to other related resources.
http://www.echm.org/

The Children's Heart Federation is a charitable organisation that aims to promote awareness of, and to support children with congenital or acquired heart disease and heart conditions and their families in the UK and Ireland. The website provides information about heart diseases, effective services for care and treatment and information about the campaigning issues that it raises to improve the clinical and social care of those affected by congenital and acquired heart disease.
http://www.childrens-heart-fed.org.uk/

The International Pemphigus & Pemphigoid Foundation is dedicated to providing information and support to the community of people living with pemphigus and pemphigoid including the family members, friends and medical professionals who care for them. The website provides news and general information about pemphigus and pemphigoid, pictures, details about the symptoms and treatment of the condition, partners of the organisation and the community, and links to other related resources.
http://www.pemphigus.org/