Evidence based practice updates - 24 January 2013

New guidelines, research and other tools and updates on evidence based techniques and processes from across the UK. For more information about this theme see Quality and Safety e-Bulletin: evidence based practice.

Some of the resources linked to are in PDF format - see how to access PDF files.

BBC Health: Female smoking death risk 'has soared'. Women smoking nowadays are far more likely to die as a result of their habit than they were in the 1960s, according to a new study. Changing habits such as starting earlier and smoking more cigarettes have been blamed on dramatically increased risks of lung cancer. The trends, reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, show death rates in women have caught up with men.

Bernard Becker, Medical Library: Systematic Reviews. Resources to Support Work in Systematic Reviews. Systematic reviews are gaining in popularity at medical research institutions across the US. Guidelines either state the need for or highly recommend the involvement of a librarian or information professional in systematic review research. The Bernard Becker Medical Library site offers several resources and services to support systematic review research.

BioMed Central: Cases Database. BioMed Central have developed the Cases Database as a “continuously-updated, freely-accessible database of thousands of medical case reports from multiple publishers, including Springer, BMJ and PubMed Central. By aggregating case reports and facilitating comparison, Cases Database provides clinicians, researchers, regulators and patients a simple resource to explore content, and identify emerging trends.” 

BMC health Services Research: Barriers and facilitators to the implementation of clinical practice guidelines: A cross-sectional survey among physicians in Estonia. “In an era when an increasing amount of clinical information is available to health care professionals, the effective implementation of clinical practice guidelines requires the development of strategies to facilitate the use of these guidelines. The objective of this study was to assess attitudes towards clinical practice guidelines, as well as the barriers and facilitators to their use, among Estonian physicians.”

Evidence Based Nursing: Evidence-Based Nursing launches a Twitter Journal Club. The journal club will be particularly useful for postgraduate students wanting to develop their critical appraisal skills. Articles and questions will be posted on the Evidence-Based Nursing (EBN) blog and the discussions about the blog will happen on Twitter. Read the first discussion blog posted, it focuses on an epidemic in the developing world: childhood obesity. The Twitter discussions took place from 17 to 21 January 2013.

Eyes on Evidence: January 2013. This issue includes articles on: Preventable deaths due to problems in care in English acute hospitals; Evaluating mandatory restrictions on trans fatty acids; Disease recurrence and survival in node-negative colorectal cancer; Increasing support offered via a national quitline does not improve quit rates; Benefits of drug therapy are unclear for mild hypertension; QIPP case study: Improving histopathology management by establishing a 7-day turnaround time and QIPP case study: Using teledermatology for diagnosis, triage and effective care.

Guardian: Child asthma hospital admissions fell after smoking ban, study shows. Hospitals recorded 6,802 fewer cases of childhood asthma in the first three years of the ban, which was introduced in England in July 2007, according to NHS figures. The study analysing NHS figures was published in the journal Pediatrics. 

Guardian Datablog: Public health minister links obesity to poverty: what does the data show? “Anna Soubry has said poor people have a tendency to be overweight, laying most of the blame with poor diet. Does the data support her views?”
'Abundance of bad food' makes poorest obese, says minister.

Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR): Accessing suicide-related information on the internet: a retrospective observational study of search behavior. This study, undertaken in Hong Kong, investigated what web pages people actually clicked on after searching with suicide-related queries on a search engine and to examine what queries people used to get access to pro-suicide websites. 

NHS Evidence: New evidence updates:

NICE Clinical guidelines: Psychosis and schizophrenia in children and young people (CG 155). This clinical guideline offers evidence-based advice on the recognition and management of psychosis and schizophrenia in children and young people under 18.
NICE Pathway: Psychosis and schizophrenia in children and young people overview.  
News: Spot signs of psychosis and schizophrenia early, says NICE.  

NICE: New Local government public health briefings: NICE has developed public health briefings for a range of different topics. These briefings are meant for local authorities and their partner organisations in the health and voluntary sectors, in particular those involved with health and wellbeing boards.
News: Improve community health through walking, cycling and behaviour change.

NICE Medical Technology Guidance13: WatchBP Home A for opportunistically detecting atrial fibrillation during diagnosis and monitoring of hypertension. A new device that allows GPs and practice nurses to detect pulse irregularities and pick up cases of atrial fibrillation (AF) whilst measuring blood pressure has been recommended by NICE.In its medical technology guidance on WatchBP Home A, NICE says the device reliably detects AF and may increase the rate of detection when used in primary care. This will consequently allow for preventative treatment to be given and to reduce the incidence of AF-related stroke.
News: NICE recommends blood pressure device that can help prevent stroke.

NIHR: Clinical Trials Toolkit. The Clinical Trials Toolkit provides practical advice to researchers in designing and conducting publicly funded clinical trials in the UK. Through the use of an interactive routemap, this site provides information on best practice and outlines the current legal and practical requirements for conducting clinical trials.

Parliament UK, Health Committee: Eighth Report: National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. Following an inquiry into the work of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), “A number of key decisions need to be taken swiftly in order to ensure a smooth change-over to a new system of pricing for the drugs used by the NHS”. The report also urges greater openness about the results of clinical drug trials, and welcomes the new role that NICE will have from April this year in producing guidance for the social care sector.”

PRODIGY: A change to the PRODIGY service. Clarity Informatics has announced a new and exciting collaboration with NICE. In September 2012, Clarity Informatics was awarded the contract to provide clinical content, in collaboration with NICE, for their new Clinical Knowledge Summaries (CKS) service. This service will be available through the NHS Evidence website. The topics within Clarity’s existing service, PRODIGY, will form the basis of CKS. The service will transfer from PRODIGY to CKS in Spring 2013 during which time both PRODIGY and CKS sites will be available.

RCN: Rapid Evidence Appraisal on nurse socialisation expression of interest. The RCN is looking to commission a rapid evidence appraisal into nurse socialisation. Socialisation refers to the process by which a person acquires skills, knowledge and identity characteristic of a profession. Send in your proposal by 25 January 2013.