Australia's leading online physician community joins European Alliance
International growth of Networks in Health creates broad geographical physician engagement opportunity
30 June 2011, Oxford: Networks in Health, whose online communities already comprise over 600,000 physicians across Europe, has announced that the leading independent network of medical professionals in Australia has joined the Alliance.
e-healthspace.com.au, which launched less than 12 months ago, has an active membership of over 9,000 physicians - approximately 45 per cent of the entire general practitioner population. Usage of the community is high, and some 40% of members interact with the extensive clinical content, discussion forums, education modules and sponsored resources on a regular basis.
The Australian community, which initially sought to attract GPs, is now rapidly expanding its membership among secondary care physicians from key specialty groups, including oncology and cardiology.
Networks in Health was formed by Doctors.net.uk, the UK's largest online network of medical professionals, in May 2011. It is a unique international alliance of online physician communities which, having established strong affiliations across Europe, is looking to grow by recruiting further communities in key international healthcare markets.
Networks in Health's current partner communities include Egora and LaRevue du Praticien in France, Medcenter in Spainand Portugal, coliquio in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and MedUniverse in Sweden. Further announcements regarding new partners joining the Alliance are likely.
Gareth Thomas, development director of Networks in Health, said: "The launch of this 'network of communities' is answering a real need, especially for organisations wishing to research and engage with physicians internationally. We've been approached by many global pharmaceutical companies and healthcare organisations to talk about the unprecedented access to physicians now offered."
Kamalesh Goswami, Director of Online Solutions of e-healthspace.com.au, said: "We are now able to offer clients a single access point to a huge international physician audience. It opens up enormous opportunities, with international communications, marketing, education and research programmes all capable of being managed and measured in a fully integrated way."
Networks in Health is supported by medeConnect, its market research and insight partner, and independent division of Doctors.net.uk. community-based research - an approach which allows us to reach a broader cohort of physicians than ever before - medeConnect offers a range of new, digitally-based qualitative and quantitative methodologies for gathering insight from these communities.
Note: Englemed is the news provider for Networks in Health
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Thursday, June 16, 2011
iphone app
Our news service provided to Doctors.net.uk has been on an iphone app available to doctors for some time now.
I have found this review of the app here:
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/medical-news/id339774460?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D2
We'll be launching our own apps for the general public in the near future, for Android and other systems. Watch this space!
I have found this review of the app here:
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/medical-news/id339774460?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D2
We'll be launching our own apps for the general public in the near future, for Android and other systems. Watch this space!
Monday, April 11, 2011
Site locked!
We've been locked off our site since the weekend because of engineering problems - so no updates here I'm afraid.
Our professional newsfeeds are not affected. You can find updates today at www.doctors.net.uk , www.uknursing.net, http://www.staffnurse.com/nursing-news and www.bloodmed.com. However unless you're a member of doctors.net you will have to wait to read one or two juicy news items that I haven't seen anywhere else today.
Our professional newsfeeds are not affected. You can find updates today at www.doctors.net.uk , www.uknursing.net, http://www.staffnurse.com/nursing-news and www.bloodmed.com. However unless you're a member of doctors.net you will have to wait to read one or two juicy news items that I haven't seen anywhere else today.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Plain red meat?
Talk about plain speaking - the British government's campaign to shock, or nudge, the people into taking action against cancer got off to a bad start.90g of red meat a day is dangerous, we were told. But how much is 90g? Who measures their meat in grammes when they eat?
If you go to a cheap restaurant you can buy steaks of six ounces, eight ounces, ten ounces even more. Surely a small steak is okay?
We posted a calculator on this blog sometime ago and we are able to establish rapidly that 90g is no more than a little over 3.5 ounces. The recommended daily limit of 70g is just 2.5 ounces.
No wonder the government press release did not mention steak. It did mention two beefburgers or a single lamb chop. Was it too much to ask that somebody could do the conversion into the traditional British measurement? After all there is not a lot that is more traditional than British roast beef.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Which US cities are higher than Ben Nevis?
There's a serious point to this question. We were intrigued by the research linking high-living (up a mountain) with mental health problems.
So when writing the story, our writer tried to google some facts, ie this question: which US cities are higher than Ben Nevis? You'd think it was the sort of strange fact you'd find on wiki-answers - but, no, it was not there.
We knew that Denver was high - and sure enough it is in fact about a mile above sea-level. Ben Nevis in Scotland - the highest mountain in the UK - is just 4,409 feet high - well below a mile high.
The US research linked high living to suicide risk and the researchers were not just talking about loners living in shacks on mountainsides. They had also taken in statistics from cities such as Denver.
The findings are interesting but may well not apply to the UK, where the population mostly lives a lot lower than Colorado. In fact there must be a whole clutch of cities on the Rocky Mountains higher than Ben Nevis. How many? Does anyone know?
In fact it's hard to think of any British cities with any sort of altitude at all. There are many very hilly cities, such as Edinburgh, Bristol and especially in Yorkshire. But they all cluster on river beds or on the coast. I've googled cities such as Bradford in Yorkshire and the altitude is clearly so unremarkable it does not even appear on Wikipedia.
So here's another question for anyone interested. Are there any British cities 2,000 feet above sea level?
So when writing the story, our writer tried to google some facts, ie this question: which US cities are higher than Ben Nevis? You'd think it was the sort of strange fact you'd find on wiki-answers - but, no, it was not there.
We knew that Denver was high - and sure enough it is in fact about a mile above sea-level. Ben Nevis in Scotland - the highest mountain in the UK - is just 4,409 feet high - well below a mile high.
The US research linked high living to suicide risk and the researchers were not just talking about loners living in shacks on mountainsides. They had also taken in statistics from cities such as Denver.
The findings are interesting but may well not apply to the UK, where the population mostly lives a lot lower than Colorado. In fact there must be a whole clutch of cities on the Rocky Mountains higher than Ben Nevis. How many? Does anyone know?
In fact it's hard to think of any British cities with any sort of altitude at all. There are many very hilly cities, such as Edinburgh, Bristol and especially in Yorkshire. But they all cluster on river beds or on the coast. I've googled cities such as Bradford in Yorkshire and the altitude is clearly so unremarkable it does not even appear on Wikipedia.
So here's another question for anyone interested. Are there any British cities 2,000 feet above sea level?
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Losing weight
Here's a great video just released by the American Heart Association on losing weight. If it's your New Year resolution, take a peek!
Monday, January 3, 2011
Facebooking
Our Facebook page is picking up - after being in the doldrums for quite a while. Stories from this site and one or two of our related sites now feed into it automatically. It's building up a base of fans.
It's a great way to comment on stories, to follow our feeds and to rate them. And two or three postings a day is not intrusive on your Facebook feed. You can find the Facebook page here.
It's a great way to comment on stories, to follow our feeds and to rate them. And two or three postings a day is not intrusive on your Facebook feed. You can find the Facebook page here.
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Friday, December 3, 2010
Have they cracked the secret of a healthy lifestyle?
In the last few days we've had the ideal body weight and the ideal diet. All we are waiting for is the perfect exercise regime - and we probably had that a few months ago. Are researchers really fine-tuning the secrets of healthy living?
This is a personal opinion - that we are actually a long way off. These major global studies give average results. They mix men and women. They may give good guidance - but may also mix individual factors that are critical to my - or your - health.
The Danish diet findings are intriguing. Intuitively they feel right: eat lean protein, whether meat, fish or something vegetarian, because they make you feel full, saturated. Avoid carbohydrates and eat low-sugar vegetables and fruit. It is a healthy version of the Atkins low-carb diet. But the results of the study barely back it up - they show is that this is a good way of keeping your weight down once you've been on a crash diet. And healthy diet is about more than weight, isn't it? It can have a direct impact on risk of heart disease, cancer and other illnesses - possibly.
So what about the distinction between meat and fish. Is that important? Or meat and soy? Or one kind of fat and other?
In some ways the US study of perfect body weight backs the Danes. The researchers say that if you live a healthy lifestyle, then there is a perfect body mass index to aim for. But talk to a health adviser and they may prevaricate. Does this "healthy lifestyle" include being fit or superfit? Body mass may be fat or may be muscle. Doesn't that make a big difference?
We know that weight, diet and fitness all go together. But isn't a little frustrating when sometimes we are told it's the weight you have to get right, sometimes it's the diet and sometimes it's the fitness? Of course the answer is a bit of each - and it's worth paying attention to all these bits and pieces of research. But do we really know why homo sapiens in a large chunk of the world is living for a lot longer than ever before?
Perhaps what we need is a study that tells us whether being a vegetarian bantam-weight body-builder really is the secret of long life and health.
This is a personal opinion - that we are actually a long way off. These major global studies give average results. They mix men and women. They may give good guidance - but may also mix individual factors that are critical to my - or your - health.
The Danish diet findings are intriguing. Intuitively they feel right: eat lean protein, whether meat, fish or something vegetarian, because they make you feel full, saturated. Avoid carbohydrates and eat low-sugar vegetables and fruit. It is a healthy version of the Atkins low-carb diet. But the results of the study barely back it up - they show is that this is a good way of keeping your weight down once you've been on a crash diet. And healthy diet is about more than weight, isn't it? It can have a direct impact on risk of heart disease, cancer and other illnesses - possibly.
So what about the distinction between meat and fish. Is that important? Or meat and soy? Or one kind of fat and other?
In some ways the US study of perfect body weight backs the Danes. The researchers say that if you live a healthy lifestyle, then there is a perfect body mass index to aim for. But talk to a health adviser and they may prevaricate. Does this "healthy lifestyle" include being fit or superfit? Body mass may be fat or may be muscle. Doesn't that make a big difference?
We know that weight, diet and fitness all go together. But isn't a little frustrating when sometimes we are told it's the weight you have to get right, sometimes it's the diet and sometimes it's the fitness? Of course the answer is a bit of each - and it's worth paying attention to all these bits and pieces of research. But do we really know why homo sapiens in a large chunk of the world is living for a lot longer than ever before?
Perhaps what we need is a study that tells us whether being a vegetarian bantam-weight body-builder really is the secret of long life and health.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Quality charter
I have just reviewed our quality charter, which was drawn up nearly a decade ago.
I am pleased to say that only one thing has changed substantially in all those years - the address. Memo to me - change it, ASAP!
To be frank - one other item may have changed. The charter states we do not sell items - it is strictly correct, we do not currently sell directly but we do subscribe to a number of affiliate schemes, which we believe offer appropriate goods; and we do support some local historians who sell their own books. We are also considering selling second-hand books. But that is a story for another time.
I am pleased to say that only one thing has changed substantially in all those years - the address. Memo to me - change it, ASAP!
To be frank - one other item may have changed. The charter states we do not sell items - it is strictly correct, we do not currently sell directly but we do subscribe to a number of affiliate schemes, which we believe offer appropriate goods; and we do support some local historians who sell their own books. We are also considering selling second-hand books. But that is a story for another time.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Free services
Our web-site manager is at Glastonbury and the rest of us are concentrating on a major new contract. So apologies that free news feeds are not currently running on their normal daily basis.
All contracted services continue as normal - and in fact are being stepped up.
Normal service will resume after Glastonbury (we hope).
All contracted services continue as normal - and in fact are being stepped up.
Normal service will resume after Glastonbury (we hope).
Friday, April 16, 2010
Fattism or fatism?
A new word surfaced today - fatism. Or is it fattism?
The authors of the word spelt it as above: fatism. We think that would be pronounced fay-tism when they really want a word pronounced fat-tism. In those circumstances English convention is to double the last consonant. For instance "ratting" not "rating" means chasing rats, "matting" not "mating" means making mats and you are "hatted" not "hated" if you wear a hat. That gives us "fattism".
In case you're in any doubt, it means prejudice against overweight people. Here's the story.
Curiously in the age of tweeting, English is becoming more like German with more and more portfolio words emerging. Does it matter? Probably not but we're resisting some of them - like "underway" and "healthcare". We'll generally write "under way" and "health care".
The authors of the word spelt it as above: fatism. We think that would be pronounced fay-tism when they really want a word pronounced fat-tism. In those circumstances English convention is to double the last consonant. For instance "ratting" not "rating" means chasing rats, "matting" not "mating" means making mats and you are "hatted" not "hated" if you wear a hat. That gives us "fattism".
In case you're in any doubt, it means prejudice against overweight people. Here's the story.
Curiously in the age of tweeting, English is becoming more like German with more and more portfolio words emerging. Does it matter? Probably not but we're resisting some of them - like "underway" and "healthcare". We'll generally write "under way" and "health care".
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Citizen news editors?
We've had it in mind for some time - they talk about citizen journalists but what about citizen news editors? The news feels instant these days but much of it takes time to prepare, especially if it's to have any depth and balance. A news editor's job involves selecting the stories worth working on .
The results? In fact, not a large number of votes after the initial flurry. Surprisingly a very small proportion of those who clicked through seem to have voted. I'd like to know if votes weren't being recorded and if there is a problem with the polling gadget on blogger.
Four topics came out level-pegging - medical training, alcohol policy, transplants and psychiatric drugs. We have written up the first three and they can be found on our news feeds. Given the nature of the news, we might not have done alcohol policy and transplants. But we have - and Britain's new alcohol policy is now today's lead item on Englemed and also at doctors.net.uk.
The vote did not dictate everything we did
Why did visitors not vote? It would be interesting to know. There may have been too many topics and they may not have been specific enough.
An exercise which involved a smaller number of very specific stories might attract votes. It would also be a problem. One result would be to tip off our competitors about stories we are working on. It would also mean we could not highlight embargoed reports - and there were plenty of those. We're not ready for that yet.
Could this be done routinely? Probably not. But we'll certainly attempt it again sometime when circumstances seem right. Yesterday it was worth doing - it helped us to see through a great fog of news, much of it with potential and much of it half-formed.
Yesterday seemed the ideal chance to invite the e-world into our virtual newsroom - to help us to select the stories to write up.
There was a flurry of press releases during the morning, some for instant release, some with embargoes attached. There were all on different topics. Quite a few were government announcements - maybe we should just have planned a single story headed "government announcements". By mid-morning it was clear we were in a news fog and that choices would have to be made about the most significant news. What better solution than to ask potential readers?
There was a flurry of press releases during the morning, some for instant release, some with embargoes attached. There were all on different topics. Quite a few were government announcements - maybe we should just have planned a single story headed "government announcements". By mid-morning it was clear we were in a news fog and that choices would have to be made about the most significant news. What better solution than to ask potential readers?
We'd led in the early morning with some big stories on children getting the wrong drug doses, on maternity service problems and on a new meningitis vaccine - and also of course on Haiti. We were not behind with the news but we now found ourselves with many story proposals to sift.
So using the blog and using Twitter we rushed to implement the half-formed plan. The initial story-list had about 16 stories on it. We could not give details of embargoed stories but indicated the topics. What visitors did not know was that some topics included several possible stories - see today's big roll-up on pregnancy and diet.
We invited the world at large to be citizen news editors and help us to decide the most important stories, before we wrote them - even before we did any more work on them in some cases.
Here was how the day worked out, with regular updates on Twitter:
- at 1pm we announced the poll and within minutes we'd added a 17th story to the story list;
- several people retweeted the announcement (thanks for the RTs!);
- by 3pm we reported there were enough votes for us to identify a couple of stories for extra work;
- by 5pm we reported the exercise had prompted some people to send us extra material. We added one more topic on GP issues;
- at 6pm we added two more topics on heart care and health-funding.
- At midnight we closed and deleted the poll.
- By 2am some of the selected stories we appearing on our newsfeeds.
The results? In fact, not a large number of votes after the initial flurry. Surprisingly a very small proportion of those who clicked through seem to have voted. I'd like to know if votes weren't being recorded and if there is a problem with the polling gadget on blogger.
Four topics came out level-pegging - medical training, alcohol policy, transplants and psychiatric drugs. We have written up the first three and they can be found on our news feeds. Given the nature of the news, we might not have done alcohol policy and transplants. But we have - and Britain's new alcohol policy is now today's lead item on Englemed and also at doctors.net.uk.
The vote did not dictate everything we did
Why did visitors not vote? It would be interesting to know. There may have been too many topics and they may not have been specific enough.
An exercise which involved a smaller number of very specific stories might attract votes. It would also be a problem. One result would be to tip off our competitors about stories we are working on. It would also mean we could not highlight embargoed reports - and there were plenty of those. We're not ready for that yet.
Could this be done routinely? Probably not. But we'll certainly attempt it again sometime when circumstances seem right. Yesterday it was worth doing - it helped us to see through a great fog of news, much of it with potential and much of it half-formed.
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