Joining the digital dots across primary care and integrated care

My partner and I both received a letter today from our respective GPs. An invitation for a 'FREE LUNG HEALTH CHECK'.

Overleaf is an information sheet in landscape about the health check, plus three more sides of A4, similarly formatted - inviting trifold presentation.

After the 'Re. ......' an opening sentence asks: 'Have you ever been a smoker?'

Suddenly, I was dragged backwards through his-tory (some things don't change); not one history, but several:

INDIVIDUAL

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    INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

SOCIOLOGY  :   POLITICAL 

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GROUP

My personal and life experience  and not just since my teens . . .

The letter states: **If you have never smoked, you are not eligible for this service**

My mother and father  smoked when I was a child and my siblings.    They got the message early 1980s.    'Society' smoked back then!     Once old enough, I refused to go to the corner shop.   Into the 1990s, patients, smoking (some chain-smoking) on admission, long-stay and other clinical areas. As a community mental health nurse, I learned diplomatic and health promoting skills when in the car, giving a patient a lift to hospital. And, when visiting their home where I was, of course, usually, a guest.

I wondered what has happened to the GP's records? To the primary care clinical record ? The custodians of my health record, that they should need to ask that question?    Or, does confidentiality tie some bureaucratic knots?   Where is 'integrated care' and its driver 'clinical informatics'?  The letter included the NHS Number.    Don't get me wrong, I/we appreciate the obvious effort here, even if the chronology is confusing, or,  speaks of afterthought? The letters are dated 19/06/2025. I must admit I haven't accessed my GP record, checking it for accuracy.   If anything, this is a prompt to do so. And seek a general medical.

Previously: 'smoking' : 'winwick'

Register for Free! AI for One Health and Planetary Health: Where Are We?

Friday 8 November, 9:30am GMT – onwards

BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, Ground Floor, 25 Copthall Avenue, London EC2R 7BP

Join BCS SGAI in London for an engaging full-day event featuring a line up of exciting talks. Attendees will have the opportunity to participate in a hands-on tutorial on low-code/no-code AI and Certificates of Attendance will be provided.

* Speakers & Agenda
https://www.bcs.org/events-calendar/2024/november/ai-for-one-health-and-planetary-health-where-are-we-artificial-intelligence-sg/

* Invitation for Free Registration
https://ArtificialIntelligence081124.eventbrite.co.uk

100% Discount Code: AIHealth24Committee

--------------------------------

Hope to see you there - in London 6th-9th November.

Book - Free and Equal: What Would a Fair Society Look Like

INDIVIDUAL

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INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

SOCIOLOGY  :   POLITICAL 

|

GROUP

psychology Subjective experience: of freedom and being equal self-interest "Rawls transformed political philosophy, Chandler says. But his thought can be used to transform and reimagine 'progressive politics for the twenty-first century', too. After a half-decade of populist insurgency, the democratic world is at a 'crossroads', he contends, and we are in desperate need of new ideas to renovate a tattered social contract. That's where Rawls comes in." Derbyshire, p.9.

"Imagine being asked to cut a cake into five slices without knowing which slice you'll end up with. Rational self-interest dictates you'd cut slices of roughly equal size. Similarly, the participants in Rawl's thought experiment, behind the veil of ignorance, choose two fundamental principles of justice: a 'basic liberties principle', which says that every one has an equal claim to a suite of fundamental rights and liberties, obviously a precondition of liberal democracy; and a 'difference principle', according to which social and economic inequalities can only be justified to the extent that they benefit the worst off." p.9 trickle-down   ||  'drip'

Society Social Justice Fairness Social contract

economics    ||  'pricing'  Free and Equal

Derbyshire, J. (2023) Justice, fairness and why Rawls still matters today. FT Weekend, Life&Arts, Books, 22-23 April. p.9.

Chandler, D. (2023) Free and Equal: What Would a Fair Society Look Like? London: Penguin.

Endurance: Trapped in the ice (and other thoughts ..?)

"'What the ice gets, the ice keeps,'^*

The Agulhas II frozen as fast — and in the same spot — as Endurance was in 1915

GETTY IMAGES

... said Ernest Shackleton of his ship Endurance as he saw it lost to the Antarctic. History came eerily close to repeating itself on Monday when the Endurance 22 expedition, which is searching for Shackleton's lost ship, became stuck in the Weddell Sea. The mission ran into trouble overnight when the SA Agulhas II, a South African icebreaker, became trapped and the temperature plummeted to minus 10C. The historian Dan Snow, who is on the expedition, said it happened on the spot where Shackleton's ship was last seen in 1915.

Unlike Endurance, which sank after months stuck in the ice, modern technology allowed Agulhas II to escape in hours. Its crane held a container full of aviation fuel over the side and swung it back and forth to wriggle the ship free.

It is late summer in Antarctica and winter is coming, meaning the team's time is limited. 'In a few weeks, it all starts freezing up,' said Mensun Bound, the director of exploration. 'In a few days we have to get our tails out of here.'" p.23.

<>

When person-centred, integrated, and holistic care is the mission; care that takes into account physical and mental health, demands additional degrees of freedom to assure success. If we get stuck, by a blank page, or too much information then swinging the axes into thought plus the dichotomies inherent in the health career model, can come to our rescue and facilitate creativity and progress.

     Self - NORTH - Person

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 INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

EAST - HUMANISTIC -----------------------------------  MECHANISTIC - WEST^{^}    

SOCIOLOGY  :   POLITICAL 

|

Community - SOUTH - Population   

 

Previously:

'compass'

https://hodges-model.blogspot.com/search?q=compass

'line [of sight]'

https://hodges-model.blogspot.com/search?q=line+of+sight

'south'

https://hodges-model.blogspot.com/search?q=south

My sources:

Image: The Times.

22 February 2022, BBC Radio 4, PM, 1743 Dan Snow interviewed by Evan Davis, Antarctica expedition to discover Endurance.

Plus: Blackburn, J. Shackleton quest stuck in ice that sank Endurance, The Times, 23 February, 2022, p.23. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/endurance-22-nearly-meets-same-fate-as-shackleton-ship-after-becoming-trapped-in-ice-wxmjbtxbk

^* Is climate change going to subvert many timeless quotations?
^{^} 'Proper' east and west in relation to Hodges' model [discuss]?

Book: "Systems convening"

A crucial form of leadership for the 21st century

"Social learning across complex landscapes requires a certain kind of leadership, which we have called systems convening. Many people do this kind of work without any label, often unrecognized, and sometimes not even particularly aware that they are doing it. 

A systems convener or systems convening team sets up spaces for new types of conversations between people who often live on different sides of a boundary. For example, a geographic, cultural, disciplinary, political, class, social boundary. These conveners see a social landscape with all its separate and related practices through a wide-angle lens: they spot opportunities for creating new learning spaces and partnership that will bring different and often unlikely people together to engage in learning across boundaries. A systems convener takes a “landscape view” of wherever they are and what they need to do to increase the learning capability of that entire landscape – rather than simply the capability of the space they are standing in. Importantly, a systems convener is someone who has enough legitimacy in different worlds to be able to convene people in those different worlds into a joint conversation."

 

My source:

https://twitter.com/WengerTrayner/status/1423577543152656384?s=20

Previously on W2tQ: 'landscape'

IFORS Developing Countries Online Resources

New documents joined - further ones are welcome

IFORS Developing Countries Online Resources 

The aim of the IFORS Developing Countries Online Resources page is to offer the OR worker all publicly-available materials on the topic of OR for Development. It also aims to provide a venue for people who are working in the area to share their completed or in-process work, learn from others, and stimulate comments and discussions on the work. Regarding IFORS Developing Countries OR resources website, its regular updates - and your possible submission of "free" (not copyright protected) material, you might occasionally visit

http://ifors.org/developing_countries/index.php?title=Main_Page

With this open resources page we aim to make research and application results better accessible to the many friends in the Developing Countries. We would be glad about interest. Contributions from the science, communication and education sectors are warmly welcome by our community which has very little access to emerging documents on arts and science, research and technology. "Operational Research" (OR) is the discipline of applying advanced analytical methods to help make better decisions. By using techniques such as problem structuring methods and mathematical modelling to analyze complex situations, Operational Research gives executives the power to make more effective decisions and build more productive systems. 

The International Federation of Operational Research Societies (IFORS; http://ifors.org/) is an almost 60-year old organization which is currently composed of 51 national societies. 

Regional Groups of IFORS are: ALIO (The Latin American Ibero Association on Operations Research), APORS (The Association of Asian-Pacific Operational Research Societies), EURO (The Association of European Operational Research Societies), NORAM (The Association of North American Operations Research Societies). 

IFORS conferences are taking place every three years. On IFORS 2021, Seoul, South Korea, August 22-27, 2021, please refer to http://www.ifors2020.kr/

Thank you very much for your attention. 

With kind regards, best wishes,

Gerhard-Wilhelm Weber 

PS: Feedback is welcome via gerhard.weber AT put.poznan.pl

My source:

www.jiscmail.ac.uk/AI-SGES 

 

Poetry Health Service c/o HOME

individual

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INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ----------------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

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group - population

Poetry Health Service The Poetry Health Service is now open! The PHS is a brand new, free, creative service offering contemporary poetry as a tool for connection and healing. Fill in a colour based flow chart and receive your own complimentary poem.

My source: HOME, Manchester

A free online-learning opportunity for those interested in Implementation Science

INSPIRING CHANGE

Open for enrollment March 9 to May 18, 2020

A FREE mini-course providing a high level overview on how to create impact with evidence-based implementation

This mini-course will help you:

• Understand what evidence-based implementation is and how to proactively plan for change.
• Discover how process models, theories, and frameworks can be the backbone of your change plan.
• Be inspired to use behavior change theory.
• Be more purposeful with your time, by addressing high-priority areas and anticipating resistance to change.
• Learn simple tips and tricks that can set you up for success.

Cost: FREE

Time to complete: It takes about 1.5 hours to complete the videos and activities.

Available: Enrollment open twice a year (from March to May; and from September to October)


My source:
Julia E. Moore, Ph.D.
Senior Director
647-390-1929
thecenterforimplementation.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/julia-e-moore/

Follow us on Twitter: @TCI_ca

We urgently need funding to continue our work in 2020. Support the HIFA Appeal: www.hifa.org/appeal

To send a message to HIFA simply send an email to: hifa AT hifaforums.org

HIFA: Healthcare Information For All: www.hifa.org

n.b. My revalidation is due and in (hopeful) preparation for a further three years 2020-2023 I will apply for this myself.

Free Introduction to Sociology Textbook (for adoption)

Dear Colleagues,

- and with Merry Christmas to all!

This is a great time of year for changing textbooks and adopting our free Introduction to Sociology Text.

Over the last fifteen years the cost of textbooks has outpaced inflation at a phenomenal rate. USA Today reports that over the past 25 years the average cost of tuition and fees has risen (35%) faster than personal income, consumer prices and even health insurance (Block, 2007).This increases the financial burden on college students who are trying to afford a bachelors degree.

In an effort to combat the exorbitant costs of college textbooks, we wrote a free 20 chapter brief Introduction to Sociology Textbook. It was funded by a one-time grant and is now available to any college student or faculty member anywhere in the world--FREE!

You may access it at this Internet address:
http://freebooks.uvu.edu (copy and paste in URL)

This textbook reflects 20 years of teaching in the field. This book is current, concise, and visually aesthetic. It has an equivalent market value of about $40-$60.00 compared to most brief texts on the market. It also has a brief how to succeed in college section with success strategies built in for students.

No passwords are needed and no costs whatsoever to faculty or students. The book is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution (BY) which means you may use any portion of it as long as you reference the original authors.

We have created a test bank of over 5,300 questions (1,261 Multiple Choice, 2,250 True/False, 1090 Fill in the Blank, 793 Matching) covering each chapter of this text. These are formatted to easily load into blackboard or any other LMS you may be using.

If you chose to adopt it, simply fill out the form (located under the Faculty Tab) and we'll send you the secure testbank.

If you know of a colleague who might be interested please forward this e-mail.

Knowledge must be affordable to all who seek it

Sincerely,

Ron Hammond, Ph.D Sociology at UVU
Paul Cheney, Ph.D. Multi Media-Web Design at UVU

Ron J. Hammond, Ph.D.
Assistant Department Chair
Behavioral Science Department
Mail Stop 115 at
Utah Valley University
800 West University Parkway
Orem, Utah 84058
RonH at uvu.edu


My source: TEACHSOC: list teachsoc at googlegroups.com

Related post: Book review: Gary Hall's "Digitize This Book!" (DTB)

Open access on W2tQ

Issue 2, 2009 of The Cochrane Library

Issue 2, 2009 of The Cochrane Library is now available. Among the new and updated Cochrane Reviews you will find :

• Homeopathic medicines for adverse effects of cancer treatments
• Music for stress and anxiety reduction in coronary heart disease patients
• Interventions for preventing falls in older people living in the community
• Extraction of primary (baby) teeth for unerupted palatally displaced permanent canine teeth in children
• Psychological therapies for the management of chronic pain
• Topical treatments for chronic plaque psoriasis
• Alcohol and drug screening of occupational drivers for preventing injury
• And many more … www.thecochranelibrary.com

Some of these reviews have been highlighted in Evidence Podcasts and are free to access.

Please see the Release Notes for a summary of the updates in this issue. Users can also access our Highlights PDF to learn more about the findings of new and updated Cochrane Reviews.
The Cochrane Library

The Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions is now available in print format. It is published by John Wiley for The Cochrane Collaboration.

Editors: Julian P. T. Higgins MRC Biostatistics Unit, Cambridge, UK Sally Green Australasian Cochrane Centre, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

There is a 25% discount for Cochrane Review authors and an information page for the book where authors can also order, with a prompt to enter their discount code.

Wiley authors are entitled to a 25% discount not only on their own titles, but on all Wiley books, when ordering either via the site, by phoning customer services or filling in any printed order forms.


Images and my source: John-Wiley mail-list

New Drupal based Social Media Classroom

I learned of this new initiative on the Drupal for Libraries list in a post by Ari Davidow.

Using Drupal with the help of a MacArthur grant, author and educator Howard Rheingold has set up:

Social Media Classroom and Collaboratory

Welcome to the Social Media Classroom and Collaboratory. It’s all free, as in both “freedom of speech” and “almost totally free beer.” We invite you to build on what we’ve started to create more free value. The Social Media Classroom (we’ll call it SMC) includes a free and open-source (Drupal-based) web service that provides teachers and learners with an integrated set of social media that each course can use for its own purposes—integrated forum, blog, comment, wiki, chat, social bookmarking, RSS, microblogging, widgets , and video commenting are the first set of tools. The Classroom also includes curricular material: syllabi, lesson plans, resource repositories, screencasts and videos. The Collaboratory (or Colab), is what we call just the web service part of it. Educators are encouraged to use the Colab and SMC materials freely, and we host your Colab communities if you don’t want to install your own. (See this for an explanation of who “we” are).

This provides an interesting perspective on the use of open source tools with value-added service provision.

[ This link still works, but 'News' refers to 2008 ... ]