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August
Evidence into Action prize awarded at National General Practice Education & Training Convention 2007
NICS has awarded a $1,000 Evidence into Action Prize at the National GPET Convention held 15-16 August, 2007 at the Gold Coast International Hotel, Queensland.
The winning abstract was awarded to Dr Mary Lou Loughnan and Dr Mark Burgermeister from Bogong Regional Training Network for their paper 'A practical approach for educators training GP registrars in critical thinking and EBM'.
NICS will be offering Evidence into Action prizes at the following conferences later this year:
- Australian Centre for Evidence Based Aged Care Conference - 26-27 September, Melbourne.
- 6th International Conference for Emerency Nurses 11-13th October, Melbourne.
- Australian College of Emergency Medicine 2007 Annual Scientific Meeting - 25-26 November, Gold Coast.
- Joanna Briggs Institute 2007 International Convention - 26-28 November, Adelaide.
April
NICS awards Evidence into Action prize at National Rural Health Conference
An entry from NSW’s Greater Southern Area Health Service won the NICS Evidence into Action Award at the National Rural Health Conference held on March 7-10 in Albury, NSW.
Congratulations to Ms Jo Lawrence, Ms Fran Peterie and Mr Simon Milligan, for their paper entitled “Improving perinatal health care: multi-disciplinary teams in a rural setting”. The paper detailed how the team implemented an integrated multidisciplinary approach to perinatal health care within a rural area health service. Parental psychosocial risk factors that impact on a family’s wellbeing and ability to parent can be identified. There is clear evidence that early intervention with vulnerable families improves outcomes across a broad range of physical, psychological and social indicators, and may lessen the development or impact of health problems across the lifespan. Implementing an evidence-based integrated multidisciplinary approach represented significant practice change for the service and showed the benefits of working across disciplines in rural areas to improve services for infants and their families.
March
Update on transfer of NICS to the NHMRC
On 1 April 2007 NICS will become an institute of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), which is part of the Commonwealth. On this date, our governance will transfer from the current NICS’ Board to the Chief Executive Officer of the NHMRC, Professor Warwick Anderson. NICS’ staff will become NHMRC staff, although we will continue to carry out our work functions from the office we currently occupy in Melbourne.
As part of this process of transferring our functions to the NHMRC, the Commonwealth, as the member of NICS, has appointed a liquidator, Ferrier Hodgson, under the members’ voluntary winding up provisions of the Corporations Act. This is the mechanism used to wind up a solvent company, that is, one that is able to pay its debts and meet its commitments.
During the voluntary liquidation process, all documents and correspondence sent out from NICS will carry the term “In Liquidation”. This is a legal requirement under Section 541(1) of the Corporations Act. NICS’ operations will continue as normal throughout the transfer process.
Enquiries
If you would like further information about the members’ voluntary liquidation process in relation to NICS, please contact Scott McKinnon at Ferrier Hodgson, email scott.mckinnon@fh.com.au.
If you have any questions about NICS' new role as an institute of the NHMRC, please contact Sue Montague, PR Manager at NICS, email smontague@nicsl.com.au
February
FightFLU: Health care workers - protect yourselves and those in your care
NICS’ 2007 FightFLU program has a new look and a new message: health care workers should protect themselves and those in their care by being vaccinated against influenza.
Vaccinating health care workers will help reduce influenza mortality and morbidity. Health professionals are themselves at increased risk of contracting influenza, and they may then spread it to those in their care. Currently only 20-50 per cent of health care workers are being vaccinated against influenza.
The NICS FightFlu website (www.fightflu.gov.au) has been revamped in preparation for the 2007 flu season. It provides access to all the current evidence and flu facts, including economic data and effective strategies to increase vaccinations. The site also contains downloadable tools for increasing vaccination rates that can be tailored to suit the needs of individual organisations and used to educate staff, patients and their families.
Influenza is not a cold. It is a highly contagious disease. Over 1,500 Australians die each year from complications caused by influenza, which is the same number of people who die on our roads each year.
These people include those with suppressed immunity due to chronic disease or medication. While vaccination rates in those over 65 years of age are good (79 per cent), for those under 65, only 42 per cent are vaccinated, putting them at significant risk.
It is therefore critical that health care workers, as well as those in at-risk groups, are vaccinated before the coming influenza season.
We’re keen to hear your thoughts on the FightFLU website’s new look and content, so once you’ve visited it please complete the online FightFLU feedback survey.
To hear more about the importance of influenza vaccination, download a podcast interview with NICS’ Executive Officer, Dr Jan Davies, from the RACGP website.