...Nearly 1 million patients fall victim to poor health & safety practices...

Monday 29th June 2009, ikonami, a provider of bespoke learning software systems for Government, Independent Healthcare and National Health Service (NHS) organisations, today called for healthcare organisations to increase the strategic use of Human Resource (HR) information to increase competence, improve health and safety (H&S) and reduce risk.  An astonishing one million people fall victim to poor standards of care through patient accidents or problems with treatments, procedures or medication – one third of whom suffer low to moderate harm, and even extended illness or fatality.

The world’s first virtual heart has been developed to improve teaching of peri-operative transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) skills in the care of patients with heart disease. HeartWorks, a uniquely realistic computer-generated model of the heart and echocardiography simulator, is the result of a 4 year project driven by a team of three London-based cardiac anaesthesiologists. Recognising the power of education through simulation and its increasingly widespread adoption throughout clinical practice, the team is spearheading a pathway change in education in one of the most interesting and challenging areas of cardiac care. Now in production by Inventive Medical, a subsidiary of UCLH Charity London, HeartWorks is set to dramatically transform TEE training by university teaching hospitals worldwide.

Responding to the World Health Organisation’s recent confirmation of swine flu as a pandemic,  BMJ Learning, the medical education arm of the BMJ Group, has updated and revised its guide 'Influenza pandemics: why, what, and how to prepare'  which covers all the information doctors need to know about pandemic flu including details of the epidemiological features and a description of the viruses involved. Three audio modules have also been published:

• 'Swine influenza: an update' has been produced in association with the UK Health Protection Agency. It reviews how doctors should be dealing with cases and suspected cases
• 'Pandemic flu: an update on ethical dilemmas' discusses the ethical dilemmas that doctors are likely to face as a pandemic worsens and answers questions about when doctors should risk their own and their families’ health to care for the sick and how to share out the available resources – drugs, ventilators, vaccines – when there’s not enough to go round

YourSurgeryAbroad.com offers the most comprehensive listings for the growing medical tourism market

YourSurgeryAbroad.com launches today with a directory of over 1200 providers of essential and non-essential surgery procedures making accessing international treatment centres easier for everyone. Aimed at the growing medical tourism industry, the site provides information on healthcare providers across 80 countries and 27 treatment areas, to form  the most comprehensive collection of worldwide clinics on the web.

YourSurgeryAbroad.com lists specialists, clinics and brokers for free on the website, so you can be safe in the knowledge that legitimate providers are included, and not just those who have paid.