NeuroPat Dote Hu

NeuroPat is the largest collection of neurology links with excellent quality studying materials.
Check out, for example, these Neurology Quizzes: No.1, No.2, and No.3, and these Neuro-Anatomy structures Slides.
Find out more here...

RCPI STATEMENT ON ELECTION OF PRESIDENT

PRESS RELEASE Immediate Publication 27th June 2007

RCPI STATEMENT ON ELECTION OF PRESIDENT

Three candidates will go forward for election to the position of President of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, which takes place on Friday, July 6th 2007. These are:

Dr. John Donohoe Dr. Kathleen (Kate) McGarry Dr. Frank Murray

Balloting takes place simultaneously in four locations at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, July 6th 2007: Belfast - Ramada Hotel; Cork - The Kingsley Hotel and Residence; Dublin - RCPI, 6 Kildare Street; Galway - The Ardilaun House Hotel.

The elected President will take up the position immediately following the announcement of the result.

ENDS

InterActive Atlas of Neuro-Oncology...

Aims of the Atlas of Neuro-oncology
Thanks to the possibilities offered by the Internet, the simplified presentation of this atlas aims not only to facilitate access to information on the neuropathology of central nervous system tumors but also:
* to encourage use of a common morphologic language by all concerned specialists (neurologists, neurosurgeons, neuroradiologists, neuropathologists, oncologists, etc.)
* to serve as a useful and original teaching tool thanks to integration of modern information technology in the daily routine of physicians, teachers, and medical students
* to be a rapid source of initial assistance , providing a description of basic principles for regular or occasional practitioners of neuro-oncology
* to promote further development of the atlas by "interactive" participation of other teams.
This atlas currently consists of a "permanent reference collection" of 197 images illustrating the major anatomopathological features of CNS tumors and the essential criteria for their diagnosis. In a future stage, neuropathologists will have the possibility to suggest the addition of other documents to enrich the basic iconography.
In addition, a "neuropathology forum" , which will be annexed to the atlas, will permit users to present exceptional cases, submit difficult cases for evaluation, and participate in discussions on certain documents of the atlas. While this interactivity will be spontaneous and left up to individual initiative, invitations to participate may be issued by one of the authors of the atlas. The authors will serve as the "editorial board" in charge of checking the quality of the documents that will be published on the site under the responsibility of their authors.
In the near future, the scope of this atlas will be expanded to include neuroradiology along with neuropathology . As a means of emphasizing the necessary close cooperation among neuro-oncologists, neurosurgeons, neuropathologists, and neuroradiologists, the latter will be able to propose characteristic images of each tumor entity. Following approval by the "editorial board", these images will be progessively incorporated in the atlas under the responsibility of their authors.
The authors are grateful to the University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis , and in particular the Medical School , and the ANOCEF (Association of French-speaking Neuro-oncologists) for their assistance in preparation of this atlas, which is accessible in English, French and Spanish.
End

RCPI Public Meeting Series 2007...

The Royal College of Physicians of Ireland's annual programme to inform members of the public on key healthcare issues and to provide an opportunity for the public to communicate their concerns to the RCPI.

Is our relationship with Alcohol causing more pleasure or pain?

Healthcare-associated infection - Microbiological facts and public perception

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Dr.Osama Amin MRCPI

From Sign.ac.UK :
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Diagnosis and management of headache in adultsWednesday 5th September 2007Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh
10.00 Registration and coffee
10.30 Welcome and introduction to SIGN guideline developmentMember of SIGN Council
10.40 Chair’s introductionDr David Watson, General Practitioner, Aberdeen and Chair of the SIGN GuidelineDevelopment Group on the Diagnosis and Management of Headache in Adults
10.50 The patient’s and carer’s perspectiveMs Heather Wallace, Chairman, Pain Concern
Session One: DiagnosisChair: Dr Roger Cull, Honorary Consultant Neurologist, Western General Hospital, Edinburgh
11.00 Signs and symptomsDr Callum Duncan, Specialist Registrar in Neurology, Western General Hospital, Edinburgh
11.10 T oolsDr David Watson, General Practitioner, Aberdeen
11.15 InvestigationsDr Anne Coker, General Practitioner, Dundee
11.25 Panel discussionincluding Dr Murray Fleming, General Practitioner, Clydebank
11.40 Coffee/Tea
Session Two: Management of migraineChair: Dr Gillian Smith, Oral Medicine Consultant, Glasgow Dental Hospital
12.00 Treatment of acute migraine headacheMs Arlene Coulson, Principal Clinical Pharmacist, Ninewells Hospital, Dundee
12.10 Preventive treatmentDr Alok Tyagi, Consultant Neurologist, Southern General Hospital, Glasgow
12.20 Panel discussionincluding Dr Roger Cull, Honorary Consultant Neurologist, Western General Hospital,Edinburgh and Dr Anne Coker, General Practitioner, Dundee
12.45 L unch
Session Three: Management of headacheChair: Dr Murray Fleming, General Practitioner, Clydebank
13.45 Cluster headache and other autonomic trigeminal cephalgiasDr Alok Tyagi, Consultant Neurologist, Southern General Hospital, Glasgow
13.55 Chronic headache and medication overuse headacheDr Callum Duncan, Specialist Registrar in Neurology, Western General Hospital, Edinburgh
14.05 Panel discussionIncluding: Ms Arlene Coulson, Principal Clinical Pharmacist, Ninewells Hospital, Dundee andDr Anne Coker, General Practitioner, Dundee
Session Four: Other therapiesChair: tbc
14.30 Lifestyle factorsDr Gillian Smith, Oral Medicine Consultant, Glasgow Dental Hospital
14.40 Psychological therapiesMs Penelope Fraser, Lead Clinician and Consultant Clinical Psychologist, Ninewells Hospital,Dundee
14.50 Physical and complementary therapiesMs Suzie Scott, Physiotherapist, Glasgow Royal Infirmary
15.00 Headache and hormonesDr Roger Cull, Honorary Consultant Neurologist, Western General Hospital, Edinburgh
15.10 Panel discussionincluding Ms Heather Wallace, Chairman, Pain Concern
Session Four: Feedback, questions and conclusionsDr David Watson, General Practitioner, Aberdeen and Chair of the SIGN GuidelineDevelopment Group on the Diagnosis and Management of Headache in Adults
15.30 General discussion and response to written questions
15.50 Concluding remarks
16.00 Close of meeting
PDF versions of this programme and registration form can be downloaded here.
Diagnosis and management of headache in adults. Programme
Diagnosis and management of headache in adults. Registration form

End

PACES MRCP UK Blog...

It's been long time since I've visited PACES MRCPUK Blog , really they are doing a good job after a relatively long period of silence. For those preparing for MRCP(Ireland) Clinical Examination or PACES (UK), i would recommend spending extra time reviewing this blog. Few clips were added. All the best from me and my team.

Dr. Osama Amin

Iraqi Orphans with Cerebral Palsy and Mental Retardation Illnesses On CBS News!

Although I don't like politics at all, I found this really shocking; 4 years after the"liberation or occupation" of Iraq! I have no comment, just see and judge.
Osama Amin
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From CBS News:

(CBS) It was a scene that shocked battle-hardened soldiers, captured in photographs obtained exclusively by CBS News.

On a daytime patrol in central Baghdad just over than a week ago, a U.S. military advisory team and Iraqi soldiers happened to look over a wall and found something horrific.

"They saw multiple bodies laying on the floor of the facility," Staff Sgt. Mitchell Gibson of the 82nd Airborne Division told CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan. "They thought they were all dead, so they threw a basketball (to) try and get some attention, and actually one of the kids lifted up their head, tilted it over and just looked and then went back down. And they said, 'oh, they're alive' and so they went into the building."

Inside the building, a government-run orphanage for special needs children, the soldiers found more emaciated little bodies tied to the cribs. They had been kept this way for more than a month, according to the soldiers called in to rescue the 24 boys.

"I saw children that you could see literally every bone in their body that were so skinny, they had no energy to move whatsoever, no expression on their face," Staff Sgt. Michael Beale said.

"The kids were tied up, naked, covered in their own waste — feces — and there were three people that were cooking themselves food, but nothing for the kids," Lt. Stephen Duperre said.

Logan asked: So there were three people cooking their own food?

"They were in the kitchen, yes ma'am," Duperre said.

With all these kids starving around them?

"Yes ma'am," Duperre said.

It didn't stop there. The soldiers found kitchen shelves packed with food and in the stockroom, rows of brand-new clothing still in their plastic wrapping.

Instead of giving it to the boys, the soldiers believe it was being sold to local markets.

The man in charge, the orphanage caretaker, had a well-kept office — a stark contrast to the terrible conditions just outside that room.

"I got extremely angry with the caretaker when I got there," Capt. Benjamin Morales said. "It took every muscle in my body to restrain myself from not going after that guy."

He has since disappeared and is believed to be on the run. But two security guards are in custody, arrested on the orders of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Two women also working there, who posed for pictures in front of the naked boys as if there was nothing wrong, have also disappeared.

"My first thought when I walked in there was shock, and then I got a little angry that they were treating kids like that, then that's when everybody just started getting upset," Capt. Jim Cook said. "There were people crying. It was definitely a bad emotional scene."

There was nothing more emotional than finding one boy who Army medics did not expect to survive. For Gibson, that was the hardest part:

Seeing a boy who was at the orphanage, where Logan reported from, "with thousands of flies covering his body, unable to move any part of his body, you know we had to actually hold his head up and tilt his head to make sure that he was OK, and the only thing basically that was moving was his eyeballs," Gibson explained. "Flies in the mouth, in the eyes, in the nose, ears, eating all the open wounds from sleeping on the concrete."

All that, and the boy was laying in the boiling sun — temperatures of 120 degrees or so, according to Gibson.

Looking at the boy today, as he sits up in his crib without help, it is hard to believe he is the same boy, one week later — now clean and being cared for along with all the other boys in a different orphanage located only a few minutes away from where they suffered their ordeal.

Another little boy right shown in the photos was carried out of the orphanage by Beale. He was very emaciated.

"I picked him up and then immediately the kid started smiling, and as I got a little bit closer to the ambulance he just started laughing. It was almost like he completely understood what was going on," Beale said.

When CBS News visited the orphanage with the soldiers, it was clear the boys had been starved of human contact as much as anything else, Logan said. Some still had marks on their ankles from where they were tied. Since only one boy can talk, it's impossible to know what terrible memories they might have locked away.

The memory of what he saw when he helped rescue the boys that night haunts Ali Soheil, the local council head, who wept during the interview.

Later at the hospital, Lt. Jason Smith brushed teeth and helped clean up the boys. He and his wife are both special education teachers, and he was proud to tell her what the soldiers had done.

"She said that one day was worth my entire deployment," Smith said. "It makes the whole thing worthwhile."

This is a tough test for the Iraqi government: How a nation cares for its most vulnerable is one of the most important benchmarks for the health of any society.

See video no.1, and video no.2.

End.

More Patients Getting Into Stroke Units But 21st Century Care Still Lacking

From the website of the Royal College of Physicians (London):

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More Patients Getting Into Stroke Units But 21st Century Care Still Lacking...

The results of the 2006 National Sentinel Audit for Stroke show that patients are spending more of their time on stroke units, but there are still unacceptable waits for brain scans and starting treatment. Results from Wales are still falling behind those from England, and are a major cause for concern. A separate release on the Welsh results is available.
The Audit, funded by the Healthcare Commission, was carried out on behalf of the Intercollegiate Stroke Group by the Royal College of Physicians’ Clinical Effectiveness and Evaluation Unit (CEEu), and covers 100% of eligible hospitals in England and Wales. As in 2005, results for each participating site are published on the RCP website:
http://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/pubs/books/strokeaudit/strokeaudit2006.pdf

Read more...

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American Academy of Neurology Practice Guidelines...

The American Academy of Neurology (AAN) develops clinical practice guidelines to assist its members in clinical decision making related to the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of neurologic disorders. Each guideline makes specific practice recommendations based upon a rigorous and comprehensive evaluation of all available scientific data.

AAN guidelines are used to:
**Improve health outcomes of patients
**Stay abreast of the latest in clinical research
**Appeal payment denials
**Provide Medico-legal protection
**Advocate for fair reimbursement
**Determine whether your practice follows current, best evidence
**Affirm the role of neurologists in the diagnosis and treatment of neurological disorders
**Influence public or hospital policy
**Promote efficient use of resources
**Identify research priorities based on gaps in current literature

Review the latest practice guidelines.

AIR POLLUTION AND STROKE: IS A CAUSATIVE ASSOCIATION PLAUSIBLE?

An article from behind the medical headlines by Professor A Seaton:

Summary:
The links between air pollution and respiratory disease are well established. Research has now suggested that air pollution could also have a causative effect in stroke. How plausible is this association? Prof Anthony Seaton reviews the evidence...
Read the article.

RCPI STATEMENT ON CONSULTANT CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS

From the website of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland:

PRESS STATEMENT Immediate Publication 4th May 2007 :

RCPI has no role or involvement in issues regarding industrial relations, and it has not been the practice of RCPI to comment on such matters. However, issues relating to the current consultant contract negotiations have the potential to impact negatively on future standards in medical training, specialty practice and ultimately on patient care, and it is incumbent on RCPI to clearly state its position on these issues.
The future well-being of the Irish Health Service and the quality of care afforded to patients depends to a very significant degree on all key participants – consultants, doctors-in-training, management, nurses and other healthcare professionals and workers – working together in an environment where there is mutual respect and trust. In the interests of patient care, it is the responsibility of each and every one of these groups to play a part in creating this environment, particularly during the course of a very difficult process of change.
It is clear, given the nature of their expertise and position and as has been acknowledged by the HSE, that consultants have a critically important leadership role to play in the reform of the health service. In this context, it is essential that existing consultants and prospective candidates for consultant positions have confidence in the contractual arrangement for those positions and the process by which doctors are selected for those positions.
RCPI strongly supports the projected increase in consultant numbers, and is prepared to engage in the recruitment process from the perspective of maintaining standards in the context of an agreed contract. Further, RCPI believes that the primary goal of the consultant recruitment process must be to select candidates of the highest calibre who have demonstrated a high standard of practice in their speciality as evidenced by successful completion of an accredited training programme. In this regard, RCPI reiterates its view that all appointees to consultant positions must, at a minimum, be on the Specialist Register of the Medical Council.
One of the major successes of the health service in Ireland over the past number of years has been the development of high quality training programmes for doctors, which enable doctors to reach the standard required for entry onto the Medical Council’s Specialist Register. This has allowed the health service to recruit and retain highly talented and motivated doctors at all levels. It is of fundamental importance to the quality of patient care that such doctors continue to train and to seek employment in Ireland.
RCPI is deeply concerned that our existing cohort of Specialist Registrars (doctors undertaking a 4-7 year training programme in a specific medical specialty, such as Cardiology, Medical Oncology, Respiratory Medicine etc), have informed us that they believe that the current situation in relation to the consultant contract will undermine high standards of medical practice and medical training and deter them from continuing to work in the Irish health service.
All postgraduate medical training programmes are entirely dependent on the leadership and time given to those programmes by consultants in their roles as Trainers and National Speciality Directors. Their role in training and education of future specialists is absolutely central. The maintenance and development of high quality training programmes is entirely dependent on the employment of consultants of the highest standard. If any other standard is accepted, the quality of training programmes will be directly and immediately affected and as a consequence patient care compromised.
Within the current negotiations, RCPI believes that there is an opportunity to reach agreement on a contract that will attract the best candidates from Ireland and abroad, and will provide a real platform to enable clinical leadership and commitment to high standards in training and practice. This will directly impact on the quality and nature of patient care in Ireland for decades to come. The importance of this outcome demands that all parties redouble efforts to resolve outstanding issues as a matter of urgency.
End
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Read the statment in a PDF format from this link.