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e-Newsletter |
Welcome to the ScotPHO e-NewsletterWelcome to the first issue of the ScotPHO e-Newsletter. This e-Newsletter will keep you up-to-date with the work of the Scottish Public Health Observatory (ScotPHO) collaboration. We hope you find it interesting and informative. If you have any comments or questions about the e-Newsletter or the ScotPHO collaboration, please email us at scotpho@nhs.net. If you have difficulty reading this e-Newsletter as an email, then please view it as a web page. What is ScotPHO?The Scottish Public Health Observatory (ScotPHO) is a collaboration led by ISD Scotland and NHS Health Scotland that brings together key national organisations involved in public health intelligence in Scotland. We are working together to ensure that the public health community in Scotland has easy access to clear and relevant information and statistics to support decision-making. The ScotPHO websiteThe ScotPHO website (http://www.scotpho.org.uk/) was launched in December 2005. The website provides summary data and statistics, commentaries and interpretation, policy notes, information on data sources, references and links to further information for a wide range of topics related to the health of the Scottish population. It also includes the new Scotland and European Health for All Database 2006. We plan to use the website as our main tool for disseminating the work of the ScotPHO collaboration, so please visit our home page regularly to see what's new on the ScotPHO website. Health Minister praises ScotPHO website
The Health Minister Andy Kerr was shown a demonstration of the ScotPHO website at both the NHS National Services Scotland and the NHS Health Scotland Annual Reviews. The Minister praised the website saying it was "an impressive new facility which can be used by all". Evaluating the websiteOver the summer of 2006 we carried out an evaluation of the ScotPHO website using an on-line questionnaire. Many thanks to those of you who participated in the survey. The evaluation report is now available and we are currently considering how the findings can be built in to the future development of the website. Coming soon on ScotPHOWe have a lot of improvements and additions to the website planned. Over the next few months we hope to add sections on the following topics:
In the longer term, other sections we plan to add include pharmaceutical public health and a section providing public health information relating to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities. We are also regularly updating existing topics to ensure that the information on the website remains as current and up-to-date as possible. Register with ScotPHOIf you haven't already done so, you can register with the ScotPHO website to receive regular email updates on the work of the ScotPHO collaboration. This includes our popular news alerts service, which provides a weekly update on news stories, new research and new publications of relevance to public health intelligence in Scotland. |
New on the ScotPHO websiteClick on the headlines below for more details Scotland and European Health for All (HfA) Database 2006This new database has been built by ScotPHO by adding Scottish data to the WHO's January 2006 European Health for All Database. Data are presented in a user-friendly, graphical or tabular form, allowing time trend and international comparisons for:
The database is available as either an on-line or downloadable off-line version, along with a briefing paper offering interpretation of the key findings for Scotland. Diabetes in ScotlandThis new section of the website pulls together available information on diabetes in Scotland. It includes information on risk factors, national diabetes policy and clinical standards, key data sources, key references and useful links, as well as presenting summary data and statistics on diabetes in Scotland. Scottish mortality in a European contextThis new report, and accompanying graphs, compares Scottish mortality trends with those in a range of other European countries. The report is an update of previously published work by Professor David Leon and colleagues. Mortality amenable to health care in Scotland 1981-2004Amenable mortality is mortality that can theoretically be averted by good health care. This new report provides estimates of amenable mortality by NHS board, and an assessement of its potential contribution to understanding health system performance in Scotland. Local health intelligence reportsThis new section of the website is a repository for public health reports from a more local perspective within Scotland. You will find a range of different reports, including Director of Public Health (DPH) reports, lifestyle survey reports and a selection of other local reports. We hope this section will grow into a useful resource for disseminating local health intelligence reports more widely throughout Scotland. If you have a report that you think would be appropriate for inclusion in this section please email it to us at scotpho@isd.csa.scot.nhs.uk. Public Health Information Network for Scotland (PHINS)The Public Health Information Network for Scotland (PHINS) aims to keep public health professionals in Scotland up-to-date with national and local developments in the sphere of public health information via bulletins, email updates and seminars. Currently the network has a wide membership encompassing over 500 professionals from health, local government, academia and other agencies. Seminars are held on an annual basis to discuss and publicise current information projects. Around 200 delegates attended the most recent PHINS seminar, which took place in Glasgow on Friday 29th September 2006. Details of the seminar presentations, including links to the PowerPoint slides, are available on the ScotPHO website's PHINS pages. Forthcoming eventsClick on the headlines below for further information on each event 15th UKPHA Annual Public Health ForumEdinburgh International Conference Centre, 28th-29th March 2007The UK Public Health Association's Annual Forum is the largest multi-disciplinary public health conference in the UK. Towards a smokefree societyEdinburgh International Conference Centre, 10th-11th September 2007This conference will present new research on the health, behavioural, social and economic impacts of smokefree legislation from Scotland, Europe and elsewhere. The conference is being organised jointly by NHS Health Scotland, the Scottish Executive and the European Commission. |
