Typing your child's medical problem into Google is unlikely to deliver much in the way of good advice, UK researchers have said. The Nottingham-based team used the search engine to find UK-based advice on five common issues, including breastfeeding and autism. Only about 200 of 500 sites offered correct information, Archives of Disease in Childhood reports. Government-run sites were the only completely reliable source, they found.

It is now estimated that 70% of UK households have access to the internet, and increasingly, parents are turning to search engines for a second opinion - or even a sole one - on medical matters. Many doctors, however, are concerned that the huge quantity of information and advice is at best unreliable, and in some cases misleading or even dangerous.

One earlier study looking at advice for children with a fever found only three out of 22 sites visited gave information which matched current "best practice" guidelines. The researchers from Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust tested this by typing key words from commonly-asked questions into Google, restricting results to UK-based sites only.

The five chosen were "MMR autism", "HIV breastfeeding", "mastitis breastfeeding", "baby sleeping position" and "green vomit." They found the quality of advice varied significantly, with half the search results failing to answer the intended question. In total, 11% of the 500 results gave inaccurate information, and 39% gave the right answer.
The most incorrect replies were given to search results about MMR and autism, and HIV and breastfeeding. News websites were accurate 55% of the time.

Vaccine sales

Particularly poor at answering the question were "sponsored links" which appeared prominently, even though the information they contained was not closely related to the search terms. In the case of the "MMR/autism" search, many of the sponsored links offered single vaccination as an alternative to MMR. However, the accuracy of governmental websites such as NHS Direct or NHS Choices meant that they should be recommended more widely by doctors, the researchers said.

"Healthcare professionals should continue to strive to be the main source of information for patients but we should be aware that most will continue to use the internet to gather information," they wrote in the journal. "We suggest that in addition to verbal and written information, patients and parents should be signposted to NHS, governmental or other pre-approved websites."

A spokesman for the Department of Health said NHS Choices was now the most popular health website in the UK, receiving nearly nine million hits a month. He said: "It offers a range of health information on over 800 treatments and conditions, waiting times and survival rates for elective procedures. Patients using the site are also able to post feedback on hospitals and GP surgeries."

© BBC Health News – Monday, 12th April 2010

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8611045.stm

A wider knowledge of simple first aid techniques could save thousands of lives each year, the St John Ambulance charity has said. It is focusing a new campaign on five health emergencies which account for 150,000 deaths each year in England and Wales. These include heart attacks, choking and severe bleeding. The charity is offering a free pocket guide which it feels will boost the survival chances of many more patients. It believes that if confident first aiders were present on more occasions, many lives would be saved. This view is backed by the World Health Organisation, which also says "bystander first aid" can make a difference and should be encouraged.

The charity's own poll suggests that most people would still not feel confident attempting first aid techniques, while a quarter would do nothing and wait for other people or paramedics to arrive. Its chief executive Sue Killen said: "We believe that anyone who needs first aid should receive it. Our latest research shows that's just not happening. We can't rely on other people to have the skills - everyone should take the responsibility to learn first aid themselves. Around 2,500 people die each year from a blocked airway, but if someone had known the recovery position, lives could have been saved."

Crash tragedy

Beth Chesney-Evans' son died in 2008 following a motorcycle accident near his Oxfordshire home. She said she didn't know if he could have survived, even with first aid, but that it might have given him a chance. "He had no injuries at all but died because his heart apparently stopped and he couldn't breathe - and those are conditions that first aid is designed to deal with until the ambulance arrives."

Fotini Rozakeas, a cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: "In life threatening situations it's vital that we all know what to do before professional help arrives as it's bystanders, often a relative, who are first on the scene. "Every year around 140,000 people have a heart attack and around one in three die before reaching hospital. Calling 999 promptly and knowing what to do in those crucial minutes can make a big difference to a person's chance of survival."

The booklet is available free of charge from the St John Ambulance website, or by texting LIFE to 85010, contains simple instructions on treating patients with heart symptoms, bleeding, choking, or who are unconscious, either breathing or not breathing.

© BBC Health News – Monday, 12th April 2010

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8612194.stm

As of 6th April 2010 'Fit Notes' are replacing Sick Notes. The government want to reduce the number of people claiming long term health related benefits. Lord McKenzie, minister for the Department for Work and Pensions, said: "The fit note will reduce the cost employers often have to bear when people are off sick for a long time. With the right support in place, employers and doctors can work with employees to help them get back to work sooner."

However, the British Medical Association (BMA) has warned that more needs to be done to help SMEs understand their responsibilities. Dr Laurence Buckman, chair of the BMA's GPs' committee, told the BBC: "It will be down to the employer to be flexible enough to accommodate [the needs of the worker]. We think much more needs to be done to ensure employers, in particular local line managers, have enough information about the changes."

Dani Novick, managing director of Mercury Search and Selection, added that there was a risk that the new fit notes would be largely ignored due to a lack of understanding. "There is a risk that everyone from GPs to individuals to employers will simply carry on as they were and ignore the intention here," she said. "But this is a great opportunity to change the mindset from the assumption that someone will be away from work until they are completely recovered to one where the expectation is that they will get back to work as soon as possible."

© Copyright Case Management Society UK - Thursday, 15th April 2010

The identification of 20 genes which could help explain the causes of kidney disease could one day "revolutionise" treatment, researchers say. Chronic Kidney Disease affects about one in 10 adults and can require dialysis or even an organ transplant. The genes identified by the international team of researchers control kidney functions such as filtering waste from the blood.

Experts said the Nature Genetics study was "a great breakthrough."

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a long-term condition in which the kidneys progressively lose their function. People tend not to notice symptoms, which can include swollen ankles and hands or blood in the urine, until the condition is advanced. It is linked to ageing - about one in five men and one in four women aged between 65 and 74 will have some degree of CKD. The most common cause of CKD is damage caused by other long-term conditions, such as diabetes and high blood pressure. It was known there was a genetic component to the disease, but not which genes were involved.

'First step'

In this study, an international team of scientists, including researchers at the University of Edinburgh, looked at the genes of nearly 70,000 people across Europe. They found 13 new genes that influence renal function and seven others that affect the production and secretion of creatinine - a chemical waste molecule that is generated from muscle metabolism and filtered through the kidneys.

Dr Jim Wilson, a geneticist at the University of Edinburgh who worked on the study, said: "This work could revolutionise the treatment of kidney disease in the future - but this will take some time. It's a very critical first step towards a completely new understanding of the biology behind CKD. Transferring what we've found into clinical benefits will take some years."

Charles Kernahan, chief executive of the charity Kidney Research UK, said "These are still early days but it is truly a great breakthrough. No-one knows who will be affected or when kidney disease may strike next, so even more research needs to be funded to help us tackle this challenge."

Copyright BBC Health News – Monday. 12th April 2010

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8611312.stm

There will be an independent review after the NHS transplant authority confirmed 21 cases in which the wrong organs may have been taken from donors. As many as 800,000 people on the UK donor register may have had their preferences about which organs they wished to donate recorded incorrectly. Potential donations from these people have been temporarily put on hold.

Burnham 'regret' over donor error.

Health Secretary Andy Burnham said he regretted the error but it should not stop people from donating. The British Medical Association warned public confidence could be damaged. NHS Blood and Transplant apologised and said only people in Scotland, England and Wales who had registered as donors using their driving licence application form were potentially affected. Mr Burnham said a system had been put into place to prevent the error from happening again.

While many of the 17 million registered donors give consent for all their organs to be used for transplant after their death, some have withheld consent for certain organs - such as their eyes. For the last 10 years however, the details of some donors' preferences have been wrongly recorded because of a technical error. The blunder only came to light in 2009 when NHS Blood and Transplant started to write to donors to check their organ donor preferences.

Many donors wrote back to say the information was incorrect.

Stephen Banks, from Worcestershire, wrote to the BBC: "I renewed my driving licence in March this year and ticked the options to donate all my organs apart from eyes. However I then got a letter from the NHS which said I had donated all my organs including my eyes." "I feel a bit embarrassed to call up and say, 'I want my eyes back.'"

A spokesman for NHS Blood and Transplant said Mr Banks should not worry about contacting the authority to verify his records and they would welcome his call. Mr Burnham said a review led by Professor Sir Gordon Duff, of Sheffield University, would be commissioned to find out how the data was wrongly recorded. The health secretary said:

"We do need to get to the bottom of this. It would appear to relate to a technical error going back to 1999 and this was how data was transferred between the DVLA (Driving and Vehicle Licensing Authority) and the blood and transplant service. That has now been corrected," he said. Donor applications originating from the DVLA were suspended in early March.
In a statement, NHS Blood and Transplant said: "We assure everyone currently on the organ donor register that the affected records will not be used in discussions with their family about organ donation. They will only be used once they have been corrected in accordance with the donors' wishes."

The body has already corrected 400,000 flawed records and said steps would be taken to contact all those who were possibly affected to confirm the details held about them.

Copyright BBC Health News – Sunday 11th April 2010

Source - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8613909.stm