Dr James Szymankiewicz has been working on an article with Rachel Stancliffe and Laurie Laybourn-Langton over the last few months which is a call to action for the healthcare community regarding key environmental issues. James was delighted to learn that the BMJ has published as a letter - a response to the editorial on global warming. Please take a look;

https://www.bmj.com/content/363/bmj.k4410/rr-7

Dr James Szymankiewicz

Executive Partner Combe Costal Practice Ilfracombe

Vice Chair North Devon GP Collaborative Board

Chair Devon Local Nature Partnership

The AGW Public Health network is now live. The website provides events listing, AGW PH CPD event booking, information on education, training programmes and public health careers, and showcases local projects and initiatives. The website can be accessed by clicking the following link:

www.agwpublichealthnetwork.info

Please visit the site and sign up as a member.
 

Click here to register interest for Development School 2014

2014 Public Health specialty recruitment application window now live

Are you thinking of applying to the Public Health Training Programme in 2014?  

See our 'Events' tab for details of open evenings in Exeter and Bristol happening very soon..Open evening Exeter 10th October..  Open evening Bristol 24th October

South West Public Health Scientific Conference

Wednesday 5th February 2014

The Winter Gardens, Weston-super-Mare

Call For Abstracts

You are invited to submit abstracts for Oral and Poster presentation at the South West Public Health Scientific Conference to be held on Wednesday 5th February 2014.

The aim of the conference is to showcase both service and university based public health research and evaluation from across the South West.

You are invited to submit abstracts of your work from across the full range of public health and from all related disciplines. Abstracts should clearly include your research question, methodology and results. To help with the submission of abstracts, guidance and an example abstract are attached.

Abstracts should be sent to the conference organisers via Beth.Carpenter@southwest.hee.nhs.uk and be received by 18.00 hours on Wednesday 30th October 2013.

If you would like to discuss the content of your abstract please contact one of the following members of the conference abstract committee:

Prof Yoav Ben-Shlomo Tel: 0117 928 7206 Professor in Clinical Epidemiology Email: Y.Ben-Shlomo@bristol.ac.uk

Dr Paul Pilkington Tel: 0117 328 8860 Senior Lecturer in Public Health Email: Paul.Pilkington@uwe.ac.uk

Guidance For Abstracts

Please complete the attached submission form and return it to Beth.Carpenter@southwest.hee.nhs.uk with a copy of your abstract, quoting Scientific Conference Abstract in the email subject line.

All abstracts must be received by 18.00 hours on Wednesday 30th October 2013. Abstracts received after this time will not be considered.

Important information regarding abstract layout:

• The abstract must be no longer than 300 words maximum (excluding title, authors and affiliations, keywords and references)
• Text should be single line spaced with justified margins
• Each abstract must use Word Arial font in size 11 point
• Abstracts should be saved as a Word document using the author’s name as the file name
• Abstracts should be presented in accordance with the following guidance:
  • The title of the abstract must be in bold. The first letter of each word of the title must be in upper sentence case.
  • Full details of all the authors must be provided. This should include name; role and organisation/affiliation
  • The name of the author that wishes to present at the conference must be underlined
  • The authors’ roles and organisations/affiliations should be written in italics
  • The aim of the abstract presentation must be clear
  • It is advised to use the following sub-headings where relevant and appropriate:
    • Aim
    • Background
    • Methodology
    • Results / Findings
    • Conclusions / Recommendations

Abstracts that fail to adhere to the required abstract layout as outlined above will be rejected. Abstracts will be reproduced on the conference website exactly as submitted, so please check abstracts carefully before submission.

Abstracts will be peer reviewed and presenting authors of successful abstracts will be notified by 18th November 2013.

Please note that acceptance of your abstract does not give you a delegate place at the conference and you will be required to register a place when registration opens in late November.

For those submitting multiple abstracts, please be aware that if more than one abstract is accepted for oral presentation, each must be presented by a different individual at the conference.

Oral presentations will generally be allocated 12 minutes, followed by 3 minutes for discussion.

Poster presentations will be provided with space for one board.

Example Abstract:

Smoking Cessation Treatment and the Risk of Depression, Suicide and Self-harm in the Clinical Practice Research Datalink: a Cohort Study

Thomas K; Martin R; Davies N; Windmeijer F; Metcalfe C; Gunnell D

Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol

Aim: To compare the risk of suicide, self-harm and depression in patients prescribed varenicline and bupropion with those prescribed nicotine replacement therapy (NRT).

Background: Smoking is a major cause of premature mortality and preventable morbidity in the UK. Varenicline is recommended by NICE as an option for smokers who want to quit smoking. However there are safety warnings that smoking cessation medicines, such as varenicline and bupropion, may increase the risk of fatal and non-fatal self-harm.

Methodology: We followed up 203 413 adult patients with a first prescription of a smoking cessation product between September 1st 2006 and 31st December 2010 in the UK’s Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD). NRT was the most commonly prescribed (70% of prescriptions), followed by varenicline (24.9%) and bupropion (5.2%). Approximately half of general practices in the CPRD were linked to National Mortality data and Hospital Episode Statistics. Our primary outcomes were suicide and hospital admission for self-harm; depression was a secondary outcome. Cox regression methods were used.

Results: We detected 2008 primary care records of depression, 53 hospital admissions for self-harm and 6 confirmed suicides. We found no evidence that patients prescribed varenicline had higher risks of suicide, self-harm or depression compared with those prescribed NRT; hazard ratios (HRs) 0.90 (95% confidence interval 0.10, 8.30), 0.88 (0.43, 1.80) and 0.73 (0.65, 0.82) respectively. There were no suicides in patients prescribed bupropion. We found no evidence that patients prescribed bupropion had higher risks of self-harm, HR 1.03 (0.32, 3.37) or depression, HR 0.88 (0.71, 1.08) compared with patients prescribed NRT. Updated results will be available at the conference.

Conclusions: There is no evidence of an increased risk of suicidal behaviour in patients prescribed varenicline or bupropion compared to those prescribed NRT. These findings are reassuring for users and prescribers of smoking cessation medicines.

Abstract Submission Form

Please return to Beth.Carpenter@southwest.hee.nhs.uk by 18.00 hours on Wednesday 30th October 2013 quoting Scientific Conference Abstract in the email subject line

Please note the closing date for abstracts for the 2013 Scientific Conference is Friday 26 October 2012.

The South West Public Health Scientific Conference 2013 will be taking place on Thursday 7^th February at the Winter Gardens in Weston-super-Mare. This annual event offers a unique opportunity to highlight the full range of public health research and evaluation from across the South West.

Abstracts may be submitted for consideration as either an oral or poster presentation at the conference.

Please would you advise anyone else you know who may be interested to have their work considered for inclusion at the conference.

Details about registering your attendance at the conference will be sent out in November.

Contact Lyndy.White@Bristol.nhs.uk or Beth.Carpenter@Bristol.nhs.uk  for a copy of the Invitation to submit abstracts.

Public Health Science: A national conference dedicated to new research in public health

Friday 23 November 2012 
Abstract deadline 6 July 2012

The Royal Society of Medicine, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, National Heart Forum, and The Lancet invite abstract submissions for oral or poster presentations at Public Health Science: A national conference dedicated to new research in public health to be held on Friday 23 November 2012, at the Royal Society of Medicine in London.

This multi-disciplinary event aims to showcase the exceptional talent and creativity in the UK public health research community, across all aspects of public health and inclusive of all methodological approaches, with a special focus on the intersection between public health science and policy. This will be an abstract-driven event with keynote speakers from leaders in public health. Peer-reviewed abstracts will be published online in The Lancet.

The NIHR will be exhibiting at this event and would like to encourage our current funded researchers to submit abstracts.

The abstract submission deadline is Friday 6 July 2012.

For more information on the conference and to submit your abstract visit the Royal Society of Medicine website at www.rsm.ac.uk/academ/epd01.php   

Date for the diary......
The date for the Scientific Conference in 2013 has been set for Thursday 07 February. This event will take place at the Winter Gardens in Weston-super-Mare. 

Details of the Core Competency training days arranged for Public Health Educational/Academic Supervisors are now available under Forthcoming Events.

You will need to complete Core Competencies ES 1 - 7 by 31st July 2012 to be accredited to continue as Educational/Academic Supervisors.

Please email Beth Carpenter if you would like to book a place on one of the training days, or call on 0117 900 2679.

This year’s Scientific Conference has been declared as a great success once again, with evaluations completed by attendees rating the Conference as either matching or surpassing ratings of previous years.

The conference, held in Weston-Super-Mare in February 2012, was attended by 180 delegates of Public Health professionals from the South West.

Presentations from the plenary and parallel sessions are now available to view online, and a summary of the evaluations is also available.

Thank you to all who participated in this event and we look forward to welcoming you to next year’s Conference.

If you have any thoughts or comments on how we can improve the event for next year, please contact the SWPHT team via: Lyndy.White@bristol.nhs.uk

Linking health and sustainable development

This popular seminar series reconvenes with a theme of linking health and sustainable development. The style of the seminar is to start with practitioners reflecting on theory and practice for key topics. This is followed with opportunities to discuss the implications for practice and then to share thoughts on the outcomes. The seminars are normally held on Wednesday afternoons.

Please see WHO Centre at UWE for details of forthcoming seminars.

The Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) is running a training programme at Kellogg College, Oxford, during the week beginning 16^th April.  This training opportunity may be of interest to Public Health Practitioners or Registrars. http://www.casp-uk.net/workshops/casp-training-week/ 

The Faculty’s Education team have been working to make amendments to the training e-Portfolio. New functionality has been piloted with an ARCP in a region, and they have used this further feedback to make additional amendments. The new version of the portfolio will be launched on 23rd February 2012. Further information and guidance documents will shortly be added to the FPH website:

 www.fph.org.uk/training_e-portfolio

However, in order for this work to be carried out it will not be possible to access or make changes to the e-Portfolio from 9am on 22 February 2012 until 3pm on the 23 February 2012.

Registration is now open for this important regional conference. Please complete the registration form to ensure attendance.

Thank you to the attendees of this successful Public Health training event.  Your feedback is important, please ensure you submit an evalution form.

Please visit the Event for an evaluation form.

Full programme available soon.

Russell Ampofo, Head of Education and Training, Faculty of Public Health - guest speaker on e-portfolio

You are invited to submit abstracts from across the full range of public health and from all disciplines working in public health in the South West.

Details of the conference and the Call for Abstracts information can be found on our Events page.

Applications for two NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow posts will open on 17 October 2011. These posts will be commencing in August 2012. One post is being offered in conjunction with the University of Bristol and the other in conjunction with the Peninsula Medical School. The posts will be advertised on the recruitment pages of the web-site.

The GMC Trainee and Trainer Surveys closed on Friday 22 July 2011.  The Severn Deanery has the highest national response rate for both surveys and further information can be found on the Surveys webpage.

This ensures that our results are valid and reliable and can be used a sound basis for improving the quality of postgraduate medical education in the Severn Deanery.

We are in the process of building a new South West Public Health web site utilising the framework of the Severn Deanery web site to allow sharing content between the sites.

The Joint Deaneries Education Conference 2011 has been set as Friday, 7 October 2011. This year’s event is a one-day conference, being held at Lyngford House in Taunton.

Rose Hill (PA to Professor Martin Beaman, Postgraduate Dean Peninsula Deanery) is managing the organisation of the event. 

Please refer to the Peninsula Deanery website for more information and to register.