The Topol Review: Preparing the healthcare workforce to deliver the digital future

The Topol Review: Preparing the healthcare workforce to deliver the digital future The Topol Review, led by cardiologist, geneticist, and digital medicine researcher Dr Eric Topol, explores how to prepare the healthcare workforce, through education and training, to deliver the digital future. Dr Topol appointed a Review Board and three Expert Advisory Panels. HEE provided the secretariat team to facilitate the Review.

The Topol Review is now published and it makes recommendations that will enable NHS staff to make the most of innovative technologies such as genomics, digital medicine, artificial intelligence and robotics to improve services. These recommendations support the aims of the NHS Long-Term Plan. Health Education England

See also:

• Preparing health care workforce for a digital future will require Herculean effort at all levels The Health Foundation
• Alexa-like bots will listen out for suicidal patients under NHS technology revolution The Daily Telegraph
• Robots and AI to give doctors more time with patients, says report The Guardian

Developing innovative volunteer services in the NHS: Key insight and learnings

Developing innovative volunteer services in the NHS: Key insight and learnings This report summarises the key Insight and Impact findings from the five hospital trusts in the first Helpforce innovators programme. In order to support continuous improvement and impact management, the trusts collected both insights data, which is predominantly anecdotal and observational, and impact data, which is designed to measure impact in a more systematic, robust way. Helpforce

See also:

• Hospital volunteers help prevent malnutrition, falls and loneliness, research shows The Daily Mail

Is young people's mental health getting worse?

Is young people's mental health getting worse? Poor mental health among children and young people has been described as an epidemic and an "escalating crisis".

The number of children seeking help from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (Camhs) in England, has more than doubled over the past two years.

But establishing how much of this represents an actual rise in young people experiencing problems, and how much is down to better awareness of symptoms and diagnosis, is difficult. BBC News

See also:

• Suicidal children face long delays for mental health care The Guardian

Breast cancer: Scan younger women at risk, charity says

Breast cancer: Scan younger women at risk, charity says Younger women with a family history of breast cancer should receive annual screenings to pick up the disease earlier, a charity says.

Breast Cancer Now funded a study which found cancers were detected sooner when 35 to 39-year-olds at risk had annual mammograms.

NHS screening often starts at the age of 40 for women with a family history.

Experts need to balance the benefits of doing more checks against causing any undue worry or over-treatment. BBC News

Knife crime epidemic adds to over 50% rise in teen stabbings needing hospital care

Knife crime epidemic adds to over 50% rise in teen stabbings needing hospital care NHS hospitals treated more than 1,000 stabbings, glassings and other blade attacks on teenagers last year – a rise of more than 50 per cent per cent since 2013, the health service has revealed.

Last year there were 1,012 admissions for young people between the age of 10 and 19 as a result of knife attacks and assaults with sharp weapons. This is up from 656 assaults in 2012/13, and the numbers are rising, health chiefs warned. The Independent

See also:

• Hospital admissions for youths assaulted with sharp objects up almost 60% NHS England

Concerns over birthing options as NHS shuts midwife-led centres

Concerns over birthing options as NHS shuts midwife-led centres Trusts say midwives needed in hospitals, as critics argue women’s right to choose under threat

They are places where birth balls, water pools and attentive midwives help women have their baby in a calm atmosphere without doctors intervening medically in the process of delivery.

But NHS chiefs have sparked controversy by shutting eight birth centres in England, prompting criticism that pregnant women are being denied the choice of place of birth that all have been promised. The Guardian

UK hospital admissions for addiction soar as treatment budgets fall

UK hospital admissions for addiction soar as treatment budgets fall MPs say freedom of information data reveals cuts ‘simply a false economy’

More than half of the local authorities in England have cut their budgets for alcohol and drug treatment, even though admissions to hospital for problems related to addiction are soaring, say MPs.

Liam Byrne, the chair of the cross-party parliamentary group for children of alcoholics, and Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, have both spoken of the trauma of growing up with an alcoholic father. They are among the MPs campaigning against the cuts. The Guardian

Third of antibiotics prescribed by doctors are 'unaccounted for', warns Chief Medical Officer

Third of antibiotics prescribed by doctors are 'unaccounted for', warns Chief Medical Officer A third of the antibiotics used in the NHS are prescribed despite there being no evidence of an illness requiring them, the Chief Medical Officer has said.

Dame Sally Davies warned that the struggle to contain antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is being hampered because family doctors too often hand out the drugs to “validate” that a patient is feeling unwell.

She pointed to research indicating that approximately 33 per cent of all prescriptions for antibiotics are recorded with no associated diagnosis. The Daily Telegraph

NHS could free up £100MILLION a year by cutting back on agency workers

NHS could free up £100MILLION a year by cutting back on agency workers NHS hospital regulators claim filling temporary vacancies using an internal pool of staff rather than expensive agencies would reduce the wage bill by a fifth. The Daily Mail