Ginny Barbour Chief Editor, PLoS Medicine, is presenting:Open Access Publishing in Medicine:A Win-Win for Researchers, Clinicians and Patients at 4.30pm on Thursday, 21 August at the UQCCR auditorium RBWH campus Herston.

PLoS Medicine is an open access journal that has been well received and in its short publishing life has achieved an impact factor of
12.6.

Further enquires: Liz Slowey - e.slowey@uq.edu.au

In 2007 Queensland Health undertook statewide health services planning in the areas of renal, cancer treatment, and rehabilitation medicine services and a review of neonatal care services. A wide range of stakeholders was consulted from across Queensland Health, external health service providers and other government agencies. This resulted in the development of three statewide clinical service plans and one report:

• Queensland Statewide Renal Health Services Plan 2008-17 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
• Queensland Statewide Cancer Treatment Services Plan 2008-16
• Queensland Statewide Rehabilitation Medicine Plan 2008-12
• Evaluation of the Report of Statewide Neonatal Intensive Care Services Project (2006)

You can listen to information about Cochrane reviews via podcast from the Cochrane Collaboration. To listen to summaries of Cochrane reviews go to the following link:
http://www.cochrane.org/podcasts/

To listen or watch Multimedia from Cochrane Colloquia and Meetings go to the following link:
http://www.cochrane.org/multimedia/index.htm

The Department of Health and Aging has released an audit into the current and developing health workforce distribution profile in rural and regional Australia. Key findings include:

• Regional and remote Australia has less access to health professionals than people living in major cities. The medical workforce distribution in these areas being rated low to very poor.
• Overseas trained health professionals make up 41% of doctors in rural and regional Australia, significantly higher than in major cities.
• The supply of health professionals will not meet the developing population trends.
• The significant increase in medical school places help in part to address the issue.
The complete report can be accessed at:
http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/work-res-ruraud

The Australian Government announced funding to improve the mental health workforce, by providing training to around 24,000 mental health professionals and encouraging mental health nurses to stay in the workforce.

This announcement follows the Government’s release of the National Mental Health Report 2007, which clearly underlines the need to do more in mental health.

More information http://www.health.gov.au/internet/ministers/publishing.nsf/Content/mr-yr08-nr-nr054.htm

National Mental Health Report

This report is a summary of twelve years of reform in Australia’s Mental Health Services under the National Mental Health Strategy 1993-2005. To see the full report go to the following link: National Mental Health Report 2007

The Australian Immunisation Handbook has a new edition for 2008.The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI), an advisory committee appointed by the Minister for Health and Ageing, is responsible for the development and revision of the Australian Immunisation Handbook 9th Edition (the Handbook). The Handbook is designed as a general guide to inform a wide target audience of health professionals on the safest and most effective vaccination strategies using the highest quality evidence available. The Handbook is a stand-alone document and, while it has similarities to some overseas guidelines, it is written specifically for Australia.

Australian Immunisation Handbook - 9th Edition 2008 (on Department of Health & Ageing website) http://www.immunise.health.gov.au/internet/immunise/publishing.nsf/Content/Handbook-home

Changes since 8^th ed.
http://immunise.health.gov.au/internet/immunise/publishing.nsf/Content/9-whatsnew

Ovid has upgraded its interface to the new OvidSP platform. This has changed the look but still provides the same search features.

Some of the new features of OvidSP include:

· Availability of RSS feeds

· A basic search that uses natural language and maps to medical subject headings and keywords

· Tab options to readily switch between different search options

· Search Aid box which allows limiting to key subjects, authors and journal in the results.

· Results manager at the side of the search results rather than the bottom.

To access  Medline go to the following link:

http://library.uq.edu.au:2082/record=e1000159