Michael DeBakey, the world-famous cardiovascular surgeon who pioneered procedures such as bypass surgery and invented several devices to help heart patients, died July 11 at the Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas. He was ninety-nine. Baylor College of Medicine has developed a web page with information about DeBakey’s life and career: http://www.bcm.edu/pa/debakey/

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 Pandemic Influenza & Workplace Infectious Diseases Summit held in Canberra over the 12-14th of may will discuss:

• Workplace infectious diseases
• Prevalence and costs to organisations of workplace infectious diseases
• The key preventions and preparations measures
• Drawing lessons for the future from last year’s outbreaks - Equine influenza and seasonal influenza outbreak
• The obligations for employers and employees - Views of unions and regulators
• Pandemic preparation work for critical infrastructure
• Lessons from recent Australian pandemic exercises
• The potential for the mutation of H5N1 and other research developments
• The issues that could derail pandemic and infectious disease plans
• Developments in national pandemic planning

For more information go to:
http://www.pandemic.net.au

To see the Pandemic.net.au Newsletter go to:
http://www.pandemic.net.au/newsletter.html

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

After a successful trial of First CONSULT the Library is investigating the purchase of a subscription to this title.
Feedback and comments about this resource are being sought. Please send all comments in regards to this resource to Keryl Michener email: k.michener@library.uq.edu.au