[New Times] While progress has been made in enhancing sexual reproductive health among youth in Rwanda, challenges such as gender-based violence (GBV), teenage pregnancies, HIV infections, remain.

[Independent (Kampala)] Sironko -- Sironko district has banned volunteer health workers at all public health facilities. This decision was announced by Nelson Kirenda, the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) of Sironko, in an exclusive interview with our reporter over the weekend.

[Lesotho Times] THE Ministry of Health, through its Department of Pharmaceuticals, has urged the public to use medicines safely and to report any side effects that they may feel after taking medications.

[New Times] As World Pneumonia Day is marked globally, statistics emphasise the high toll of pneumonia in Rwanda, particularly on young children.

[Liberian Observer] A group of Physician Assistants, Nurses, Pharmacists, and OR-Technicians, representing the Professional Health Workers Association of Liberia, has formally petitioned the Liberian Senate to include provisions in the 2025 National Budget for the implementation of the Reclassification Policy for Health Workers and the hiring of volunteer healthcare workers.

[GhanaToday] To advance the treatment of sickle cell disease in the country, the Ministry of Health has launched the National Sickle Cell Disease Strategy for 2024 to 2028, along with a National Vaccine Policy in Accra.

[WHO-AFRO] In public health, data serves as a critical foundation for understanding challenges and making informed decisions. Without clear, accurate information, it's difficult for individuals and communities to take meaningful action, and policymakers to devise and implement effective solutions. Recognizing this need, the World Health Organization (WHO), in collaboration with Ghana's Ministry of Health, organized a media training ahead of the Ghana STEPS Survey 2023 report launch to ensure its findings are

A new trend is brewing in the coffee world: adding olive oil to coffee. While this combination may sound odd at first, it's gaining popularity among health enthusiasts and coffee fans alike.

Figs are a nutrient packed superfood with benefits that go beyond bone health. Here's what makes them so powerful.

Vitamin D, also known as the "sunshine vitamin," does much more than strengthen bones; it can support the immune system, lift mood, and even reduce the risk of some severe diseases.

Are you suffering from chronic back or joint pain? The Saatva Rx Mattress -- a premium pillow-top bed -- might offer an effective zonal solution. Here's more about it.

Fr. Apostolos Hill discusses the phases of crisis and the importance of wisdom to cling to the One who gives us hope.

Shane Lewis-Hughes discusses the benefits of talking openly for rugby players.

Health Minister Mike Nesbitt said he would not be able to match pay deals for healthcare staff in other parts of UK.

Manx Care meets 52% of the recommendations outlined in a series of Care Quality Commission reviews.

Alfred Cannan says reducing Manx Care's overspend for the current financial year will be difficult.

The health minister predicts difficult conversations with unions over pay due to budget problems.

The law could force health staff to be open with patients and their families when mistakes are made.

Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall says trials of the idea have produced "dramatic results".

Sue Hill will not receive a settlement after "systemic cultural failings" in her department.

Jake Doyle is touring Northants rugby clubs to raise money

Barry Crisp will be one of the experts at the BBC Radio Northampton Headfest event on 25 October.

Teacher Jo Marten says learning about emotional resilience gives children the "tools to prepare for change".

BBC Radio Northampton is bringing wellbeing professionals together for 'Headfest'.

A suicide prevention worker says talking about mental health is everyone's responsibility.

Morgan Rose Betchley was “passed from pillar to post” before her death, her family tell an inquest.

BBC Radio Stoke’s Matt Weigold visited Men Who Make Things at Hartshill's B Arts Centre.

1. Niagara Health offering free parking after delays reported  News Talk 610 CKTB
2. Implementation of new Niagara Health patient info system resulting in long wait times  St. Catharines Standard
3. Temporary delays impacting registration at emergency departments  Thorold News
4. Niagara Health Working Through Delays  101.1 More FM
5. Niagara Health experiencing temporary delays impacting registration and EDs  Niagara Health

Access to quality healthcare is a fundamental right but unfortunately, India suffers from gender disparities in healthcare access. Telemedicine has the potential to improve access to healthcare services for women by eliminating traditional barriers. Therefore, our research aims to investigate the factors influencing the adoption of telemedicine among Indian women. This study has collected 442 responses and analysed them through structural equation modelling. The result indicates a strong and positive connection between the willingness to adopt telemedicine services and factors like performance expectancy, perceived benefits, e-health literacy, and perceived reliability. Notably, perceived reliability emerges as the most impactful predictor, closely followed by perceived benefits, while factors like effort expectancy and user resistance show no significant influence. This underscores the pivotal role of reliability and perceived benefits in shaping women's inclination toward adopting telemedicine. The study provides practical insights for telemedicine providers and policymakers to customise strategies and policies for effective promotion.

In order to further improve the public health assurance system and the infectious diseases early warning system to give play to their positive roles and enhance their collaborative capacity, this paper, based on the big and thick data analytics technology, designs a 'rolling-type' data synergy model. This model covers districts and counties, municipalities, provinces, and the country. It forms a data blockchain for the public health assurance system and enables high sharing of data from existing system platforms such as the infectious diseases early warning system, the hospital medical record management system, the public health data management system, and the health big and thick data management system. Additionally, it realises prevention, control and early warning by utilising data mining and synergy technologies, and ideally solves problems of traditional public health assurance system platforms such as excessive pressure on the 'central node', poor data tamper-proofing capacity, low transmission efficiency of big and thick data, bad timeliness of emergency response, and so on. The realisation of this technology can greatly improve the application and analytics of big and thick data and further enhance the public health assurance capacity.

Disease pandemics, once thought to be historical relics, are now again challenging healthcare systems globally. Of essential importance is sufficiently investing in preparedness and responsiveness, but approaches to such investments vary significantly by country. These variations provide excellent opportunities to learn and prepare for future pandemics. Therefore, we examine digital health infrastructure and the state of healthcare and public health services in relation to pandemic preparedness and responsiveness. The research focuses on two countries: South Africa and the USA. We apply case analysis at the country level toward understanding digital health policy preparedness and responsiveness to a pandemic. We also provide a teaching note at the end for use in guiding students in this area to formulate digital health policy recommendations for pandemic preparedness and responsiveness.

In order to improve the mental health level of college students, a data mining based mental health education strategy for college students is proposed. Firstly, analyse the characteristics of data mining and its potential value in mental health education. Secondly, after denoising the mental health data of college students using wavelet transform, data mining methods are used to identify the psychological crisis status of college students. Finally, based on the psychological crisis status of college students, measures for mental health education are proposed from the following aspects: building a psychological counselling platform, launching psychological health promotion activities, establishing a psychological support network, strengthening academic guidance and stress management. The example analysis results show that after the application of the strategy in this article, the psychological health scores of college students have been effectively improved, with an average score of 93.5 points.

Aim/Purpose: The objective of this study was to concept test a new instructional aid called Virtual Pathology Learning Resource (VPLR), which was used as a vehicle to communicate information and enhance teaching and learning of basic sciences (Anatomy, Physiology, and Pathology) to allied health science students at a South Australian university. Background: Pathology was traditionally taught using potted specimens to review disease manifestations independently. However, this approach was found inadequate and ineffective. VPLR is a new teaching platform comprising of digitised human normal and human pathology specimens (histology, histopathology), patient case studies, short answer and critical thinking questions, and self-assessment quizzes. Using authentic learning theory as an educational pedagogy, this learning resource was developed to enhance the teaching and learning of Pathology. Methodology: Cross-sectional study design was used. A survey, given at the end of the course, gathered qualitative and quantitative data concerning the perceptions and experiences of the students about VPLR and its components. The online tool SurveyMonkey was utilised so that students could respond anonymously to a web link that displayed the questionnaire. The perceived impact on students was assessed using an 18-item questionnaire seeking agreement or disagreement with statements about VPLR, multiple choice and open-ended questions querying the best things about VPLR, benefits to be derived, and areas for improvement. Descriptive and frequency analyses were performed. Contribution: The VPLR approach involved rich learning situations, contextualised content, and facilitated greater understanding of disease concepts and problems. Findings: In a sample of 103 Medical Radiation students, 42% of students (N=43) responded to the post-intervention survey. The majority of students reported highly positive effects for each component of the VPLR. The overall results indicated that this tool was a promising strategy in teaching Pathology as it assisted students’ gaining knowledge of the science, facilitated connections between sciences, and allowed students to make better links with professional practice and skills. Recommendations for Practitioners: As students found VPLR to be beneficial, it is recommended that the same approach is applied for the teaching of Pathology to other health science students, such as Nursing. Other universities might consider adopting the innovation for their courses. Recommendation for Researchers: Applying VPLR to teaching other allied health science students will be undertaken next. The innovation will be appropriate for other health science students with particular emphasis on case-based or problem-based learning and combined with clinical experiences. Impact on Society: In reshaping the way of teaching a science course, students are benefited with greater depth of understanding of content and increase motivation to study. These are important to keep students engaged and ready for practice. VPLR may impact on education and technology trends so that exploration and possibilities of initiatives are ongoing to help students become successful learners. Other impacts are the new forms of learning discovered, the renewed focus on group work and collaboration, and maximising the use of technology in innovation. Future Research: Future directions of this research would be to conduct a follow-up of this cohort of students to determine whether the impacts of the innovation were durable, meaning the change in perceptions and behaviour is sustained over time.

A central premise for the creation of Electronic Health Records (EHR) is ensuring the portability of patient health records across various clinical, insurance, and regulatory entities. From portability standards such as International Classification of Diseases (ICD) to data sharing across institutions, a lack of portability of health data can jeopardize optimal care and reduce meaningful use. This research empirically investigates the relationship between health records availability and portability. Using data collected from 168 medical providers and patients, we confirm the positive relationship between user perceptions of expected satisfaction with EHR availability and the expected satisfaction with portability. Our findings contribute to more informed practice by understanding how ensuring the availability of patient data by virtue of enhanced data sharing standards, device independence, and better EHR data integration can subsequently drive perceptions of portability across a multitude of stakeholders.

Aim/Purpose: The aim of the study is to explore factors that affect how healthcare clients in rural areas use infomediaries in maternal mHealth interventions. The study focuses on maternal healthcare clients who do not own mobile phones but use the mHealth intervention. Background: Maternal mHealth interventions in poor-resource settings are bedevilled by inequalities in mobile phone ownership. Clients who do not own mobile phones risk being excluded from benefiting from the interventions. Some maternal mHealth providers facilitate the access of mobile phones for those who do not own them using “infomediaries”. Infomediaries, in this case, refer to individuals who have custody of mobile phones that other potential beneficiaries may use. However, the use of infomediaries to offer access to the “have nots” may be influenced by a number of factors. Methodology: The study uses a case of a maternal mHealth intervention project in Malawi, as well as a qualitative research method and interpretive paradigm. Data was collected using secondary data from the implementing agency, semi-structured interviews, and focus group discussions. Empirical data was collected from maternal healthcare clients who do not own mobile phones and infomediaries. Data were analysed inductively using thematic analysis. Contribution: The study proposed a theoretical framework for studying infomediaries in ICT4D. The study may inform mHealth designers, implementers, and policymakers on how infomediaries could be implemented in a rural setting. Consequently, understanding the factors that affect the use of infomediaries may inform mHealth intervention implementers on how they could overcome the challenges by implementing mHealth interventions that reduce the challenges on the mHealth infomediaries side, and the maternal healthcare clients’ side. Findings: Characteristics of the maternal healthcare client, characteristics of the mHealth infomediary, perceived value of mHealth intervention, and socio-environmental factors affect maternal healthcare clients’ use of mHealth infomediaries. Recommendations for Practitioners: Implementers of interventions ought to manage the use of infomediaries to avoid volunteer fatigue and infomediaries who may not be compatible with the potential users of the intervention. Implementers could leverage traditional systems of identifying and using infomediaries instead of reinventing the wheel. Recommendation for Researchers: This research adopted a single case study to develop the theoretical framework for mHealth infomediary use. We recommend future studies are conducted in order to test and develop this framework further, not only in ICT4D, but also in other areas of application. Impact on Society: People still lack access. The lack of ownership of technology may still exclude them from participating in an information society. The use of infomediaries may help to provide access to technologies to those who do not have them thereby bridging the digital divide gap. Future Research: We propose herein that traditional systems may offer a good starting point for designing a system that would work for communities. We, therefore, recommend that future research may explore these possibilities.

Aim/Purpose: This study aims to develop a comprehensive conceptual framework that incorporates personal characteristics, social context, and technological features as significant factors that influence the intention of small-city users in China to use mobile health. Background: Mobile health has become an integral part of China’s health management system innovation, the transformation of the health service model, and a necessary government measure for promoting health service parity. However, mobile health has not yet been widely adopted in small cities in China. Methodology: The study utilized a quantitative approach whereby web-based questionnaires were used to collect data from 319 potential users in China using China’s health management system. The data was analyzed using the PLS-SEM (the partial least squares-structural equation modeling) approach. Contribution: This study integrates the protection motivation theory (PMT), which compensates for the limitations of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology theory (UTAUT) and is a re-examination of PMT and UTAUT in a small city context in China. Findings: The findings indicate that attitude and perceived vulnerability in the personal characteristic factors, social influence and facilitating conditions in the social context factors, and performance expectancy in the technological feature factors influence users’ intention to use mobile health in small cities in China. Recommendations for Practitioners: This study provides feasible recommendations for mobile health service providers, medical institutions, and government agencies based on the empirical results. Recommendation for Researchers: As for health behavior, researchers should fully explain the intention of mobile health use in terms of holism and health behavior theory. Impact on Society: This study aims to increase users’ intention to use mobile health in small cities in China and to maximize the social value of mobile health. Future Research: Future research should concentrate on the actual usage behavior of users and simultaneously conduct a series of longitudinal studies, including studies on continued usage behavior, abandonment behavior, and abandoned-and-used behavior.

Aim/Purpose: This study aims to explore the use of mobile health applications (mHealth apps) by lay users in Kuwait. Specifically, it seeks to: (i) identify and highlight the impact of factors that contribute to their use of mHealth apps and (ii) validate a model of these users’ usage of mHealth apps. Background: The advancement of information technologies has paved the way for efficiency and effectiveness in healthcare sectors in developed countries. Kuwait has attempted to revolutionise healthcare systems through mobile applications of information technology solutions to educate users on better methods of receiving customised health services. However, end-user usage of mHealth apps remains in the infancy in developing countries, including Kuwait. Lay users are often vulnerable and frequently overlooked by researchers and health technology providers. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 225 lay users of mHealth apps in Kuwait using an online questionnaire to achieve the study objectives. A purposive sampling method utilising convenience and snowballing sampling techniques was used in which all the respondents were lay users. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, and regression analyses were employed to analyse the collected data. Contribution: The study contributes to the extant literature on health informatics and mHealth by providing a comprehensive understanding of how technological, social, and functional factors are related to mHealth apps in the context of developing countries. It identifies key drivers of mHealth app use, suggests expanding the TAM model, and facilitates comparisons with developed countries, addressing gaps in mHealth research. Findings: Four factors (i.e., perceived trust (PT), perceived ease of use (PEU) and behaviour control (PBC), perceived usefulness (PU), and subjective norms (SN)) were identified that influence the use of mHealth apps. These four identified factors also contributed to lay users’ use of these mHealth apps. Among these four factors, perceived trust (PT) was the main contributor to lay users’ use of these mHealth apps. Recommendations for Practitioners: Based on the empirical results, this study provides feasible recommendations for the government, healthcare providers, and developers of mHealth apps. The findings urge developers to enhance app functionality by prioritising privacy and security to build user trust while outlining guidelines for future development focused on user-centric design and compliance with data privacy regulations. Additionally, the government should establish supportive policies and funding, ensure regulatory oversight, and promote public awareness to foster trust. Healthcare providers should integrate mHealth apps into their services, train staff for practical use, gather users’ feedback, and collaborate with developers to create tailored healthcare solutions. Future Research: Additional research is required to apply probability sampling techniques and increase the sample size to generate more reliable and generalisable findings. Additionally, the young age segment must be considered here, and research must be extended to consider the moderating role of demographic factors like age, gender, and educational levels to better understand the adoption of mHealth apps.

Aim/Purpose: This conceptual review analyzes the designs of global health virtual communities of practice (VCoPs) programming reported in the empirical literature and proposes a new typology of their functioning. The purpose of this review is to provide clarity on VCoP learning stages of (co)evolution and insight into VCoP (re)development efforts to best meet member, organization, and network needs against an ever-evolving landscape of complexity in global health. Background: Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the field of global health has seen an uptick in the use of VCoPs to support continuous learning and improve health outcomes. However, evidence of how different combinations of programmatic designs impact opportunities for learning and development is lacking, and how VCoPs evolve as learning networks has yet to be explored. Methodology: Following an extensive search for literature in six databases, thematic analysis was conducted on 13 articles meeting the inclusion criteria. This led to the development and discussion of a new typology of VCoP phases of learning (co)evolution. Contribution: Knowledge gained from this review and the new categorization of VCoPs can support the functioning and evaluation of global health training programs. It can also provide a foundation for future research on how VCoPs influence the culture of learning organizations and networks. Findings: Synthesis of findings resulted in the categorization of global health VCoPs into five stages (slightly evolving, somewhat revolving, moderately revolving, highly revolving, and coevolving) across four design domains (network development, general member engagement before/after sessions, general member engagement during sessions, and session leadership). All global health VCoPs reviewed showed signs of adaptation and recommended future evolution. Recommendations for Practitioners: VCoP practitioners should pay close attention to how the structured flexibility of partnerships, design, and relationship development/accountability may promote or hinder VcoP’s continued evolution. Practitioners should shift perspective from short to mid- and long-term VCoP planning. Recommendation for Researchers: The new typology can stimulate further research to strengthen the clarity of language and findings related to VCoP functioning. Impact on Society: VCoPs are utilized by academic institutions, the private sector, non-profit organizations, the government, and other entities to fill gaps in adult learning at scale. The contextual implementation of findings from this study may impact VCoP design and drive improvements in opportunities for learning, global health, and well-being. Future Research: Moving forward, future research could explore how VCoP evaluations relate to different stages of learning, consider evaluation stages across the totality of VCoP programming design, and explore how best to capture VCoP (long-term) impact attributed to health outcomes and the culture of learning organizations and networks.

Aim/Purpose: This paper investigates the user acceptability of blockchain technology in the healthcare sector, with a specific focus on healthcare professionals in Jordan. Background: The study seeks to identify the factors that affect healthcare professionals’ use and acceptance of blockchain technology in Jordan. Methodology: The study’s research framework integrates factors from the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). A questionnaire was distributed to collect data from 372 healthcare professionals in Jordan, and the results were analyzed using structural equation modeling based on the Partial Least Square (PLS) technique. Contribution: While only a few previous studies have explored blockchain technology acceptance in the healthcare sector using either the TAM or the UTAUT, this study uniquely integrates elements from both models, offering a novel approach that provides a comprehensive understanding of the factors that influence the acceptance of blockchain technology among healthcare professionals in Jordan. The findings can assist decision-makers in developing strategies to enhance the adoption rate of blockchain technology in the Jordanian healthcare sector. Findings: The study revealed that usability, convenience, privacy and security, cost, and trust significantly impact the perceived usefulness of blockchain technology. The findings also suggest that healthcare professionals are more likely to have a positive attitude towards blockchain-based healthcare systems if they perceive them as useful and easy to use. Attitude, social influence, and facilitating conditions were found to significantly impact behavioral intention to use. Recommendations for Practitioners: Stakeholders should focus on developing blockchain-based healthcare systems that are easy to use, convenient, efficient, and effort-free. Recommendation for Researchers: Researchers may compare the acceptance of blockchain technology in the healthcare sector with other industries to identify industry-specific factors that may influence adoption. This comparative analysis can contribute to a broader understanding of technology acceptance. Impact on Society: Successful adoption of blockchain technology in the healthcare sector can lead to improved efficiency, enhanced protection of healthcare data, and reduced administrative burdens. This, in turn, can positively impact patient care and lead to cost savings, which contributes to more sustainable and accessible healthcare services. Future Research: Future research may explore integrating blockchain technology with other emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence and sidechain, to create more comprehensive and innovative healthcare solutions.

Aim/Purpose: This paper describes the regulatory affairs discipline as a useful case in the study of both inter- and transdisciplinary science and dynamics related to communication across multiple boundaries. We will 1) outline the process that led to the development of transnational competencies for regulatory affairs graduate education, 2) discuss how the process highlights the transdisciplinary character of regulatory affairs, 3) provide implications for how to communicate the influence of this characterization to future healthcare professionals, and 4) draw conclusions regarding how our lessons-learned might inform other programs of study. Background: In the past few decades, the regulatory affairs profession has become more internationalized. This prompted the need for new competencies grounded in the transnational and cross-disciplinary contexts in which these professionals are required to operate. Methodology: A convenience sample of experienced regulatory affairs professionals from multiple disciplines contributed to the development of transnational competencies for a master’s program in regulatory affairs using a transdisciplinary framework. Contribution: An applied exemplar in which to understand how transdisciplinary characteristics can be communicated and applied in higher education. Recommendations for Practitioners: This paper recommends how competencies developed from a regulatory affairs program can serve as exemplars for other applied transdisciplinary higher education programs. Impact on Society: This framework provides a seldom-used reflective approach to regulatory affairs education that utilizes cross-disciplinary theory to inform competence-based formation of professionals.

Mental illnesses are common among college students as well as their non-student peers, and the number and severity of these problems are increasing. It can be difficult to identify people suffering from mental illness and get the help they need early. So in this paper, the SqueezeR_MobileNet method is proposed. It performs feature fusion and early mental health prediction. Initially, outliers in the input data are detected and removed. After that, using missing data imputation and Z-score normalisation the pre-processing phase is executed. Next to this, for feature fusion, a combination of the Soergel metric and deep Kronecker network (DKN) is used. By utilising bootstrapping data augmentation is performed. Finally, early mental health prediction is done using SqueezeR_MobileNet, which is the incorporation of residual SqueezeNet and MobileNet. The devised approach has reached the highest specificity of 0.937, accuracy of 0.911 and sensitivity of 0.907.

Underpinned by stakeholder and agency theories, this study adopts a qualitative multiple-case study approach to explore and analyse various stakeholder interests and how they affect digitalisation in the health sector of a developing country (DC). The study's findings revealed that four key stakeholder interests - political, regulatory, leadership, and operational - affect digitalisation in the health sector of DCs. Further, the study found that operational and leadership interests were emergent and were triggered by some digitalisation initiatives, which included, inter alia, the use of new eHealth software and the COVID-19 vaccination exercise, which established new structures and worked better through digitalisation. Conversely, political and regulatory interests were found to be relatively enduring since they existed throughout the pre- and post-digitalisation eras. The study also unearthed principal-agent conflicts arising from technological, organisational and regulatory factors that contribute to the paradoxical outcomes of digitalisation in the health sector.

Mental health problems in the country are on the rise.

Test tubes labelled "Monkeypox virus positive and negative" are seen in this illustration taken May 23, 2022. — Reuters

LONDON: An infection with the latest mpox variant, clade 1b, has been detected in the United Kingdom for the first time, the UK Health Security Agency announced...