Notifications for child safeguarding from an acute hospital in response to presentations to healthcare by parents.

Background: Consideration of child safeguarding is routine within maternity services but less common in other health services for adults. We audited notifications for child safeguarding from an acute general hospital where the policy includes questioning adults presenting with violence, mental health problems or drug or alcohol misuse to any department within the hospital about children at home and notifying to the local authority children's social care services if there are safeguarding concerns.

Methods: Cross-sectional audit of notifications for child safeguarding, including abuse, neglect or victimization, from all departments in one hospital to the local authority children's social care department during 12 months (2010/11).

Cancer in the London prison population, 1986-2005.

Background: Little research has investigated cancer care in UK prisons. We wished to identify the number of new cases and the most common cancer diagnoses occurring each year in London prisoners, and the place of death for those who died from their disease.

Methods: Using the database of the Thames Cancer Registry, we identified cancer diagnoses in residents of seven London prisons from 1986 to 2005 and the place of death of patients dying from their disease between 1996 and 2005.

Developing advanced clinical skills in the management of breathlessness: evaluation of an educational intervention.

The dissemination of knowledge regarding care interventions is often supported through educational initiatives. However, the efficacy of education to make a difference to practice is not always demonstrated. An educational course has been developed and piloted that aimed to educate nurses about skills for the management of breathlessness.

An evaluation of rapid D-dimer assays for the exclusion of deep vein thrombosis.

We evaluated the performance of eight d-assays for the exclusion of deep vein thrombosis (DVT); Biopool AutoDimer, Biopool MiniQuant, bioMèrieux MDA D-Dimer, VIDAS, Dade Behring D-Dimer Plus, Trinity Biotech AMAX, NycoCard D-dimer and IL Test D-Dimer. The assays were evaluated both as stand-alone tests, and in combination with pretest probability (PTP). D-dimer assays and PTP assessment were performed on 410 patients presenting to the emergency department with suspected acute DVT.