Quality and Readability of Hearing Aid-Related Websites in English and Spanish.

Objective:  To determine the readability and quality of both English and Spanish Web sites for the topic of hearing aids.

Study Design:  Cross-sectional Web site analysis.

Setting:  Various online search engines.

Why are organisational approvals needed for low-risk staff studies in the UK? Procedures, barriers, and burdens.

Background: Health care staff should be given the opportunity to participate in research, but recruiting clinicians via their employing organisation is not always straightforward or quick in the UK. Unlike many countries outside the UK, very low-risk survey, interview or focus group studies can be subject to some of the same governance approval procedures as interventional studies. An exemplar study carried out by the NIHR funded Palliative Care Research Partnership North West Coast is used to highlight the challenges still faced by researchers and health care organisations when setting up a low-risk staff study across multiple NHS and non-NHS sites.

Real time monitoring of carbon dioxide levels in surgical helmet systems worn during hip and knee arthroplasty.

Background: Orthopaedic surgical helmet systems (SHS) rely on an intrinsic fan to force clean external air over the wearer. Carbon dioxide (CO) is produced through aerobic metabolism and can potentially accumulate inside the SHS. Levels above 2500 ppm have previously been shown to affect cognitive and practical function.

Understanding barriers and facilitators to palliative and end-of-life care research: a mixed method study of generalist and specialist health, social care, and research professionals.

Background: Palliative care provision should be driven by high quality research evidence. However, there are barriers to conducting research. Most research attention focuses on potential patient barriers; staff and organisational issues that affect research involvement are underexplored.