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innOVatiOnS helping health Care

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The Kings Fund has published their latest digital report The Future is Now, which brings together examples of innovative practice from England and overseas to provide insight into future ways of changing health and healthcare for the better. www.kingsfund.org.uk/reports/ thefutureisnow/

prOmOting healthier dietS

The World Health Organisation European Office has published Using price policies to promote healthier diets. This publication provides information on using price policies to promote healthy diets and explores policy developments from around the WHO European Region. It examines the economic theory underpinning the use of subsidies and taxation and explores the available evidence. The publication includes several case studies from WHO European Member States where price policies have been introduced, along with a European Union scheme. It concludes with some observations about the design of more effective price policies. www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/disease-prevention/nutrition/ news/news/2015/03/using-pricepolicies-to-promote-healthier-diets

gYnaeCOlOgiCal CanCerS

The National Cancer Intelligence Network has published three reports on gynaecological cancers. They provide an insight into the health and wellbeing of women living with and beyond cervical, womb and ovarian cancer. The reports aim to: improve understanding of health-status related quality of life outcomes for women following treatment for gynaecological cancers; consider variations in outcomes, for example for different age groups or for those with comorbidities; start to enable health and care services at a national and local level; to measure the impact of interventions for people living with and beyond cancer over time, and link with hospital episode statistics, cancer registration and other data sets to begin to understand the relationship between health-status related outcomes and types of cancer treatment. www. ncin.org.uk/publications/

impaCt Of phYSiCal aCtiVitY and diet On health

The House of Commons Health Committee has published its Health - Sixth Report: Impact of physical activity and diet on health. The Committee recommended that the next Government prioritises prevention, health promotion and early intervention to tackle the health inequalities and avoidable harm resulting from poor diet and physical inactivity. The Committee also regarded it as inexplicable and unacceptable that the NHS is now spending more on bariatric surgery for obesity than on a national roll-out of intensive lifestyle intervention programmes that were first shown to cut obesity and prevent diabetes over a decade ago. The Committee were also disappointed that although NICE has produced a comprehensive raft of guidance on cost-effective interventions that can be introduced, either by the NHS or by local government, to improve diet and physical activity, that to date there has been very little assessment of how far these guidelines are being implemented. www.publications.parliament. uk/pa/cm201415/cmselect/ cmhealth/845/84502.htm

healthY COnVerSatiOnS and the allied health prOfeSSiOnalS

The Royal Society for Public Health and Public Health England has published Healthy Conversations and the Allied Health Professionals. This report illustrates that allied health professionals are having a significant positive impact on the public’s health and with further support this could make a real difference to the health and wellbeing of the population. www.rsph.org.uk/filemanager/root/site_assets/our_work/ reports_and_publications/2015/ ahp/final_for_website.pdf

implementing a truSt-wide healthY weight StrategY

NHS Employers have published a case study of how Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust developed and implemented its Healthy Weight strategy. The strategy is based on staff feedback and also aims to take forward the NICE public health workplace guidance on tackling obesity and promoting physical activity in the workplace. www.nhsemployers.org/~/media/ Employers/Documents/Retain%20 and%20improve/Northumbria%20 healthy%20weight%20strategy%20 10%20April%20FINAL.pdf