1)      Why did you buy a Mediband?
Over the last few years, I have developed several allergies and intolerances.  A few worrying experiences in hospitals, where staff were not always aware of my allergies, and the fear that I might need treatment when I can’t tell people what I’m allergic to, made me decide to purchase some kind of medical alert jewellery. Several metal versions have broken, and there is not enough space to list what I need written.  I also play sports where no jewellery is allowed.  The Mediband is easy to get on and off for a game.  Mediband has lasted through a year of travel, work (childcare), DIY, gardening, swimming, and general busy life without losing any colour or fill.

(more…)

Half of NHS trusts are failing to comply with alerts designed to protect patients from harm, research suggests.

Data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the charity Action against Medical Accidents (AvMA) found 654 instances of patient safety alerts not complied with.

The alerts are made by the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) and cover everything from equipment failure to warnings on correct dosage.

Many alerts are issued after cases where patients have been harmed and have a deadline which trusts are told to meet.

(more…)

European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) / EAACI: 17 million Europeans allergic to food; allergies in children doubled in the last 10 years Processed and transmitted by Thomson Reuters. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. Zurich/Venice, 17 February 2011 – About 17 million people in Europe suffer from food allergies, with 3.5 million younger than 25 years.

Allergies in children between 0 and 5 have doubled over the last ten years and access to the emergency room for severe anaphylactic reactions has increased seven-fold. There are millions of people in Europe for whom even going to the restaurant can be fatal, if the sauce has a bit of cheese or the dessert has traces of hazelnuts. This burden is particularly heavy for children, whose normally active and sociable lifestyle can be severely limited and frustrated for the effort to keep them away from potentially dangerous food. Prevalence of allergies in children changes within Europe, with rates ranging from 1.7 percent in Greece to 4 percent in Italy and Spain, to over 5 percent in France, UK, Netherlands and Germany.

(more…)

Richard Lloyd of DR ABCD First Aid Training uses Medibands^® and other medical alert items in the ‘role playing’ that he introduces into his first aid classes as he feels they play an important role in reinforcing a number of key skills for his students.

“Before people come to our one-day courses, they have already spent time studying the theory online and they have passed the theory assessment component of our courses,” Mr Lloyd commented.

“Whilst we recognise that knowing the theory is an important part of first aid training, it can be a lot easier to answer questions on paper than it is to put into practice what you have learnt and in doing so, learn by your mistakes and successes.”

Richard and his colleagues use their first aid training classes to effectively ‘bring to life’ the essentials of first aid training by giving students different scenarios which they must enact in order to learn how best to apply their first aid skills.

“We create lots of really challenging, tricky situations for our students. Each scenario is designed to test them and show them how they can apply the theory that they have learned and in doing so, show themselves that they can do it.”

(more…)

To celebrate Valentine’s Day, Telstra is letting customers post messages of love to the gigantic LED billboard on their Bourke Street store in Melbourne. Each message stays on screen for about 15 seconds.