Dental Tribune Untited Kingdom Edition

D entists can learn how to stay out of trouble by signing up for one of nine dento-legal lectures being held throughout the UK in May and June this year. UK-wide dental defence or- ganisation MDDUS is co-hosting a series of educational sessions that will provide top tips on how to avoid dento-legal pitfalls that could lead to patient complaints, claims of clinical negligence or referral to the GDC. MDDUS has teamed up with dental equipment providers Wright Cottrell to host the lectures which kick off on Wednesday, May 23 in Newcastle with further dates in Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Inverness, Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh, before concluding in Dundee on Thursday, June 21. The lecture will feature MD- DUS Head of Dental Division and adviser Aubrey Craig, who has long experience helping MDDUS members deal with professional difficulties. He says: “Being on the receiv- ing end of a claim, complaint or referral to the GDC is an expen- sive, time-consuming and stress- ful experience. “Every year at MDDUS, we assist members who find them- selves in such situations and these lectures will draw upon our con- siderable experience in this area to provide delegates with practical advice on how to avoid profes- sional difficulties.” Wright and W&H will also lead a session unravelling the myster- ies of the national decontamina- tion guidelines. This will enlight- en dentists to the realities of what is expected and arm them with the know-how to achieve a fully compliant practice. W&H Northern Territory Man- ager Claire Wilson will present the sessions in England, with Scottish Territory Manager Raymond Bax- ter hosting the Scottish ones. In addition, the Scottish dates will also feature George McDon- agh, Clinical Adviser for the NHS in Scotland, who will share his unrivalled knowledge of decon- tamination procedures that he has accrued from his 20 years’ experi- ence in the industry. Robert Donald, non-exec- utive director of MDDUS and well-known Scottish dentist and magazine columnist, welcomed the CPD-accredited evening road- show initiative. He says: “Staying out of trouble with the GDC and decontamina- tion compliance are hot topics for all UK dentists. The collaboration of MDDUS and Wrights in provid- ing practical advice and support in addressing these important issues is a very positive step indeed and I would encourage my colleagues to attend.” To book your place at one of the lectures or for further in- formation, contact Karen Walsh at kwalsh@mddus.com. Tickets costs £30 with a light buffet avail- able from 6pm and the program- ming commencing at 6.30pm. DT Dates and venues for lectures (all dates 2012): • Wednesday, May 23: St James’ Park, Newcastle •Wednesday, May 30: Mandec, Manchester Dental Hospital • Thursday, May 31: Weetwood Hall, Leeds • Thursday, June 7: Liverpool Crowne Plaza, Liverpool • Tuesday, June 12: Drumossie Hotel, Inverness • Wednesday, June 13: The Mar- cliffe Hotel, Aberdeen • Tuesday, June 19: MDDUS of- fices, Glasgow • Wednesday, June 20: RCP of Ed- inburgh, Edinburgh • Thursday, June 21: Wright Cot- trell offices, Dundee MDDUS dental road show coming to town T he Tongue Drive system, which is a wireless de- vice that enables people with high-level spinal cord inju- ries to operate a computer and maneuver an electrically pow- ered wheelchair simply by mov- ing their tongues, is getting less conspicuous and more capable. The newest prototype of the system allows users to wear an inconspicuous dental retainer embedded with sensors to control the system. The sensors track the location of a tiny magnet attached to the tongues of users. In ear- lier versions of the Tongue Drive System, the sensors that track the movement of the magnet on the tongue were mounted on a head- set worn by the user. The new intraoral Tongue Drive System was presented and demonstrated on Feb. 20, 2012 at the IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference in San Fran- cisco. Development of the system is supported by the National Insti- tutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation. The new dental appliance contains magnetic field sensors mounted on its four corners that detect movement of a tiny magnet attached to the tongue. It also in- cludes a rechargeable lithium-ion battery and an induction coil to charge the battery. The circuitry fits in the space available on the retainer, which sits against the roof of the mouth and is covered with an insulating, water-resistant material and vacuum-molded in- side standard dental acrylic. When in use, the output sig- nals from the sensors are wire- lessly transmitted to an iPod or iPhone. Software installed on the iPod interprets the user’s tongue commands by determining the relative position of the magnet with respect to the array of sensors in real-time. This information is used to control the movements of a cursor on the computer screen or to substitute for the joystick function in a powered wheelchair. Ghovanloo and his team have also created a universal interface for the intraoral Tongue Drive System that attaches directly to a standard electric wheelchair. The interface boasts multiple functions: it not only holds the iPod, but also wirelessly receives the sensor data and delivers it to the iPod, connects the iPod to the wheelchair, charges the iPod, and includes a container where the dental retainer can be placed at night for charging. In preliminary tests, the in- traoral device exhibited an in- creased signal-to-noise ratio, even when a smaller magnet was placed on the tongue. That improved sensitivity could allow additional commands to be pro- grammed into the system. The existing Tongue Drive System that uses a headset interprets commands from seven different tongue movements. The ability to train the system with additional commands – as many commands as an individual can comfortably remember – and having all commands available to the user at the same time are sig- nificant advantages over the sip- n-puff device that actsas a simple switch controlled by sucking or blowing through a straw. The researchers plan to be- gin testing the usability of the in- traoral Tongue Drive System by able-bodied individuals soon and then move onto clinical trials to test its usability by people with high-level spinal cord injuries. In recent months, Ghovanloo and his team have recruited 11 individuals with high-level spinal cord injuries to test the headset version of the system at the At- lanta-based Shepherd Center and the Rehabilitation Institute of Chi- cago. Trial participants received a clinical tongue piercing and tongue stud that contained a tiny magnet embedded in the upper ball. They repeated two test ses- sions per week during a six-week period that assessed their ability to use the Tongue Drive System to operate a computer and navigate an electric wheelchair through an obstacle course. “During the trials, users have been able to learn to use the sys- tem, move the computer cursor quicker and with more accuracy, and maneuver through the obsta- cle course faster and with fewer collisions,” said Ghovanloo. “We expect even better results in the future when trial participants be- gin to use the intraoral Tongue Drive System on a daily basis.”DT Wheelchair controlled by remote control in mouth 6 News United Kingdom Edition April 16-22, 2012 N ew information that will help put the NHS on the side of patients and im- prove results for patients has re- cently been published. As part of the Government’s drive to improve results for pa- tients, new detailed information on 20 of the 30 NHS Outcomes Framework indicators, which measure the care patients re- ceive, has been published by the NHS Information Centre. The figures provide a re- gional and local snapshot of how the NHS is performing against the Outcomes Frame- work. Crucially, they illustrate where there are variations in outcomes – highlight- ing the importance of the Government’s approach of con- centrating on results, not targets. For example, liver disease mortality rates have increased nationally over the last decade, but have decreased in the last few years in London and the South East, while rates were twice as high in the North West compared to the East of England in 2009. The Government committed to focus on outcomes not process targets in 2010 and announced last year that the NHS would be held increasingly to account for measurable results, including whether a patient’s treatment was successful, whether they were looked after well by NHS staff, and whether they recovered quickly after treatment. Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said: “The information published today is another step towards shifting the health ser- vice towards the benefits for peo- ple who matter - patients. “Crucially, we aren’t telling doctors and nurses how to do their job – the approached adopt- ed by the previous Government. We are now clear about what the NHS should achieve, not telling the NHS how to do its job. These results will shine a light on re- sults achieved and where perfor- mance needs to be improved.” The publication of the figures today means the NHS can be held to account for all aspects of care that patients receive, and is part of a drive to make the health ser- vice more transparent. They pro- vide a basis for driving improve- ments in the future through the Secretary of State’s Mandate to the NHS Commissioning Board, expected in the next few months and will allow the NHS to take ac- tion where patient outcomes are not as good as they should be. NHS Medical Director Bruce Keogh said: “Patients rightly expect the NHS to provide care that is effective and safe. And one of the things that makes for a positive patient experi- ence is when everything joins up seamlessly as they move from GP surgery to hospital to community clinic or social care provider. So through the Outcomes Framework, and the information released today, the foundations are being laid to achieve just that.” DT New information to help improve patient outcomes