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MonCOEH hosts Thai Occupational Health delegation

On Tuesday 3rd June the McCaughey Centres's Associate Professor Tony Lamontagne led a discussion around the health effects of working with asbestos as part of a workshop program hosted by the Monash Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health (MonCOEH).  The workshop included 20 visitors from Mahidol University in Bangkok, Thailand, and is part of a broader collaborative project funded by a grant from the Australia-Thailand Institute.  The workshop aimed to build capacity in occupational disease prevention, and the Thai delegation participated in a diverse program during their one week visit, with a variety of presentations and activities which aimed to help them gain a better understanding of programs to prevent occupational diseases, such as cancer, asthma, stress and musculoskeletal disorders. 

A/Prof Pinpan Silpasuwan (Mahidol University), Prof Malcolm Sim (Monash University), A/Prof Tony Lamontagne (University of Melbourne), A/Prof Orawan Kaewboonchoo (Mahidol University), A/Prof Pornpimol Kongtip (Mahidol University).

New evidence resources to address public health, equity and health inequalities - A new Cochrane Public Health Review Group

Elizabeth Waters, Professorial Fellow: Public Health and Health Equity, together with a strong and distinguished team of local and international collaborators are delighted to announce that, after two years of planning and preparation, the Public Health Review Group (PHRG) is now registered as an official entity of the Cochrane Collaboration. The PHRG will have responsibility for overseeing the production, editing and publication of public health reviews to improve health and other outcomes at the population level on the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, held in The Cochrane Library. Interventions for review will generally be complex, multi-sectoral and include, for example, policies surrounding income distribution, education, public safety, social networks, food supply and access, transport and the natural and built environment.

We plan to work closely with public health practitioners, policy makers and researchers, to build this new entity to reflect the evidence needs of those responsible for planning, delivery and funding public health initiatives. We therefore value your input on any matters of relevance, including suggestions for topics for review, comments on reviews in progress or completed, requests for training related to doing or using systematic reviews, and any pother matters of relevance.

This is an exciting and opportune time for the entity to be changing focus. The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR) on The Cochrane Library gained listing by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), now called Thomson Scientific, in 2005, with the first impact factor for CDSR due for release in June 2008. As such, Cochrane entities are keen to step up their editorial processes and reach for ever-higher levels of quality in all reviews. The demand for a Public Health Review Group has arisen out of the call for complex public health review topics on The Cochrane Library that have been outside the scope of existing Cochrane Review Groups but important to decision making in public health. The CPHRG's topic scope will encompass the effects of mid-upstream interventions targeted at populations, with a significant focus on equity. This invariably encompasses interventions within the realms of social welfare, justice and education, hence the synergies and need to collaborate also with the Campbell Collaboration.

The PHRG has already established a dedicated editorial team with specific public health content expertise and an understanding of the research needs to inform decision making. Along with the core staff they will provide editorial support to authors keen to undertake these types of reviews. There is also a group of experts committed to continue to develop and refine methods to guide authors and to best meet the evidence needs of stakeholders. Details regarding the Cochrane Public Health Review Group, the team, and the resigstry of studies can be found at http://ph.cochrane.org

'An Australian Case Study in the Assessment of Research Impact—Workplace Stress in Victoria: Developing a Systems Approach'

Associate Professor Tony Lamontagne presented a seminar on 'An Australian Case Study in the Assessment of Research Impact—Workplace Stress in Victoria: Developing a Systems Approach' to the Center for the Promotion of Health in the New England Workplace on Monday the 10th December. Tony is currently a visiting academic with at the University of Massachusetts, Lowel, and is based there for the month of December.