“Outstanding…. a great resource for the non-tracheostomy specialist”. So said David Roberson, Associate Professor of Otology and Laryngology at the Children’s Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School when he reviewed the new ‘Tracheostomy Safety’ project.

Developed in partnership with the National Tracheostomy Safety Project and the Royal College of Anaesthetists, the three sessions support those caring for ‘neck breathing’ patients, either routinely or in an emergency. They are applicable to general and specialist nursing staff, medical staff and allied health professionals from all backgrounds, in both hospital and community settings. Tracheostomy Safety is available at https://www.e-lfh.org.uk/programmes/tracheostomy-safety/ , via the NLMS or at www.tracheostomy.org.uk

eFetal Monitoring won the top ‘Gold’ award for ‘Innovation in Learning Services’ at The Learning Awards 2012, hosted by The Learning and Performance Institute. The judges commended the innovative knowledge base, summative assessments and bespoke case study tool, which provides experiential training in interpreting CTGs. They said “In an outstanding presentation, the elfh team demonstrated that the programme will save training costs throughout the NHS and save the lives of, or prevent severe handicap to, hundreds of babies a year”.

For more information, please visit www.thelearningawards.com/.

On Tuesday the 13th of September, the President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists ,Dr Anthony Dale Falconer, launched the eFM tool to an audience of obstetricians and midwives.

This web-based resource was developed through a partnership between the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the Royal College of Midwives and elearning for healthcare.

Obstetricians and midwives are required to independently interpret cardiotocographs (CTGs) in the crucial lead up to birth. EFM educates learners using assessment-driven case-based learning. The interactive learning sessions test knowledge of CTG interpretation and clinical management and provide feedback to the learner regarding their performance.

Two elfh projects have been rewarded for their innovative thinking by being shortlisted for the elearning Age Awards 2011 in the Most Innovative New Learning Hardware or Software Product category. e-Fetal Monitoring’s Case Study tool allows users to practise their skills at interpretation of cardiotocographs in a virtual labour ward. elearning Anaesthesia’s MCQ tool is an Excel-based tool that lowers the bar for content creation, opening it up to any subject matter expert, while creating assessments of the highest quality. elfh has tasted success at previous elearning Age Awards and is hoping to continue that winning run at the Gala Evening on November 10th.

“Without leadership, all structural changes in the world will not deliver”.

So said Secretary of State Andrew Lansley at the recent launch of the NHS Leadership Framework. Underpinned by elfh’s LeAD programme, the NHS Leadership Framework recognises that frontline clinicians and the wider workforce must have leadership knowledge, skills and behaviours to drive radical service redesign and improvement.

For more information, or to register for LeAD, go to www.e-lfh.org.uk/projects/lead/register.html.

On June 16th, Minister of State for Care Services Paul Burstow launched ‘Supporting Carers in General Practice’.

Developed through a partnership between RCGP, Department of Health, The Princess Royal Trust and elfh, with support from The Children’s Society, the free-to-access elearning resource is primarily aimed at GPs, GP trainees and other health workers in primary care teams. It will also be available to all healthcare staff through the NLMS and the elfh LMS.

Please go to Supporting Carers in General Practice for more information.

Pathpots, the joint project with the Histopathology Training Schools initiative of the Royal College of Pathologists has begun to release its first batches of podcasts of pathology museum specimens.

Designed for trainees and medical students and anyone interested in pathology they cover a wide range of disease – common, rare and exotic. Over 300 cases by some of the best teachers of pathology have already been produced and will be released over the next six months. They can be downloaded onto any podcatcher such as the ipad, ipod or smartphone.

To register for the podcasts go to www.e-pathpots.org.uk.

elfh and eXact learning solutions carried off the Platinum Award for established elearning at the 2011 IMS Global Learning Consortium Learning Impact Awards. Competing against a global field of 50 finalists, the judges commended elfh and eXact for “the world’s largest and most successful on-line medical content production initiative.”

Click here for further information.