Thinking about rationing, a new publication from the King's Fund, provides a guide to the practicalities and controversies surrounding the issue and identifies what is known about how it works in practice.

Rationing can take various forms: rationing by denial, when specific treatments are denied to patients on the grounds of lack of effectiveness, high cost or a combination of the two rationing by selection, where service providers select those patients who are most likely to benefit from interventions or raise the threshold of eligibility for treatment rationing by delay, where access to the system is controlled rationing by deterrence, when barriers are put up by, for example, by limiting information about a service rationing by deflection, when ‘difficult cases’ are referred to another hospital or specialist rationing by dilution, where services are offered but with, for example, fewer staff.

New article from Rural and Remote Health: 'Developing dietetic positions in rural areas: what are the key lessons?'

Why are Australian rural and remote communities underserved by dietitians - and what can be done about it? The data from dietitians and their managers from 6 rural New South Wales sites contributes to a solution.

KidsCareEverywhere is a not for profit organistion, who's mission is to transform paediatric care in under- resourced communities in developing countries by donating easy-to-use, state of the art medical information software

International Partnership for Innovative Health Care Delivery Established by the World Economic Forum the IPIHD seeks to increase access to cost-effective and high quality healthcare through innovation.

Researchers at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) are looking for fathers of children aged about 1.5 – 5 years to participate in a study on mealtimes. This type of research rarely involves Dads, so this project is looking at the mealtime behaviour of young children (whether problem feeders or not), and what fathers do and how they think about mealtimes, to help us design better interventions. Participation involves completing an on-line survey that takes about 30 minutes. Parents who complete the survey go into the draw to win a $100 prepaid VISA card, and importantly help us learn more about the role of Dads in mealtimes. The research has received ethical approval from USQ. Many thanks, your time is appreciated.

The Australian Institute of Health Innovation (AIHI) brings together four successful UNSW research centres working in separate but related areas of clinical governance, clinical practice and health services research and health informatics.

Delivering Sustainable Cost Improvement Programmes

Global HELP (Health Education using Low-cost Publications) is a not-for-profit organisation that distributes affordable health-education materials to developing countries.

Planning Ahead Tools is a website where you can find out about Wills, Powers of Attorney, Enduring Guardianship and Advance Care Planning from the NSW Governement.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has released two new Closing the Gap Clearinghouse reports today:

• Healthy lifestyle programs, for physical activity and nutrition
• Improving indigenous community governance through strengthening indigenous and government organisational capacity
  Posted by: ARCHI, 31 Jan 2012

The Health Foundation is an independent charity working to improve quality of healthcare in the UK

The role of the Centre for Healthcare Improvement is to lead improvement in the overall quality of healthcare in Queensland Health

Nuffield Trust is an authoritative and independent source of evidence-based research and policy analysis for improving health care in the UK

NSW Emergency Care Institute (ECI) has recently launched a new website. The ECI site is designed to be a "one-stop-shop" for emergency care clinicians' professional and clinical needs.

'Rural origin plus a rural clinical school placement is a significant predictor of medical students' intentions to practice rurally: a multi-university study' In this report of an Australian multi-university study, the authors describe a "winning combination" of factors as the most significant predictor of a medical undergrad's rural practice intention.

Monitoring acute coronary syndrome using national hospital data: An information paper on trends and issues. A new AIHW publication, no. CVD 57.

Antimicrobial Surveillance Implementation Guides Three implementation guides have been developed by the ACSQHC for use by Australian hospitals and organisations to support the implementation of surveillance for Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia (SAB), Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) and Central Line Associated Bloodstream Infections (CLABSI).

Podcasts and presentations from the "Art of Good Health and Wellbeing" conference 2011, including the Arts and Health Australia Awards for Excellence are now available

ACSQHC introduces flash training tool on the National Medication Management Plan (MMP)

NHS Live project directory UK database of innovation and improvement projects. Now this is a serious project directory.......

NSW Health & University of Sydney have recently launched a web-based Clinical Ethics Resource for NSW health professionals

Implementation Plan for the NSW Dementia Services Framework 2010 – 2015: Consultation Draft

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has released a new report: The health of Australia's prisoners 2010 The health of Australia’s prisoners 2010 is the second report relating to the National Prisoner Health Indicators, which were developed to help monitor the health of prisoners, and to inform and evaluate the planning, delivery and quality of prisoner health services. The indicators presented in this report are aligned to the National Health Performance Framework. The results in this second report build on the baseline information from the first National Prisoner Health Census, and this time include some state and territory comparisons. AIHW catalogue number (PHE 149) Available from CanPrint for $38 (1300 889 873)

Patient and Consumer Centred Care Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, 2011

Guide to Reducing Unintended Consequences of Electronic Health Records Jones, Spencer S and others, RAND for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, September 2011

'Exploring the Business Case for Ambulatory Electronic Health Record System Adoption', Song, Paula H and others, Journal of Healthcare Management, Vol. 56(3) May/June 2011 pp. 169-182