Three years post doctorate
Figure 1. Jano in transition |
Lessons learned from junior post-doc
Future plans for senior post-doc
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To stay true to myself
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To reach a position of independence by:
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conducting a randomized controlled trial
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supervising work of junior investigators
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To maintain a happy work-life balance
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To pass the accumulated knowledge and skills on other:
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Doctors and helping professions, by helping them become more competent and confident in addiction medicine research
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Medical students, by helping them discover and master addiction medicine research
Addiction Medicine Education for Healthcare Improvement Initiatives: New Paper out Now
How to measure performance in the addiction and mental health services? A new paper out now
As part of her final year research project in the Graduate Entry Medical School, University of Limerick, Dr Carla Henderson queried the literature about the methods of development and content of key performance indicators for MESUDS – the mental and substance use disorders – as she named them.
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Figure 1. Journal cover |
Her searches revealed a great variety in the methodologies of indicator development for MESUDS – including expert opinion, literature review, stakeholder consultation, and the structured consensus method.
The paper in Mental Health and Substance use journal (see Figure 1) highlighted several problems in the performance indicators: (1) A bias in the level of performance assessment toward system/health plan evaluation followed by program/service evaluation; (2) Similarly, there was a large skew toward indicators that reflected evaluation of processes. Especially in the addiction health services research, we don’t know whether improvement of care processes is linked to improvement of patients’ health: “such changes have thus far demonstrated only minimal impact on patient outcomes” (Humphreys et al, 2011, see Figure 2).
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Figure 2. Dr Keith Humphreys |
Read the full paper at the journal’s website: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17523281.2014.901402#.U0LiuvldWg4
Cited works:
- Carla Henderson, Jan Klimas, Colum Dunne, Des Leddin, David Meagher, Thomas O’Toole, Walter Cullen (2014). Key performance indicators for mental health and substance use disorders: a literature review and discussion paper. Mental Health and Substance Use, Early Online.
- Keith Humphreys, A. Thomas McLellan (2011). A policy-oriented review of strategies for improving the outcomes of services for substance use disorder patients. Addiction, Volume 106, Issue 12, pages 2058–2066
Can GPs help problem drinkers who also use other drugs? Article in the Forum magazine
The Forum magazine is the official journal of the Irish College of General Practitioners ICGP. Published monthly by MedMedia since 1991, it is Ireland’s premier journal of medical education.
In Ireland, we rank first in the use of heroin in Europe2. With more than 3000 patients attending general practice for methadone treatment, Ireland has a well-established and internationally recognised good example of primary-care based opioid substitution programme 3. Internationally, excessive drinking by patients recovering from drug dependence, is often overlooked and underestimated4. In Ireland, a national survey of primary-care based methadone treatment found 35% prevalence of ‘problem drinking’5. Although effective brief interventions for the general population are available, when it comes to other drugs – we’re still guessing.
What has the doctor done well? A different type of Masterclass on youth mental health for family doctors in Ireland
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Figure 1. Dr Andrew O’Regan (L) and Prof Walter Cullen (R). Dr Liz Schaffalitzky (not pictured) co-organized the session. |