22nd September 2009 – The People’s Map has added new Administrative, Postcode and Health Authority boundary layers to its growing list of data products. Administrative layers include Unitary, County and Metropolitan Borough Councils. Postcode data includes areas, districts, sectors and centroids. Other boundary information includes Strategic Health Authorities and Primary Care Trusts, all supplied by People’s Map partner XYZ. These are all available for use in GIS and local information systems and in other digital file formats suitable for use in general office software and the web.   One of the first to benefit from this new data are Geowise who now offer a ‘Map Pack’ to compliment its InstantAtlas™ statistical visualisation platform. “Some of these layers are unique. The Map Pack we offer is the most cost-effective way of delivering ‘fit-for-use’ boundaries for InstantAtlas,” said Mike Forster Managing Director of Geowise.  

New treatment unmatched by any competitor

Ultralase, the vision correction specialist, has today announced the launch of a new treatment, Ultraelite. Ultraelite uses technology which has the potential to deliver the best quality of vision of any laser eye surgery currently available to the UK and Irish market and will be offered at Ultralase clinics nationwide.

Using technology more advanced than is available on any other laser platform, Ultraelite represents the pinnacle of laser treatment options and has promise to deliver the most precise and accurate laser vision correction available in the UK and Ireland.

3M, the diversified technology company, develops hearing products specifically aimed at the manufacturing industry, to try and help prevent workers suffering from workplace hearing loss.

Some 170,000 people in the UK suffer deafness, tinnitus or other ear conditions as a result of exposure to excessive noise at work and therefore exposure to noise at work continues to be a significant occupational hazard[1].

The UK manufacturing sector comprises a range of diverse industries employing over 3.2 million workers.  It was highlighted as one of the industry groups with the highest average annual incidence rates of new cases qualifying for benefit (based on 2002-04 figures) alongside extraction, energy and water supply and construction, with hearing loss fast becoming one of the main causes of ill health[2].

Responding to concerns from doctors in many countries, the BMJ Group has now made available a forum on pandemic flu though doc2doc.bmj.com – a new international on-line community for doctors.

doc2doc provides answers to clinical questions, news about the latest research and forums for doctors to share information easily with each other. Already over 8,000 doctors have registered on doc2doc and visits to the forum on pandemic flu are increasing at the rate of 100 a day.

Dr Fiona Godlee, Editor of the BMJ, said: “The BMJ Group is committed to leading the debate on healthcare and encouraging improved decision making by doctors across the world. doc2doc is an international professional networking community for doctors and meets a real need for doctors across the world to be able to share information with each other.”