Month: March 2009

PLEASE READ THROUGH FOR UPDATED INFO:

Sorry that this is a very last minute post (I just got the announcement for it this morning, so subscribers, you’re probably not going to even see this until it’s too late), but the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices is holding a webinar TODAY (3/17/09) from 2-3:30pm ET titled The Future of DNA: Collecting DNA in High Volume Crimes.

From Medscape: A CE offering on mild TBI and transient, persistent symptoms after injuries. This offering specifically looks at  TBI in kids and teens, and is based on a study published in this month’s issue of Pediatrics. 0.25 CEUs/CMEs available with completion of the online test. Registration on Medscape is free and required.

OVC‘s next Web Forum will be on providing services to victims of bullying. As with their other forums, you can submit questions in advance, and then return on March 18th at 2pm ET for the live discussion. To read more about the forum and the featured experts, click here. To submit questions, follow this link. An index of previous forum topics, with archived questions and responses, can be found here.

I was asked yesterday what my go-to resources are for information on the Web. If I had to put together my can’t live without list for growing myself professionally, what would be on it? Obviously, my choices are personal ones, based on my forensic specialties (SA, DV, elder abuse) and my other revenue-generating interests (technology, healthcare economics, writing, presenting). Probably not universally appealing stuff. But if pressed (which I was), you can check out my top 10 after the jump:

The University of Utah Eccles Health Science Library has an online firearms tutorial available here. It’s easy to use and has almost no bells and whistles (but it has photos!) so you should be able to view this on any computer. I’m not sure when the course was last updated (some of the statistics look old), but the mechanics of firearms and the appearance of gunshot wounds haven’t really changed, so age shouldn’t be a significant issue. It was created for pathologists, meaning it has a medical, rather than law enforcement, flavor.

Davis Plus, those nice people who make the drug guides, have an online wound care tutorial that’s brief and easy to use (requires Flash). For those of you who need a little refresher on wound types and dressings (and some gnarly photos to go along with them), here’s a little quicky for your viewing pleasure. There’s also a self-assessment at the end, should you want to test your knowledge.

I had you at “gnarly photos”, didn’t I?

Hepatitis is the often forgotten conversation when it comes to sexual assault medical-forensic care. I find a lot of folks are skipping over it in trainings and in working individually with patients, even though we know that many of our patients may be at greater risk for contracting hepatitis than HIV. The University of Washington and the Seattle STD/HIV Prevention Training Center have teamed up for an online course on viral hepatitis, funded by the CDC.

Sunday is International Women’s Day, and the 2009 United Nations theme being used for the day, fittingly enough, is Women and Men United to End Violence Against Women and Girls. Social media sites, including Facebook and Twitter, have created networks in honor of IWD; there are also almost one thousand events in more than 60 countries in honor of the day. This includes more than 300 events in the US and Canada, alone. Although some of these events have already occurred, there are still plenty happening over the weekend.

Let us know if you end up attending one!