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Biomedical subjects

C D Singleton

Publications and source records attributed to C D Singleton.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2000

Media management of a community outbreak of meningococcal meningitis.

Cases and, particularly, clusters of meningococcal meningitis often create high levels of public concern and attract the interest of news media. We describe below our experience of managing intense local and national media interest during a community outbreak of meningococcal disease in Derbyshire. Our learning is set out as ten key recommendations. Four of these are around managing the media, including using a proactive press release, providing detailed briefings, using a single spokesperson and coordination of the response by a press officer experienced in media management. Another four describe how to deliver an appropriate on-site response, often requested during community intervention programmes. The two final recommendations relate to ensuring good communication and supporting staff during what is an intensely stressful period. We hope our experiences may help others if faced with a similar problem.

Disease Outbreaks↗
PubMed1999

Dual provision or duplication? A survey of family planning provision.

BACKGROUND: Family planning has been delivered through dual provision by general practice and community based clinics since its inception. This may be perceived as duplication of services and can be regarded as an area of possible disinvestment in a climate of rising health care costs. AIM: A survey of family planning service provision across a health district was carried out to establish the potential to rationalise current service provision by studying the pattern of service provision in the district and the links between family planning clinics and general practices. METHOD: A postal questionnaire and covering letter were sent to all practices and clinics in May 1997. Following analysis, results were,fed back to clinic staff and general practitioners through accredited meetings. RESULTS: Basic family planning was universally available to the population at all practices and clinics. Clinics offered a wider range of services, especially specialist services for psychosexual counselling and hormonal implants. Very few separate services for young people were identified. Within the primary care sector there was little 'out-of-hours' provision of contraceptive services. Half of the practices responding had used or would use family planning services as referral centres; implants and psychosexual services attracted most referrals. CONCLUSION: An understanding of the complementary nature of the services in primary care and community FP clinics was achieved and agreement was reached that disinvestment in clinics locally was not appropriate. The need to raise public awareness of availability of all contraceptive services was identified. Services in general practice and community clinics are complementary and need to develop a joint strategy to ensure an effective, comprehensive service. Quality of care needs to be examined in future work.

Family Planning Services↗
PubMed1996

A reliable and sensitive method for fluorescent photoconversion.

The objective of this study was to develop a reliable and sensitive method of diaminobenzidine (DAB) photoconversion through systematic variation of the objectives and the method of DAB enhancement employed. Results showed that reliable photoconversion of DiI-labeled macaque monkey cortical cells and processes can be obtained consistently by using fresh filtered DAB solutions, clean slides, and a bright fluorescent light source. Using a 20x objective and enhancing the DAB reaction product with Giemsa stain provided the most sensitivity and best resolution in the photoconverted area. Objective size was found to correlate directly with sensitivity and indirectly with both the size of the area photoconverted and the time to complete photoconversion. Nitro blue tetrazolium (NBT) did not produce as much contrast in the photoconverted cells as Giemsa stain, but allowed for the best visualization of finer processes because it somewhat enlarged the fiber diameter. Nickel and cobalt used together, but not separately, were found to provide adequate enhancement. These results are likely to apply to photoconversion and enhancement of all fluorescent material, but may require slight modifications in protocol.

3,3'-Diaminobenzidine↗