Andre Tomlin

Profile photo of Andre Tomlin
André Tomlin is an Information Scientist with 20 years experience working in evidence-based healthcare. He's worked in the NHS, for Oxford University and since 2002 as Managing Director of Minervation Ltd, a consultancy company who do clever digital stuff for charities, universities and the public sector. Most recently André has been the driving force behind the Mental Elf and the National Elf Service; an innovative digital platform that helps professionals keep up to date with simple, clear and engaging summaries of evidence-based research. André is a Trustee at the Centre for Mental Health and an Honorary Research Fellow at University College London Division of Psychiatry. He lives in Bristol, surrounded by dogs, elflings and lots of woodland!

Website

Follow me here –

  • Badge_support
  • Badge_stat
  • Badge_creative

Seven principles of better adoption of evidence in practice, from new MeReC bulletin

No Responses »
Profile photo of Andre Tomlin
Posted by
shutterstock_91051631

The most recent MeReC Bulletin (December 2011) considers the problem of the implementation gap: the best evidence often does not get adopted quickly into practice. It highlights relevant evidence and ideas from educational theory, decision-making theory, information management and implementation science and brings them together in one place. It is intended to encourage a fresh [read the full story…]

Clinical commissioning needs input from specialist doctors, says new NHS Alliance discussion paper

No Responses »
Profile photo of Andre Tomlin
Posted by
shutterstock_51729439

Policy on the role of specialist doctors in the NHS reforms is not fit for purpose, according to a discussion paper published today by the NHS Alliance. Specialists in Commissioning: Looking beyond current policy discusses the views of GPs and specialists on current policy on specialists in Clinical Commissioning Groups. The paper calls for policy [read the full story…]

Tagged with: ,

MHRA launch new learning package on SSRI antidepressants

1 Response »
Profile photo of Andre Tomlin
Posted by
shutterstock_82444480

If you are a doctor, nurse or pharmacist involved in the care of patients with depression, you may like to take this self-directed learning module on selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) antidepressants produced by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). The free online training outlines the key risks of this important class of [read the full story…]

Tagged with: ,

SSRI antidepressants should not be first choice for treating depression with comorbid alcohol use disorders

No Responses »
Profile photo of Andre Tomlin
Posted by
shutterstock_51334930

All mental health professionals are well aware that depression and alcohol misuse frequently go hand in hand. One condition often complicates and affects the outcome of the other. NICE guidelines recommend treating the alcohol problems first and then after 3-4 weeks of abstinence focus on treating the comorbid mental illness if it’s still present. This [read the full story…]

Joining up health and social care: new report from the Audit Commission

No Responses »
Profile photo of Andre Tomlin
Posted by
shutterstock_78426154

The Audit Commission have published the second in a series of briefings looking at adult social care. At a time when the whole of the public sector must find significant savings, the report says that integrated working across health and social care offers opportunities for efficiencies and improvements to services. Without it, there is a [read the full story…]

Tagged with: ,

Depressed patients who respond poorly to antidepressants are significantly more likely to develop bipolar disorder, says new cohort study

5 Responses »
Profile photo of Andre Tomlin
Posted by
shutterstock_85649404

Bipolar disorder is a complex health condition and the diagnosis of bipolar depression is a fairly contentious topic. This is because depression occurs in bipolar disorder alongside a wide range of symptoms of mood elevation. Some patients have depressive episodes as well as severely elevated mood during the course of their illness, whereas other patients [read the full story…]

Moving towards evidence-based drug policy: new paper in the Lancet

No Responses »
Profile photo of Andre Tomlin
Posted by
shutterstock_7919233

Evidence-based drug policy is a phrase you don’t read that often. Many searches for this phrase return articles that explore why we don’t have evidence-based policies for illicit drugs and why the evidence base is weak in this area. A group of international researchers and policy makers (including two UK-based professionals) are trying to buck [read the full story…]

Memantine is not an effective treatment for dementia in people with Down’s syndrome, according to new RCT

No Responses »
Profile photo of Andre Tomlin
Posted by
shutterstock_23700235

People with Down’s syndrome are more likely to develop dementia than others and one in three will have the illness as early as in their 50s. Despite this high prevalence, there is very little reliable research about drug treatments for this population. This small randomised controlled trial (funded by the drug company Lundbeck) aimed to [read the full story…]

More psychotherapy does not improve social functioning for depressed people also taking antidepressants

3 Responses »
Profile photo of Andre Tomlin
Posted by
shutterstock_80318626

This is an unusual randomised controlled trial conducted by a research team from Arkin Institute for Mental Health in Amsterdam and funded by Eli Lilly. The study measures social functioning as an outcome, as well as the more commonly measured depression symptoms. It aims to find out how much psychotherapy is optimal for depressed people [read the full story…]

Adding CBT to drug therapy helps children with OCD who don’t respond to antidepressants alone

No Responses »
Profile photo of Andre Tomlin
Posted by
shutterstock_87646726

Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is a condition that is usually associated with obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviour. It’s one of the most common mental health problems in young people, with an estimated 5% of children and teenagers suffering from the chronic condition. Studies have shown that SSRI antidepressants and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) are both [read the full story…]