We are pleased to announce that we have another new service for you to get to grips with. Nottingham Children’s Hospital have produced a series of eight great information leaflets that deal exclusively with allergies. These leaflets compliment our own Patient Information Leaflets very well. To get access to them right now, go to the new Allergy Information Leaflet Series page and download them today.

Sandra Lawton has won a ‘Recent Graduate’ award from the University of Nottingham. Sandra was presented with the award at the 2011 Alumni Laureate Awards at the East Midlands Conference Centre on Saturday 7 May by the Vice Chancellor for Nottingham Trent University, Professor David Greenaway.

Each year, the university recognises the achievements of former students who have gone on to achieve great things in their chosen career. Sandra, who has worked at the Queen’s Medical Centre of NUH for over 23 years, said: “The nomination and actually receiving such a prestigious award has made me feel very humble, especially as it is for something I love and do on a daily basis. “To receive this alongside such eminent award winners made the evening very special. It was wonderful to have my family who have lived and breathed dermatology for over 20 years there, alongside colleagues from the University of Nottingham, NUH and parents from the Nottingham Eczema Support Group. “Hearing what they and other colleagues had to say on video was very emotional and I think my speech reflected that. Words cannot say how delighted I was to receive the award, which is recognition for not only what I have done but all those who have been part of my nursing journey.”

The whole event was hosted by Jeff Randall, a former Nottingham Economics graduate and who currently presents "Jeff Randall Live" for Sky TV. There is also a full press release available from Nottingham University. Just Click here to view it.

If you, or someone close to you, are one of the almost 6 million eczema sufferers in the UK you know first hand the challenges associated with living with this unpredictable, painful and incurable condition.

Exacerbated by a lack of research into available and effective treatments, one of the most frustrating aspects of eczema remains the process of trial and error required to design and implement an effective treatment regime to both strengthen the skin barrier and manage the inflammation, redness and incessant itch.

As part of its commitment to improving patient care in the UK, the National Eczema Society is therefore calling on sufferers across the country to draw on their own experience of eczema this summer to help shape future treatment research. The Eczema Treatment Prioritisation Exercise is being run by the highly regarded University of Nottingham and the James Lind Alliance. By means of a two part survey, the objective is to identify questions that patients, carers and health professionals think are important about eczema treatments which have not yet been researched and then to establish which of those questions need to be answered as a priority.

Respondents are initially asked to submit up to five questions that they would like answering on the treatment of eczema. These results will then be collated and respondents invited to rank the most frequently asked questions in order of importance to them. The top ten questions, as identified and ranked by respondents, will subsequently be developed into research proposals.

Chief Executive of the National Eczema Society, Margaret Cox, feels this is a crucial step forward in addressing the issue of eczema in the UK. “With the such a huge number of eczema sufferers in the UK, the need for greater understanding of existing treatments and how best to employ them is vital to the successful management of what can be a lifelong condition. There remains a significant lack of evidence in this field and we aim to help address the issue this summer with the support of both patients and their carers. By putting the patient at the heart of the research process and identifying which questions are of most importance to them we can help to ensure that precious research funding is directed towards providing the answers that would have the most impact on both sufferers and those who care for them.”

If you would like to be involved in shaping the future of eczema research you can either complete the short survey online at http://www.homeforeczema.org/ or, if you do not have internet access, you can request a paper version from the National Eczema Society's helpline on 0800 089 1122. The survey will be available to complete until the end of July with the results of the project due to be published in Spring 2012. This is a major oportunity to have your say and to influence the decision makers over which research projects they undertake. The results of this exercise will determine current uncertainties in the treatment of eczema and the information gained will be used to guide the design of future eczema research projects and research funding opportunities.

Please, if you can, complete the survey. It is so important and will affect which research projects are undertaken over the coming years. If you would like to take part in this exercise, please click the panel on the home page of the H.O.M.E website that asks "Do you have unanswered questions about the treatment of eczema?" Your time will count for a lot. Thank you.

Whatever else we do we have the quality support staff to back it all up, and that is priceless. Help us to help you by passing on our site details.

Gayle said “My 2 daughters suffer from eczema and I have always felt more needs to be done to help parents, through knowing where to turn to, which websites offer the best advice etc and to help with finding cures.”

Well done everyone involved

Our latest Patient Information Leaflet (PIL) is now available for download. This is the 30th PIL that we have produced and covers Eczema and Bullying. You can get it for free from our Information Leaflets page

This is a study which is aiming to establish whether some "infected" flares should be treated with antibiotics, or not.

NHS funded researchers based at the Universities of Bristol, Nottingham, Southampton and Portsmouth are working together to develop a study to find out how to best treat a child with eczema who has a "flare" of their condition. By flare, they mean that the eczema worsens despite using the regular treatments. One reason for this can be infection.

If you have one or more children with eczema, they really would like you to complete a short survey. They need as many people as possible to take part. Your answers will be important in helping decide how to study this particular problem.

There are 9 questions over 4 pages, and it should take no more than 10 minutes to answer them.

If you can help them, please go to the flame study survey site which can be found at:

https://www.survey.bris.ac.uk/primarycare/carersofeczema/

For any further information please email me at webmaster@nottinghameczema.org.uk or use the Contact Us page on the website.

The NSGCCE was today (18/02/2010) confirmed as a stakeholder organisation for the “Food allergy in children” guideline which will be produced by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. This is a tremendous achievement for us and means that you will be able to comment on this guideline in due course. We will of course keep you informed but you may want to keep an eye open for the RSS feed and Blog as well as here on the web site.

Congratulations have to go to Amanda who has just achieved her 1000th follower on her very successful Twitter pages. Her next goal, which we fully expect her to break, and very soon, is the 6000 tweets. Only 23 to go. Well done Amanda.

After a flurry of activity from Belarus, The Cook Islands and Zambia we have now broken another barrier. The 100 nations barrier. Excluding the home nation flags but not the United Kingdom, we have had visits from 101 nations around the world. Go and have a look at the Visitor Nations page for the full display of national flags.

To all our visitors from wherever you live, a very big Thank You for taking the time to look at our site, for embracing Amanda’s Twitter conversations so fantastically, for your subscriptions to the email alert service, your questions for the Experts and your wonderful support for our Awareness Day just a few weeks ago.

From the team - Hywel, Sandra, Amanda, Jane, Ruth and Colin

By going onto our website and clicking on the podcast icon located at the top left of most pages (its the purple figure next to the page title), you will be taken to a new podcast page. From here you will have two ways of using the audio:

1. Click on the green triangle under the podcast that you are interested in listening to. It should start up almost instantly. Please make sure that your computer speakers are switched on!
2. You can click on the purple podcast icon. This could display in a number of ways. If you get presented with a page that shows the file name, they will usually end in .mp3, click on it. Then, depending how your computer is set up, you will get the option to save it or it will start your default media player. If your media player starts you should be able to save the file by clicking ‘File > Save As’ on the menu bar. Once saved you will then be able to transfer it to your mp3 device and review it at a more convenient time and as often as you would like.

In the fullness of time it is hoped that we will be able to bring you more podcasts with information that will be of general interest to eczema sufferers and carers. In the meantime enjoy these very informative podcasts and if you have any feedback on any aspect of our services then please get in touch via our contacts page. We will be very pleased to hear from you.

Dr Porter has a look at their day-to-day work and talks with members of the team. One study going on at the centre is looking at whether installing a water softener will have any effect on childhood eczema. Professor Hywel Williams, the director of the centre, has been wanting to do this study for years, after hearing from many patients that softened water seems to improve their symptoms. Other patients are not so sure though, so research in this area is needed.

Case Notes came to the Queens Medical Centre in Nottingham on Thursday 30 July to record the programme on eczema and eczema research and in which Professor Williams, Sandra Lawton, and Amanda Roberts, one of our parents, were all interviewed for the program.

To recap the broadcasting schedule is Tue 4 Aug 2009 at 21:00 and Wed 5 Aug 2009 at 16:30.

We have also just launched the latest in our series of Patient Information Leaflets. The latest PIL is about sleep disturbance and can be downloaded free. Just go to the “Information Leaflets” page and click on Sleep Disturbance for your copy.

Guiness, Chips & Eczema - Is there really a link? Well maybe there is! Our“What the Papers Say” feature will show how responsesource.com are reporting it.

The really exciting news is that in the very near future (days I hope) we will be unveiling yet another complimentary service. This is a new position for us as it will be totally interactive. That's right, totally interactive. Watch this space. If you are not on the email alert service yet, just know that you need to be on it. You just do.

The National Eczema Society has now launched their new web site. It contains a wealth of good information for sufferers of eczema, from helplines to support groups to fact sheets and so much more. If you would like to join the National Eczema Society click here for full details

The Sofened Water Eczema Trial (SWET) is now looking for more volunteers to take part in this valuable piece of research into the effects of using softened water on eczema. If you live in the Lincoln or Leicester areas of the United Kingdom them please get in touch with Dr Karin Koller, the  SWET Clinical Trial Manager via their web site at http://www.swet-trial.co.uk/. For more information go to our Current Research page.

Currently there are 2 surgerys that have links to our site. This is great but it would be nice to have a few more. If you think that your surgery website would benifit from a link to us, then please ask them the next time you are there.

Don't forget that we are always open for new ideas for content on the site.

The first 10 Paitent Information Leaflets (PIL's) have now been completed and are available for download. These leaflets have been produced in .pdf format as the pdf reader is a free download and therefore available to all. There are currently 3 more PIL's waiting to be updated and we will get these done as soon as posible. Please keep checking our downloads page.

During the reorganisation of the QMC web sites it was agreed that the NSGCCE would take over the responsibility for maintaining the Patient Information Leaflets (PIL’s) that relate to children's eczema. We are currently updating these and as they are completed will be made available via our redesigned downloads page.

Professor Williams and his colleagues in the Centre of Evidence Based Dermatology are looking for people to become involved in a 3 year study. The aim of the study is to see if eczema can be improved by deliberately softening the water in the home. Click on the hippo for more details and information on how you can become involved.

Congratulations to Sandra who becomes a Queens Nurse today

As of today Sandra is allowed to use the prestigious title of Queens Nurse. The Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI) was established in 1887, after Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, and was responsible for training nurses to look after people in their own homes. These trained nurses were called Queen’s Nurses. The QNI continued this role until 1967 when training became nationalised. The QNI has now reintroduced this title as a way of recognising nurses, midwives and health visitors working in the community who make a special contribution to the care of their patients or clients, and in so doing earn their trust and respect. Besides her nursing work, Sandra has contributed to the medical community in many ways. She has written books and papers on various matters dermotlogical, was the founder member of the NSGCCE, and has been awarded the public servant of the year award for 2003.

Please see the NSGCCE standard disclaimer which should be read in conjunction with this feed.

"Mölnlycke Health Care have introduced Tubifast Gloves to the Tubifast Garments range. Tubifast Gloves have been developed to address the unmet needs of patients suffering from hand eczema and other dry skin conditions. They are available in 4 sizes, for children and adults. Tubifast Gloves allow full freedom of movement of fingers and thumbs, and thus can be worn throughout the day and night without interfering with normal day-to-day activities – enhancing patient compliance."

The website for Eczema Scotland has just been launched. This will allow those in Scotland to access their own Eczema organisation and support groups more directly than before. Eczema Scotland exists to further the aims in Scotland of the National Eczema Society (NES) and to work towards improving the care of those in Scotland affected by eczema. There are several support groups operating in Scotland, details of which can be found here. The web address for Eczema Scotland is www.eczemascotland.org The National Eczema Society (NES) has it’s own web site (www.eczema.org) where you can find more detailed information and help for eczema sufferers.