Maximizing the Potential for DNA Technology

NCVC is hosting a webinar November 18th at 1pm ET: Maximizing the Potential for DNA Technology. “The goals of this webinar are to expose participants to the “big picture” of how forensic DNA came to be the potent crime-fighting tool that it is today, and for participants to learn about today’s most extensive and innovative applications of forensic DNA in the United States and abroad. The speaker will highlight the importance of DNA databasing for identifying offenders and solving and preventing crimes and will present intriguing cases and innovative techniques using forensic DNA.”

Is It Injury or Neglect?

The Federal Interagency Workgroup on Child Abuse and Neglect has an archived webinar from August 2008 available for review: Is It Injury or Neglect? Improving Our Knowledge to Better Protect Children. The session discusses “efforts to better define neglect in the context of accidental injury and described models of child death case reviews that will lead to improved understanding, reporting, and prevention strategies.” The presenters represent public health, advocacy and fatality review organizations. A complete transcript of the webinar is also available.

Death Investigation: The Basics

IAFN is hosting a webinar Tuesday, July 28th from 2-3pm ET on the basics of death investigation. Cost for members is $20 ($30 for non-members); 1.0 CEUs will be awarded upon completion. Deputy Coroner Bobbie Jo O’Neal is be the featured presenter.

New Online Courses at IAFN

Two new online courses have been announced at IAFN: SANE Dialogues: Focus Group on the Use of nPEP in SANE Programs and Patterns of Injury in Non-Accidental Childhood Fatalities. They’re free for members; non-members pay $10 each. It would appear that there are CEUs attached, but I could not find any specifics related to how many for either course. If you’re a Firefox user, be forewarned: you may not be able to complete the posttest to get credit for the course, so Internet Explorer is really the only way to access this content (which frankly sucks for Mac users like me).

Child Maltreatment

The California Clinical Forensic Medical Training Center has recently posted 7 lectures with slides from the 23rd Annual San Diego International Conference on Child and Family Maltreatment, held this past January. If you weren’t able to get out to the conference, or you just didn’t get a chance to see everything you wanted to while you were there, here’s your chance. Lectures are $1 a piece to access (yup, one dollar–not a typo).

Death Investigation Basics

IAFN is hosting a webinar July 28th from 2-3pm ET on Death Investigation: The Basics. Bobbie Jo O’Neal, RN, BSN, F-ABMDI, the Deputy Coroner with the Charleston County North Carolina Coroner’s office will be the featured presenter. She will cover coroner versus medical examiner systems, organizations whose influence can impact death investigations, the role of and skills used by a death investigator and suggestions for those interested in entering the field of death investigation. Members can register for $20 (non-members pay $30).

Cause of Death

The National Association of Medical Examiners has 5 cause of death tutorials on their web site. They were published in 2005, so not being a death investigator myself, I’m not sure if there is more current info available on the topic (if you know will you tell us?). The offerings include:

• Writing Cause of Death Statements–Basic Principles
• Writing Cause of Death Statements in SIDS
• Writing Cause of Death Statements Involving Injury or Poisoning
• Quick Tips on Writing Cause of Death Statements
• Writing Cause of Death Statements

They’re free of charge and printable, should you decide to share information with other team members.

Firearms

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.

Articles of Note

I’m auditioning a new feature to the site: a monthly look at what’s new and notable in the literature. Obviously this won’t be a comprehensive review, since A.) there are hundreds of journals to comb through and who has that kind of time? and B.) my interests skew in a pretty specific direction so I’m sure there’s stuff out there that wouldn’t necessarily catch my attention but would be compelling and/or relevant to many of you.

International Forensic Investigation Course

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) has a pretty incredible online course on international forensic investigation. What may be most unbelievable is that it is offered free of charge. Although it doesn’t appear that CEs are attached, don’t let that deter you–there is some seriously chewy content in this offering.

Forensic Nursing and School Shooters

Nurse.com is providing 1.5 CEUs for their online offering, Forensic Nursing and School Shooters. Co-authored by Dr. Ann Burgess, the course is $10 and is in the standard article-posttest format.

Child Death Review

Child Death Reviews (or Child Fatality Reviews as they’re called in my neck of the woods) are happening in all 50 states and in countries around the world. Talking about child fatalities doesn’t always mean putting lessons learned into practice, though. The University of Pittsburgh, Department of Neurological Surgery’s Center for Injury Research and Control has an archived webinar on this topic: The Role of the Injury Professional on the Child Death Review Team: Translating CDR Findings to Injury Prevention Policy and Practice.