Every year, the President's Cancer Panel reports on one aspect of cancer in the United States. This year, the group looked at how lifestyle influences the disease. Even though the number of cancer deaths has been decreasing, many malignancies can be prevented by exercising, eating right, maintaining a healthy weight, and not smoking. The problem this panel notes is trying to motivate people to maintain a healthier lifestyle.

For example, obesity has been linked to cancers of the colon, lung, breast, kidneys, ovaries, and pancreas. And while it is well known that tobacco is the leading cause of lung cancer, smoking also can precipitate most cancers of the larynx, oral cavity and pharynx, esophagus, and bladder as well as the kidney, pancreas, cervix, and stomach. In addition, it is related to the development of acute myeloid leukemia.

According to the chief researcher, "If you consider that 15 to 20 percent of cancer deaths are related to obesity and another 30 percent of cancer deaths are due to tobacco use, that's 50 percent of all people with cancer."

Even though progress is being made in cancer diagnosis and treatment, it continues to account for more than a half million deaths in the United States each year, with almost 1.5 million new cases diagnosed annually.

We have an extensive library on cancer that can be used for in hospitals inservices or orientation, or schools of nursing. Titles include:

• Basic Genetics for the Oncology Nurse (504)
• Managing Physical Assessments and Supportive Cancer Care (505)
• Leukemia: Implications of the Initial Diagnosis (506)
• Caring for the Patient with Breast Cancer (507)
• Symptom Management for the Patient with Lung Cancer (508)
• Tumor Lysis Syndrome and Pleural Effusion (509)
• Sepsis and DIC (510)
• Guided Visualization: Working with the Healing Power of Your Immune System (511)
• Chemotherapy Administration for the Oncology Nurse (512)
• Symptom Management for the Radiation Oncology Patient (513)
• Preventing Medication Errors for the Oncology Nurse (514)
• Cancer as a Family Diagnosis: Supporting the Caregivers (515)
• Cancer: Supporting Couples and Children (516)
• Traditional Pain Management in Oncology Treatment (517)
• Alternative Pain Management in Oncology Treatment (518)

According to new studies, educational videos designed for babies and toddlers may delay language development. Promising to increase vocabulary and enhance cognitive development of babies as young as 3 months old, these DVDs have become very popular. At the University of Washington and Seattle Children's Hospital Research Institute, researchers reported that for every hour infants 8 to 16 months old spent viewing these programs, they understood an average of 6 to 8 fewer words than other infants who did not watch them. These results suggest that social interaction provides a better basis for acquiring language skills. For toddlers between ages 17 and 24 months, watching the DVDs had neither a positive nor a negative effect on language.

We have numerous, award-winning series which describe language, cognitive, psychosocial, and physical development of children of different ages: Human Development: Conception to Neonate (618), Human Development: Birth to 2½ (670), Human Development: 2½ to 6 Years (620), Human Development: 6 to 12 Years (650), and Human Development: Enhancing Social and Cognitive Growth in Children (630). These ageless programs can be used in schools of child development, child life, nursing, education, social work, or psychology as well as facilities that work with children of all ages such as schools, hospitals, clinics, day-care centers, and counseling centers.

According to The New York Times. Medicare is changing its coverage: it will no longer pay for hospital preventable incidents caused by negligence or improper medical practice. In addition, the Bush administration has decided that Medicare will no longer pay the additional costs for treating the sequelae of these events, which can include pressure ulcers, injuries caused by falls in circumstances where they could have been prevented, and infections resulting from use of catheters for long periods.

Private insurance companies are considering following Medicare's lead.

Avoiding Malpractice (403) is an excellent series explaining the elements of malpractice. Then, through the use of scenarios, it demonstrates both how easy it is for neglect or medical errors to occur as well as solutions to prevent them from happening. These programs can be utilized for student nurses or by hospitals for orientation, annual updates, remediation for staff involved in an event, and education to meet standards set forth by The Joint Commission (formerly JCAHO).

Concept Media produces and distributes award winning education media for colleges, healthcare institutions, social service agencies and counseling centers throughout North America, Europe, and the South Pacific. Most programs come in VHS, DVD and CD formats. Site Licenses and Distance Learning packages are also available for our library of programs.

Concept Media is best known in the area of professional nursing education and represented in more than 95% of the nation's nursing school media libraries. We have developed partnerships with leading nursing education institutions including Brigham Young University, Drexel University, and ICN/ Washington State University College of Nursing. Concept Media is well-respected and has received numerous awards for programs on diabetes, human development, mental health, substance abuse, counseling, and addiction.

For your convenience, Concept Media also offers additional resources in the form of Instructor's Guides which are available online. And, in keeping with our mission to focus on the needs of educators in the healthcare field, we invite you to call with any suggestions, questions, program requests, or ways in which we can better serve you.

We would like to hear from you. Please email us on any topics you would like to see covered in Hot Topics.

hottopics@conceptmedia.com. Or call us at (800) 233-7078.