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The South West Public Health Observatory has had a busy and active first year. The website now contains a wealth of information on the health of people in the South West, and an increasing amount about the wider determinants of health continues to be added. In addition, the site provides rapid access and links to a wide variety of information sources to support the development of evidence-based public health practice in the region. The number of visitors to the site continues to grow rapidly.

A successful conference was held in June on health impact assessment, which drew together participants from public health, environmental health departments and the environment agency, and stimulated much debate. A report of the conference is available on the web.

A report and bulletin mapping changing patterns of teenage pregnancy in the region has been published, and a report giving an overview of patterns of deprivation in the South West will be issued shortly. Work on equity in coronary revascularisation and the health of travellers will be completed shortly.

Significant progress is being made on the development of the Regional Observatory, a partnership between many key agencies in the region, of which SWPHO is a key part, and modules have been established in the areas of skills and learning, environment and the economy, with all working closely together.

An important development has the re-establishment of the public health analysts group SWINPHO forum, convened by SWPHO, which provides a valuable networking and development opportunity for a wide range of public health analysts working in different organisations and settings, including health authorities, universities, communicable diseases, cancer intelligence and disease registers across the region.

At national level the Association of Public Health Observatories held its first annual conference in July, and the attendance of over 300 people demonstrated an enormous enthusiasm and commitment to the development of public health information as a key part of an evidence-based approach to improving health and reducing inequalities. A report of the activities of the eight PHOs to date, Progress and Prospects 2001/2 is now available on the Web: www.swpho.org.uk/pandp

It has been a busy and exciting year, and we look forward to continuing to work with colleagues throughout the South West to support and promote the use of public health information to underpin the development of evidence-based public health practice in the region.

Further information about all of the above, including downloadable reports, is available via the website at www.swpho.org.uk . Please visit and let us have your comments as to how to make the site better.

Ward level data from the recently developed DETR Indices of Deprivation (ID2000) have been used by the South West Public Health Observatory to produce a report, about to be published as Patterns of Deprivation in the South West of England . Primary Care Group/Trust level indicators may be produced in the future. Ward level data is available by six domains, (income; employment; health deprivation and disability; education, skills and training; housing; geographical access to services), an index of multiple deprivation and a child poverty domain.

The SWPHO has a formal contract with the University of Bristol to provide academic support to underpin the work programme. We are delighted that Dr Mary Shaw has been apppointed to help lead this role. Mary has a background in sociology originally, and has been working for over five years in the field of inequalities in health. A recent key publication, Widening the Gap will be well known by many of you. Mary will be given an honorary title of Scientific Director of SWPHO.

Gloucester streets are safer than they were five years ago. Serious road injuries and deaths are down by 28%, adult pedestrian casualties down by 22% and serious injuries and death as a percentage of all casualties down from 13% to 8%.

The target of the Gloucester Safer City project was to reduce road casualties by at least a third by 2002. These figures point to the achievement of that target.

An interim report, with much detail on the project's management, is on the DETRL web site at: www.roads.dtlr.gov.uk/roadsafety/gloucester/02.htm

What started off as an occasional informal e-mail advising the SWPHO team of useful web pages has evolved into a regular weekly Internet-based current awareness service subscribed to throughout the South West and other regional Public Health Observatories.

It's a list of links to recently published material containing data relevant to PHO activity and information on e.g. social exclusion, deprivation, health inequality, community regeneration, transport and health.

Communication among information specialists in the South West and the staff of the South West Public Health Observatory has been enhanced recently with the launch of SWINPHO, a private JISCMAIL list. JISCMAIL has inherited many of the lists previously run from mailbase.ac.uk , including the public health list. It has all the usual mail list functions.

If you want to find out more about how it works, visit the SWINPHO web site at: www.swinform.com/swinpho or subscribe now by sending an empty e-mail (no subject header, no signature) to: with the message: JOIN swinpho firstname lastname.