SOP Bulletin No. 49

Decision Support Unit

4 — th Floor AMP Place, 10 Eagle St Brisbane  3 — rd Floor Blackburn House, 199 Grenfell St Adelaide

Intranet site:  http://intranet/nat/comp/dp/Nop/dsu/dsudefault.htm

28 May 2001

RELEASE NOTES - CCPS VERSION 2001/05

Version 2001/05 of the Medical Knowledge Base for CCPS was released into production today.  This Bulletin provides a summary of the new and amended SOPs that this version of CCPS incorporates.

New SOPs incorporated into CCPS	NIL
SOP amendments incorporated into CCPS	Alzheimer's disease Dengue fever Inflammatory bowel disease Porphyria cutanea tarda Tinnitus
Enhancements of CCPS rulebases and commentary	NIL

SOP amendments incorporated into CCPS

Alzheimer's disease

The new head injury factor has a claimant questionnaire and a medical questionnaire if required.  Remember that the head injury must have involved a fracture of the skull, loss of consciousness for more than 15 minutes, post-traumatic amnesia for more than 30 minutes, or a cerebral laceration or contusion (ie tear or bruise to the brain).

Dengue fever

There is a claimant questionnaire requesting information about areas of residence and areas visited by the veteran in the 20 years before the onset of dengue fever.  It is envisaged that this questionnaire would be used rarely ie it would only be required if:

(1)the veteran had dengue haemorrhagic fever and the claim could not be accepted through infection with a dengue virus as a result of service in the 14 days before onset of dengue; and

(2)the veteran had some operational or eligible service in the 20 years before the onset of dengue

Inflammatory bowel disease

This contains the new 'ceasing to smoke' factor (for ulcerative colitis only).  The CCPS rulebase does not use the smoking module – the factor is dealt with by rulebase questions only.  It is important that users read the policy advice that is contained in the Hotwords Cessation of smoking and military service and Minute to Commission on smoking cessation.

Porphyria cutanea tarda

(1) Halogenated aromatic hydrocarbons include dioxins so this new factor can be used for veterans who served on land in Vietnam.  However, the SOP factor includes a 10 year time limit (one year for BOP) between exposure and the onset of PCT so it differs in this respect from the old SOP which had no time limits.

(2)  Some points to note about the drug treatment factor:

•      It is an aggravation factor only ie it is not a causal factor
•      It has been split into two CCPS contentions:
  - Treatment with a drug or a class of drugs from list 1 – these drugs apply only to RH cases
  - Treatment with a drug or a class of drugs from list 2 – these drugs apply to both RH and BOP cases
•      The medical questionnaire seeking information about these drugs should be edited if dealing with a BOP only case ie delete the table of list 1 drugs and edit para 2 under the heading Report Detail.

Tinnitus

The new factor "suffering from sensorineural hearing loss at the time of the clinical onset of tinnitus" will be most useful in those cases where:

•      tinnitus developed years after service

and

•      the SOP for sensorineural hearing loss is satisfied.

Enhancements of CCPS rulebases and commentary

NIL

Remember! If you are having any problems with SOPs, or SOPs in CCPS, talk to us!