December 19, 2008 – 2:36 pm
It’s the slow-news, silly season, it’s summer…and it’s the perfect time for pitching advertising dressed up as news, especially if it involves scare stories about sunscreens.
And so we have suffered a rash of “news” stories this week in which Perth toxicologist Peter Dingle sounds a loud alarm about nasty chemicals in sunscreens.
He appeared yesterday on [...]
December 18, 2008 – 12:24 pm
It’s extremely likely that a number of Australian medicos suffered some uncomfortable “there but for the grace of God go I” moments this week.
The immediate cause of their discomfort was the New York Times revelation that Wyeth had paid ghostwriters to produce medical journal articles favourable to its hormone replacement therapy product. Dozens of pages [...]
By Croakey
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Posted in HRT, Journal articles, Media-related issues, conflicts of interest, health ethics
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Tagged ghostwriters, HRT, medical journals, Merck, rofecoxib, Vioxx, Wyeth
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December 15, 2008 – 12:32 pm
Paul Smith, the political editor of Australian Doctor magazine, has been investigating the Australian Crime Commission’s operations in NT Indigenous communities:
Last month the Australian Crime Commission – usually tagged by journalists as the nation’s most powerful crime fighting body – fell foul of the law for the second time in the space of eight weeks. [...]
December 12, 2008 – 5:15 pm
Dr Ken Harvey writes:
Two important research reports on the complementary medicines information needs of Australian consumers and health professionals are now available from the National Prescribing Service (NPS).
In my view, the NPS research highlights the gap between the widespread and increasing use of complementary medicines and the limited evidence available to justify much of this [...]
December 11, 2008 – 12:47 pm
The Center for Media and Democracy in the US has documented some sickening relationships between the industries that cause and treat diseases:
• In 2006, the American Heart Association teamed up with a pharmacy chain, Rite Aid Drug Stores, to promote a “Go Red for Women” campaign to increase awareness of heart disease in women – [...]
December 10, 2008 – 10:17 am
The latest national figures show the Australian health system is paying a high price for the ever-increasing rate of caesarean sections.
In 2006, 30.8% of births were by caesarean section, compared with 20.3% in 1997. The Australia’s mothers and babies 2006 report, by the AIHW National Perinatal Statistics Unit at the University of New South Wales, [...]
December 9, 2008 – 1:07 pm
Professor Jeffrey Braithwaite, Director of the Centre for Clinical Governance Research at University of New South Wales, has provided this analysis of the Garling inquiry into the NSW health system – and also coined a few new additions to the Macquarie:
Garlingesque [noun, gar-ling-esk]: A health inquiry conducted with a flamboyant flourish, rendered into a report [...]
December 8, 2008 – 4:34 pm
Professor Warwick Anderson, the ceo of the NHMRC, recently set the cat amongst the pigeons with a call for doctors and other health professionals to avoid appearing in advertising for pharmaceuticals or other health and medical products. He also suggested that they steer clear of commercially driven disease-awareness campaigns.
At the time, I thought it [...]
December 5, 2008 – 8:54 am
A senior scientist, Professor Michael Good, has called for a ban on alcohol advertising. It’s a significant call, especially considering the clout that Good wields, as head of the QIMR, chair of the NHMRC, and co-chair of the health stream at the 2020 Summit (although it should be pointed out that he made the call [...]
December 4, 2008 – 12:13 pm
Professor Warwick Anderson, the ceo of the NHMRC, thinks so. As reported in Crikey today, he’s suggested that doctors and other health professionals avoid appearing in advertising for pharmaceuticals or other health and medical products, and that they also steer clear of commercially driven disease-awareness campaigns.
Croakey is surveying the heads of medical research institutes and [...]
