Monthly Archives: September 2010

How the Canadian Government shuts down scientific debate

September 30, 2010 – 10:51 am

The ties between industry and experts receive a great deal of attention (most recently in these articles about influenza experts, as per this article in The Australian and this piece that I wrote in yesterday’s Crikey bulletin). But we hear far less about institutional conflicts of interest. In this vein, NatureNews has a very interesting [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Posted in conflicts of interest, health and medical research | Tagged , , | Comments (2)

A call to get gambling dollars out of universities & research

September 29, 2010 – 4:26 pm

Some public health eyebrows shot to the ceiling earlier this year when news broke that Professor John Horvath, a former Commonwealth chief medical officer, was joining the board of the Crown Ltd. According to the NHMRC website, Horvath remains actively engaged in health policy, as chair of the Council’s health care committee and as principal [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Posted in conflicts of interest, health and medical research, public health | Tagged , , | Comments (4)

What does the evidence say about how to improve Indigenous health? A challenge to current policy

September 29, 2010 – 12:10 pm

As previously reported at Croakey, an important study assessing the cost effectiveness of various prevention and treatment interventions was recently released. One of the many interesting aspects of the ACE-Prevention study was that it included analyses specific to Indigenous Australians. I asked the authors if they could explain the implications of their findings for Indigenous [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Posted in cardiovascular disease, general practice, Health inequalities, Indigenous health, NHMRC, prevention | Tagged , , | Comments (2)

Who were the health winners at the Deadlys?

September 29, 2010 – 9:11 am

Thanks to the Twitter newspaper, The Indigenous-and-Remote-Daily, for putting me in touch with the Australian Indigenous Health Bulletin (just to illustrate the information loop), from where I have taken this news: The 16th Deadly Awards were held at the Sydney Opera House on the 27 September, recognising outstanding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander achievements in [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Posted in Indigenous health, rural and remote health | Tagged | Comments (2)

At last, some media attention for the social determinants of health: but what next?

September 28, 2010 – 11:59 am

Yesterday, there was something of a breakthrough when it comes to reporting of health issues. Mark Metherell, who reports on health policy for the Sydney Morning Herald, achieved a prominent page-lead placement for a story about a report on the social determinants of health. This is so unusual that it’s newsworthy in itself. (This is [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Posted in obesity, poverty, social determinants of health | Comments (2)

How the alcohol industry is boxing itself in

September 28, 2010 – 10:57 am

(Update 29 Sept, please see response from Diageo at the bottom of the post) The alcohol industry must be acutely aware of the growing political and public health momentum to tackle harmful consumption, particularly by young people. What, then, to make of these new “casks alcopops”? As the YouTube clip at the bottom of this [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Posted in alcohol, public health | Tagged , | Comments (6)

More problems with bowel cancer screening program: data is missing on thousands of patients

September 27, 2010 – 5:06 pm

As Croakey has previously reported, there have been some major problems with federal health policy-making around the national bowel cancer screening program. Now, Rada Rouse, a senior medical writer at Medical Observer magazine, reports that there also some serious problems with the program’s implementation. Rada Rouse writes: Data is missing on follow-up of thousands of [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Posted in cancer, public health, quality and safety of health care, screening | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Should you have to be wealthy to be healthy?

September 27, 2010 – 8:23 am

Indigenous health and the impact of disadvantage upon health are among the issues high on the agenda of the Public Health Association of Australia’s annual conference, which kicks off in Adelaide today. Meanwhile, a new report also aims to put the spotlight on the social determinants of health. It was undertaken by the researchers from [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Posted in education, health reform, Hospitals, Indigenous health, prevention, public health, rural and remote health, social determinants of health | Tagged , , | Comments (7)

Public health lacks evidence? You’ve got to be joking…

September 26, 2010 – 11:44 am

Dr Joe Kosterich, a former AMA office holder now promoted as a motivational speaker and consultant, has had a rather bizarre opinion piece published by Medical Observer, in which he argues that the field of public health medicine does not weigh the risks and benefits of its recommendations, and is not accountable for providing evidence-based [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Posted in Australian Medical Association, Cochrane Collaboration, evidence-based issues, Food, public health | Comments (1)

What’s on the legislative agenda for health?

September 24, 2010 – 10:09 am

Below are snippets on the Federal legislative agenda, what Federal MPs are being told (and not told) about health and related policies, and a new Victorian health reform website. What’s on the Federal legislative agenda for health? Federal Parliament resumes next week, and these are some of the health-related bills on the legislative agenda: • [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Posted in aged care, Health inequalities, health reform, Indigenous health, prevention, primary health care, TGA, tobacco control | Tagged , , , , | Comments (2)