Category Archives: Cochrane Collaboration

Behind the latest news on cholesterol medications (the statins issue)

March 2, 2012 – 5:54 pm

(March 6: An update has been added at the bottom of this post, including a review of the SMH story by Media Doctor Australia. March 8: The Cardiac Society of Australia and NZ has released a statement urging patients not to stop taking statins without discussing the matter with their doctors. It is available on [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Also posted in adverse events, cardiovascular disease, evidence-based issues, Media-related issues, prevention | Tagged , , , | Comments (4)

A wrap of recent health news at Croakey

October 5, 2011 – 5:40 pm

Hola – I am back on deck. A large thanks to Jennifer Doggett for driving Croakey while I was away, and to Ben Harris-Roxas for looking after the Twitter feed. As previously mentioned, Croakey readers are welcome to sign up for (rather irregular) summaries of posts. If you’d like to join the mailing list, please [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Also posted in aged care, alcohol, cancer, chronic diseases, climate change, complementary medicines, Croakey Register of Influencers in Public Health, diabetes, disabilities, evidence-based issues, health and medical education, health and medical research, health financing and costs, Health inequalities, health reform, health regulation, health workforce, Indigenous health, Journal articles, Media Doctor Australia, Media-related issues, Medicare Locals, mental health, obesity, pharmacy, prevention, primary health care, private health insurance, public health, quality and safety of health care, rural and remote health, social determinants of health, The Conversation, Uncategorized | Comments (2)

Do incentives give you the PIP?

September 8, 2011 – 2:50 pm

A study released today by the Cochrane Library suggests that Australia should ‘proceed with caution’ when setting up financial incentives for quality care by GPs.  Study co-author Dr Peter Sivey from the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research (Uni of Melbourne) said that although there are hundreds of schemes across the world where [...]

By Jennifer Doggett | Also posted in diabetes, general practice, health financing and costs, health reform, primary health care | Comments (4)

Making sense of the bicycle helmets stoush

August 24, 2011 – 3:40 am

The pros and cons of mandatory bicycle helmets are hotly contested, as regular Croakey readers will know. In the article below, Daniel Vujcich offers a suggestion for how to move the debate forward. *** Laying down a challenge to all sides of the bicycle helmet debate Daniel Vujcich wries: The debate about the appropriateness of [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Also posted in evidence-based issues, physical activity, prevention, public health | Tagged , , , | Comments (40)

An invitation and a note of explanation to Croakey readers

July 12, 2011 – 1:02 pm

If you have read the funding arrangements for Croakey, you will understand that editing this blog is, by necessity, very much a part-time activity for me. I am usually writing and editing articles in haste around multiple other commitments. Often I am wanting to alert readers to new reports/research etc that may be of interest, [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Also posted in abortion, alcohol, cancer, chronic diseases, climate change, complementary medicines, conflicts of interest, e-health, environmental health, evidence-based issues, Food, gambling, general practice, global health, Government 2.0, health and medical education, health and medical research, health ethics, health financing and costs, Health inequalities, health reform, health workforce, Indigenous health, Journal articles, Media Doctor Australia, Media-related issues, Medicare Locals, mental health, Nanny state, palliative care, pharmaceutical industry, physical activity, plain packaging, primary health care, private health insurance, public health, rural and remote health, SensaSlim, social determinants of health, TGA, The Conversation, tobacco control, Uncategorized, vaccination, vaccines, Web 2.0, weight loss products | Comments (0)

How the digital revolution might help the push for better use of better evidence

July 4, 2011 – 2:43 pm

How can the digital revolution and social media help the Cochrane Collaboration and those with an interest in evidence-informed practice and policy? Below are some notes from a presentation on this subject at the Australasian Cochrane Symposium in Melbourne on July 1. Some of the general content will be familiar to regular Croakey readers, but [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Also posted in evidence-based issues, mental health, public health, The Conversation, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

A quick wrap from the Australasian Cochrane Symposium

July 1, 2011 – 2:55 pm

Update, 5 July: The presentations and abstracts are now all available here. The symposium is underway today in Melbourne at the rather lovely Malthouse Theatre, with the theme Evidence, Communication and Impact. Below are some of the tweets from the symposium. Please note that this post does not intend to provide a full report on [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Also posted in conflicts of interest, consumer health information, evidence-based issues, health and medical research, influenza, public health, quality and safety of health care, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Comments (3)

The latest health and medical news: how does it rate?

June 27, 2011 – 6:41 pm

As recently mentioned, Croakey will feature regular updates from the team at Media Doctor Australia about their latest analyses of media coverage of new drugs and medical treatments. *** Some good news, and some that is not-so-good Amanda Wilson writes: Eight health stories have been reviewed on www.mediadoctor.org.au this month. Their subjects included milk allergy, [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Also posted in diabetes, Media Doctor Australia, Media-related issues, tests | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

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 | Also posted in Australian Medical Association, evidence-based issues, Food, public health | Comments (1)

Some more on Tamiflu, influenza policy and drug regulation

December 9, 2009 – 2:54 pm

The BMJ has just published a cracking series of articles online, including a revised Cochrane Collaboration review, that throw out some hefty challenges to influenza policy makers, pharmaceutical companies, researchers, governments and drug regulators. The articles raise many questions about the evidence base that has been used to guide influenza policies, especially the billion of [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Also posted in influenza, Journal articles, pharmaceutical industry, public health | Tagged , , , | Comments (1)