Category Archives: conflicts of interest

Overuse of healthcare: some suggestions for how to tackle it

April 29, 2012 – 8:01 am

As mentioned recently, the issues of overdiagnosis and overtreatment are in the spotlight, with the Choosing Wisely campaign recently launched in the US, with the backing of medical societies and consumer groups, urging doctors and patients to identify tests and treatments that may not be necessary. Overuse of healthcare also received star billing at the recent [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Also posted in evidence-based issues, health financing and costs, Health inequalities, health reform, Naked Doctor | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Healthy Weight Week: what is it really promoting?

January 20, 2012 – 1:01 pm

Healthy Weight Week is due to kick off on Sunday. But Professor Mike Daube, Director of the Public Health Advocacy Institute at Curtin University, wonders whose interests are really being served by this initiative. *** What have Coco Pops and Froot Loops got to do with healthy weight? Mike Daube writes: National Healthy Weight Week [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Also posted in Food, obesity, public health | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

A rather large wrap of recent Croakey articles: public health, health reform, media coverage of health and more

January 11, 2012 – 10:25 am

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 send your email or leave it below. Here is the latest compilation, covering from 6 October – December 23, 2011. The latest readership figures are now also available, showing that [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Also posted in abortion, alcohol, cancer, child health, childbirth and maternity services, climate change, complementary medicines, consumer health information, death and dying, dental care, evidence-based issues, Food, global health, health and medical research, health financing and costs, Health inequalities, health reform, health workforce, Hospitals, Indigenous health, infectious diseases, Media Doctor Australia, Medicare Locals, mental health, MyHospitals website, obesity, pain, palliative care, pharmacy, physical activity, prevention, primary health care, public health, quality and safety of health care, rural and remote health, SensaSlim, social determinants of health, social media and healthcare, TGA, The Conversation, tobacco control, vaccination, vaccines, WHO | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Some more advice for the new Health Minister, Tanya Plibersek

December 14, 2011 – 6:56 pm

      Continuing the theme of a recent Croakey post, below are some more suggestions for the new Health Minister Tanya Plibersek from Crikey Health and Medical Panel members, who were asked: 1. What useful advice might the outgoing Health Minister Nicola Roxon give her successor? 2. What have been Nicola Roxon’s most significant [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Also posted in aged care, health financing and costs, health reform, Medicare Locals, plain packaging, prevention, primary health care, tobacco control | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Clock is ticking on the NHMRC and conflicts of interest policy

November 30, 2011 – 5:26 pm

Update 1 Dec: A response from the NHMRC has been added to the bottom of the post. Note: If you want to comment on the NHMRC’s draft guidelines for identifying and managing conflicts of interest in clinical guideline development (and, as the post below suggests, they do need help) – the deadline is COB this [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Also posted in evidence-based issues, health and medical research, NHMRC | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Some suggestions for the national and NSW reviews of health and medical research

November 23, 2011 – 1:45 pm

Croakey has already had something of a whinge about the narrow terms of reference for the national review of health and medical research. Others in public health have recently raised concerns about the focus of those conducting a similar review in NSW (see bottom of this post for details). Those conducting the national and state [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Also posted in consumer health information, evidence-based issues, health and medical research, public health | Tagged , | Comments (0)

A note of clarification about Croakey and coverage of mental health policy

November 21, 2011 – 4:10 pm

Members of the Alliance for Better Access, an informal coalition that is campaigning against cuts to funded psychology sessions and GP rebates under the Federal Government’s Better Access program, are cranky with Croakey for not running an article they submitted, and have written about this here. A few points of clarification might be helpful: • [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Also posted in mental health | Tagged , , | Comments (5)

No need to be so precious about conflicts of interest…the discussion continues

November 11, 2011 – 7:05 pm

Continuing recent discussions at this blog about the sponsorship deal between Medicines Australia and The Australian and broader concerns around relationships between pharma and media… Ron Batagol, pharmacy and drug information consultant, writes: For the sake of logical and argumentative consistency, I will again be the devil’s advocate in this discussion of, what is in [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Also posted in Media-related issues, pharmaceutical industry | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Medicines Australia: concerns about conflict of interest are overblown (and besides, we’ve got a great story to tell)

November 7, 2011 – 4:00 pm

Dr Brendan Shaw, chief executive of Medicines Australia, writes: There has been some discussion over the past week about News Ltd’s commercial arrangement with Medicines Australia to promote the value of The Australian Medicines Industry. Some of it warrants clarification. An important part of Medicines Australia’s job in representing the Australian medicines industry is ensuring [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Also posted in Media-related issues, pharmaceutical industry | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Doing the dance: journalism and pharma

November 7, 2011 – 3:50 pm

Further to recent discussions about the sponsorship deal between Medicines Australia and The Australian, journalist Ray Moynihan has a column examining some of the related issues in the BMJ, Is journalism the drug industry’s new dance partner? The column begins: Just as many doctors contemplate an end to their dance with drug company marketers, a [...]

By Melissa Sweet | Also posted in Media-related issues, pharmaceutical industry | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)