Category Archives: consumer health information

Let’s have some balance in breast cancer screening discussions

November 19, 2009 – 10:24 am

Reaction to the recent study suggesting breast cancer screening leads to significant over-diagnosis and unnecessary treatment has been, as you might expect, quite mixed.
Some of the most critical comments have come from breast cancer consumer advocates – overtones, perhaps, of how prostate cancer consumer groups have sometimes reacted to evidence about the potential harms of [...]

By Croakey | Also posted in Media-related issues, cancer, screening | Comments (0)

Breast cancer screening gets an indepth examination

November 13, 2009 – 12:18 pm

The study investigating over-diagnosis in breast cancer screening, as previously described at Croakey, is attracting widespread interest and discussion.
Andrew Penman, Chief Executive Officer of Cancer Council NSW, has been considering the complexities of the issues involved, and writes:

By Croakey | Also posted in cancer, screening | Tagged , , | Comments (1)

How should we respond to the new breast cancer screening study?

November 12, 2009 – 2:59 pm

What are the implications of the breast cancer study reported below by Associate Professor Alex Barratt?
Croakey has asked a range of individuals and groups to respond, and will post their comments as they land.

By Croakey | Also posted in cancer, screening | Tagged , , , | Comments (2)

A poet, schizophrenia and a compelling tale

November 11, 2009 – 9:58 am

Sandy Jeffs is an award winning poet who has recently released a memoir, Flying with Paper Wings, which, amongst other things, tells her story of living with schizophrenia.
Here she shares with Croakey readers some of the background to the book and her writing of it:

By Croakey | Also posted in mental health | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Has cancer screening been oversold? Cancer Council responds

October 22, 2009 – 6:56 pm

The New York Times, as previously mentioned, is reporting a shift in screening policy at the the American Cancer Society, which is now saying that the benefits of early detection of  many cancers, especially breast and prostate, have been “overstated”.
“We don’t want people to panic,” Dr Otis Brawley, the Society’s chief medical officer told the [...]

By Croakey | Also posted in Media-related issues, cancer, screening | Tagged , , | Comments (2)

Where does the TGA stand on Pfizer campaign?

October 13, 2009 – 9:04 pm

As mentioned recently, Pfizer is hitting the consumer and medical media in the interests of its combination heart pill, Caduet.
Regular readers may remember that earlier this year Michele Kosky, executive director of the Health Consumers’ Council in WA, asked the TGA and Medicines Australia to investigate whether the consumer advertisement breaches the ban on direct-to-consumer [...]

By Croakey | Also posted in Media-related issues, TGA, adverse events, health & medical marketing | Tagged , , , , | Comments (3)

Medicare Select: the best option for consumers

October 13, 2009 – 7:03 pm

And the debate about Medicare Select continues…
Vern Hughes, the Secretary of the National Federation of Parents Families and Carers, has joined the discussion which has been going on here, here, here, and here at Croakey and also at Inside Story.
He writes:
“The National Federation of Parents, Families and Carers was one of just two organisations out [...]

By Croakey | Also posted in health reform | Tagged , , | Comments (4)

Hospital staff harness new media for public protest

October 9, 2009 – 12:37 pm

The staff at Katoomba Hospital (in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney) – or at least some of them – have clearly had enough. In the cyberworld equivalent of taking to the streets, they’ve launched an anonymous blog to tell the public what their bosses won’t let them speak about in public.
You could see it [...]

By Croakey | Also posted in Hospitals, Media-related issues | Comments (5)

A message for the Feds on bowel cancer screening…

October 7, 2009 – 8:24 am

Further to the recent Croakey posts on a new study evaluating the initial impact of bowel cancer screening, one of the study’s authors has sent in her take on the results.
Dr Sumitra Ananda, a cancer specialist in Melbourne, is hoping the Federal Government acts on the new findings.
She writes:

“The recent report in the MJA [...]

By Croakey | Also posted in Health inequalities, Journal articles, cancer, screening | Comments (0)

Are ginkgo enthusiasts being conned?

October 5, 2009 – 12:56 pm

The Ginkgo biloba or Maidenhair tree is a beautiful creature, and I’ve several growing myself.
But the gardener’s delight may be a patient’s peril – recent tests suggest some ginkgo products in Australia have been adulterated and that consumers are being conned.

Dr Ken Harvey, Adjunct Senior Research Fellow in the School of Public Health at [...]

By Croakey | Also posted in TGA, complementary medicines | Tagged , , | Comments (8)