Dr Tim Senior, a GP working in Aboriginal health, provides the following advice for anyone reporting on medical tests (or indeed anyone wanting to understand the media’s reporting of screening and test issues)… “I need a prostate check and a colonoscopy” “Oh. What makes you say that?” “Well, I was listening in 2GB the other [...]
READ MOREA conversation that needs to continue: what to do about the relatively small number of doctors who account for so many patient complaints
The online ecosystem, linking up journals, bloggers, mainstream media and researchers with the wider world, is bringing new opportunities for researchers to hear and learn from the responses to their findings. The article below documents some of the wide-ranging responses to a recent study which found that a small proportion of doctors account for a [...]
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McKeon Review – consumer role revisited
What a difference a few months and a few outraged submissions from consumer groups can make! The Final Report of the McKeon Review into Health and Medical Research (HMR) is a very different beast from the Consultation Paper circulated for comment last October, at least in its recognition of the role of consumers in the [...]
READ MOREFood ads’ fatuous ploys beat kids TV rules
The campaign to curb the promotion of unhealthy food has not only the strident claims of “nanny state” to counter. There are also the “health washing” tactics of the food industry, pushing high sugar, high fat and high salt products to children and their parents. These ploys range from the fatuous to the fanciful, but [...]
READ MORESpeaking up for the potential of patient advocates
The AMA should reconsider its opposition to the concept of paid patient advocates, says Anne Cahill Lambert, a prominent health consumer advocate who writes below that many patients could benefit from someone to help them negotiate “the maze of the complex health system”. *** On Dad and Dave, and others who might be helped by [...]
READ MOREDiagnostic inaccuracy of smartphone applications for melanoma detection
Michelle Culhane-Hughes writes: Last week JAMA Dermatology published an interesting study into the accuracy of smart phone applications in diagnosing melanoma: Diagnostic Inaccuracy of Smartphone Applications for Melanoma Detection (Wolf et al 2013). Smart phones have amazing potential to improve access to healthcare and health information. The question arises with the results of this study [...]
READ MOREMore on patient advocate services…
Dr Mark Bahnisch writes: The health care year has begun with a dollop of controversy over the introduction to Australia of ‘patient advocate’ services, defended against AMA criticisms by Claire Crocker of Patient Advocate in Croakey on Wednesday. Patient advocacy, already established in the United Kingdom and United States, seeks to guide patients through what [...]
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Professional patient advocacy services – does Australia need them?
A new service providing professional advocacy services for health care consumers has attracted a lot of interest from the health sector and the media – along with some criticism. Today Croakey talked to Claire Crocker, founder of Patient Advocate, about her motivation for establishing this service and how she responds to criticism from the AMA….. [...]
READ MOREHoliday reading from the Blogosphere
Happy New Year to all Croakey readers – here are some thought provoking posts from around the Blogosphere to enliven your holiday…. As She Lay Dying: How I Fought To Stop Medical Errors From Killing My Mom By Jonathan R. Welch A (US) doctor talks about his struggle to get appropriate care for his mother. It’s [...]
READ MORESaving lives, saving money
Mark Cormack writes: Gideon Caplan’s study of “hospital in the home” services, see Croakey and the Medical Journal of Australia , is a welcome contribution to the debate around the important place of innovation in health reform. It’s a simple premise: when it is safe and appropriate, an individual needing treatment is far better to remain [...]
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