October 12, 2009 – 8:45 am
Maternity care provides a classic example of the pitfalls of a specialist-driven model of practice in health care. It results in more expensive and interventionist care, rather than a community-based approach which could also help ensure a more equitable distribution of services. It has led us to talk about obstetrics, which implies a focus on [...]
October 5, 2009 – 5:08 pm
Do cancer screening programs increase the health gap between the well-to-do and the not-so-well-off?
That is one worrying implication from a study just published in the Medical Journal of Australia.
Researchers sought to examine the initial impact of the national bowel cancer screening program which offers faecal occult blood testing to those aged 55 or 65.
They reviewed [...]
September 24, 2009 – 10:48 am
Right now, right around the country, well-meaning community groups, including men’s health groups, are out on the hustings, urging all men of a certain age to be screened for prostate cancer.
There are many potential downsides to such simplistic messages.
You can read more about some of them in this article, published today in the SMH and [...]
September 17, 2009 – 2:11 pm
Drew Dawson, one of the gurus of sleep research, has written a long and informative piece for Crikey today about the issue of long working hours, fatigue and health service safety.
Dawson contributed to the fatigue risk management guidelines which recently caused Queensland Health some media grief, and today he’s taken us well beyond those [...]
September 8, 2009 – 11:30 am
The National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission’s final report made many suggestions requiring much more work if they are ever to have any chance of implementation. Consultancies must be rubbing their hands in anticipation of the business that health reform will generate.
Here at Croakey, we thought we’d do our bit to save the public [...]
August 19, 2009 – 12:59 pm
Thanks to Associate Professor Kate Conigrave, a specialist in addiction medicine at the University of Sydney, for alerting Croakey readers to this useful resource for those with an interest in Indigenous health.
The Indigenous Health Infonet is based at Edith Cowan University in Perth and funded primarily by the Australian Department of Health and Ageing’s Office [...]
August 19, 2009 – 10:52 am
The PM made a big deal about the need to ensure treatments are evaluated and backed by good evidence in this widely-reported speech at St Vincent’s Institute for Medical Research in Melbourne last Friday.
He said: “ Patients need treatments, technologies, and procedures for which there is evidence from research that these are safe and effective. [...]
August 13, 2009 – 4:57 pm
The Public Health Association of Australia is celebrating the passing of the alcopops tax legislation in the Senate today as “a significant victory for prevention and public health in Australia”.
Meanwhile, health policy analyst Jennifer Doggett has been humming some old tunes, and contemplating Todd Harper’s recent Croakey post calling for health warnings on alcohol labels. [...]
As previously mentioned in Croakey, the British science journalist Simon Singh – who has become a cause célèbre since being sued by chiropractors for having the temerity to question the evidence base for their practices – is visiting Australia.
Last night he gave a public lecture in Sydney, which was attended by Croakey contributor and proud [...]
Simon Singh, a British science journalist who has become a cause célèbre since being sued by chiropractors for having the temerity to question the evidence base for their practices, is visiting Australia, and is due to speak in Sydney tomorrow night, fresh from the Adelaide Festival of Ideas.
You can read more about Singh’s stoush with [...]
