The AMA has been campaigning hard against changes to tax deductions for work-related self-education that are likely, amongst other things, to reduce the attractiveness of conferences in exotic locations. Paul Smith, political editor at Australian Doctor, has exposed one of the vulnerabilities of the AMA’s campaign with a story about its Queensland branch’s annual conference, [...]
READ MOREReforming medical education: a case study (with some parallels to the Titanic)
Traditional approaches to medical education need a radical overhaul if we are to develop a sustainable health system that truly helps those with the greatest needs. But trying to turn around the “Titanic” of a hospital-centric system that encourages hierarchical specialisation is no small task. Dr Kimberley Ivory has been involved in developing a new [...]
READ MOREReporting on the National Medical Intern Summit (even though it was closed to the media…)
On Friday, the NSW Health Minister, Jillian Skinner, hosted a summit in Sydney to address concerns about the shortages in medical intern placements (details of the program are here). The meeting was closed to the media but – in an example of how social media is transforming the way we all work – there were plenty [...]
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Tackling racism in health care: it requires some self-reflection
Thanks to Twitter, I recently came across this fascinating presentation giving medical students some insights into the historical forces that shape contemporary Indigenous health and wellbeing. In the presentation, Dr Geoff Spurling, a lecturer at the University of Queensland and a GP at the Inala Indigenous Health Service, encourages medical students (and it’s useful advice [...]
READ MOREPradaxa: Not so bleeding obvious
The decision to delay further the introduction of subsidies for the anti-stroke drug, Pradaxa, puts Australia at odds with the rest of the developed world. It also raises questions about the Government’s handling of Australia’s widely-respected Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee, (PBAC). It was that committee which 18 months ago recommended that the new [...]
READ MOREWhy health professionals’ training needs a radical re-design
Fran Thorn, ex-Secretary of the Victorian Health Department, argued at the recent Health Workforce Australia conference that the education and training of health professionals needed to be re-designed from the ground up. HWA’s Robert Johnson has provided the following outline of her speech, which explains why she has come to this radical position. A former leader of Victoria’s [...]
READ MOREMcKeon confuses “health” and “healthcare” research
There is a growing consensus – as evidenced by Jon Wardle’s comments on Croakey that the McKeon Review of health and medical research so far has missed the boat with respect to public health and prevention. The Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute has highlighted that point in the submission it has filed with the review, writes [...]
READ MORE“Nation-building” health workforce planning needed
David Townsend, a third year medical student from the University of New England, and National Chair of the General Practice Students Network, argues that Australia needs to take a ‘nation-building’ approach to health workforce planning to ensure we can meet our future health care needs. Australia is facing a critical shortage of doctors and nurses. To [...]
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Intern crisis is damaging us internationally (but what about the wider health workforce concerns?)
Medical students and their supporters have been running a very active social media campaign around the #interncrisis. They’ve also established a website telling the stories of medical students who’ve been unable to get an internship. We haven’t heard nearly so much, however, about the problems facing other sections of the health workforce, especially nurses. The [...]
READ MOREKnow of any public health courses focused on new media?
Which universities around the world are offering courses on public health and social media? Do you have case studies about the use of social media to promote public health? Please send any such details to the public health academics below… *** Making new media part of public health training Becky Freeman writes: There is no [...]
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