Professor Stephen Leeder, director of the Menzies Centre for Health Policy at the University of Sydney, weighs in with some comments on Tim Gill’s recent post raising concerns about the Feds’ plans for nutrition and physical activity surveys:
DESPITE the enormity of the obesity epidemic, astonishingly Australia still lacks information about trends in weight, physical activity [...]
A Sydney doctor, who wishes to remain anonymous, has sent in the following piece examining the complexities of conflict of interest issues. It’s timely in view of the approaching NHMRC workshop on this issue, and recent debate surrounding Vioxx promotions, industry sponsored guidelines for DVT prevention, and the Baker/Sanofi deal, amongst other things.
The doctor writes:
It’s [...]
The Vioxx case in the Federal Court in Melbourne continues to produce a stream of interesting and illuminating revelations although I had to chuckle at one specialist’s efforts to downplay his profession’s skills in marketing. “I would have thought getting medical practitioners to be marketers would have been the death knell of a product because [...]
A pharmacy researcher who wishes to remain anonymous has sent in this comment regarding the funding deal between the Baker and Sanofi Aventis (for more background info, see here, and here and here):
“Agreements between not for profit research institutes and the pharmaceutical industry can be fraught with conflict, even if an iron clad contract is [...]
Further to her previous post, Justine Caines comments on a new study of births in the Netherlands:
“A lot changes in a week! Yesterday a study of all births in the Netherlands was released.
This paper found home birth was as safe as hospital birth. The survey size was a whopping 529,688 births. This figure is close [...]
Brett Forge, a physician and cardiologist from Warragul in Victoria, has sent in the
following comments regarding his inclusion on the Crikey Register of Influence:
Dear Crikey
Many thanks for the dubious honour of being included on your register of influence.
It is an inadequate way of investigating medical corruption but it may at least start a discussion on [...]
By Croakey
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Also posted in Crikey register of influence, conflicts of interest, evidence-based issues, health & medical marketing, health ethics, private health insurance, quality and safety of health care, surgery
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Tagged absolute risk, bypass surgery, cardiology, cholesterol, conflicts of interest, hypertension, medical education, pharmaceutical industry, stenting
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As the blurb to the right indicates, the Croakey blog takes a sharp interest in evidence-informed policy and practice, transparency and informed public debate.
In the interests of all these worthy causes, as well as giving the pot a well-deserved stir, we are launching a new Croakey initiative.
Let’s call it the Croakey Register of Unreleased Documents [...]
By Croakey
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Also posted in Croakey Register of Unreleased Documents, evidence-based issues, health reform, mental health, primary health care
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Tagged evaluations, National Mental Health Plan, national suicide prevention strategy, NHMRC, Primary Health Care Research Evaluation & Development program, public health research, reviews, transparency
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January 14, 2009 – 5:13 pm
Tim Gill, executive officer of the Australian and NZ Obesity Society, has some comments to add to the recent Crikey story on the so-called “obesity epidemic myth”.
“Tim Olds’ analysis of childhood obesity trends raises more questions than it answers and is similar to previous analyses by the same author on dietary intake and physical activity [...]
January 14, 2009 – 4:50 pm
In December, I wrote this story for Crikey about the practice of ghostwriting – whereby undisclosed parties, typically drug companies, are involved in writing and orchestrating medical journal articles. Croakey contributors subsquently noted some of the evidence suggesting this practice is worryingly widespread.
Now Dr Chris Jordens, from the University of Sydney’s Centre for Values, Ethics [...]
