Category Archives: Uncategorized

Remember the big picture: Prof Stephen Leeder on the budget

May 12, 2009 – 8:48 pm

Professor Stephen Leeder, director of the Menzies Centre for Health Policy at the University of Sydney, is first off the Croakey blocks with a budget response:
The budget is a responsible response to the discombobulated global financial environment.
The good things for health include an increase in the pensions (given that poverty is a health hazard), [...]

By Croakey | Also posted in Federal Budget 2009-2010, health reform, public health | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Tim Gill raises some weighty issues for the Feds

May 11, 2009 – 10:38 am

Dr Tim Gill, Principal Research Fellow at the Institute of Obesity, Nutrition and Exercise, University of Sydney writes:
Tackling health problems requires reliable, independent evidence in order to be able to evaluate the impact of policies.
We know a lot about the health problems caused by poor nutrition and physical inactivity – it is estimated that these [...]

By Croakey | Comments (1)

Senior surgeon supports use of safety checklist

March 30, 2009 – 11:17 am

Professor Guy Maddern, professor of surgery at the University of Adelaide, has sent in the following comment re previous posts on whether Australian hospitals should implement the WHO checklist to improve surgical safety:
“Surgery has over many years increased its range of checklists to help ensure patient safety and efficiency. Surgical instrument counts, pre-admission check lists [...]

By Croakey | Also posted in Hospitals, adverse events, evidence-based issues, health reform, surgery | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Outing Crikey, Croakey and the rest of them/us

March 3, 2009 – 12:00 pm

Astute readers of Crikey may have noticed an increase in the volume and range of contributors writing about health matters over the past year or more.
This is no coincidence, but the result of some determined effort via an informal collaboration between public health advocate Simon Chapman, journalists Ray Moynihan and myself, and the Crikey mob.
Simon, [...]

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

Is it time to end expert-based advertising?

December 4, 2008 – 12:13 pm

Professor Warwick Anderson, the ceo of the NHMRC, thinks so. As reported in Crikey today, he’s suggested that doctors and other health professionals avoid appearing in advertising for pharmaceuticals or other health and medical products, and that they also steer clear of commercially driven disease-awareness campaigns.
Croakey is surveying the heads of medical research institutes and [...]

By Croakey | Also posted in Crikey register of influence, Media-related issues, conflicts of interest | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (1)

The debate continues: is binge drinking campaign a backward step?

December 1, 2008 – 9:45 am

Geoff Munro, National Policy Manager at the Australian Drug Foundation, responds to a previous post by Dr Alex Wodak:
“Alex Wodak rightly points out that media campaigns do not in themselves change much behavior directly, so we cannot expect the binge drinking campaign to have a big effect.
It is hardly fair though, to characterize the campaign [...]

By Croakey | Also posted in Media-related issues, alcohol | Tagged , , | Comments (1)

Should we regulate smoking in movies?

November 25, 2008 – 1:11 pm

Simon Chapman, professor of public health at the University of Sydney, writes:
There is an international push in tobacco control circles for regulation of the film industry in response to growing evidence on the association of smoking scenes in movies with teenage smoking uptake.
Thailand now pixilates smoking and there has been big momentum in both India [...]

By Croakey | Also posted in Journal articles, tobacco control | Tagged , , , | Comments (4)

Redistributing health?

November 17, 2008 – 1:23 pm

It strikes me that the global economic meltdown is creating one of those “is the glass half full or half empty?” moments. Governments are talking up the need for public spending, investment and infrastructure development as part of efforts to kickstart economies. As Fran Baum and colleagues point out in Crikey today, it’s a critical [...]

By Croakey | Tagged , | Comments (1)