What are the implications of the breast cancer study reported below by Associate Professor Alex Barratt?
Croakey has asked a range of individuals and groups to respond, and will post their comments as they land.
What are the implications of the breast cancer study reported below by Associate Professor Alex Barratt?
Croakey has asked a range of individuals and groups to respond, and will post their comments as they land.
Croakey is old enough to remember the days when anyone who raised questions about the potential for mammographic screening for breast cancer to have a downside was treated with all the derision and scorn usually reserved for dangerous heretics.
Thankfully, the debate has matured quite a bit since those days. We are now hearing a somewhat more balanced discussion which pays greater attention to some of the complexities involved. One such complexity, as illustrated by a new study, is the potential for screening to lead to over-diagnosis and unnecessary treatment.
Alex Barratt, Associate Professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Sydney, and a co-author of the new study, reports on its findings:
The NT seems to be making some strides in primary health care reform. The Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance Northern Territory (AMSANT) has provided this report of a launch that took place today:
The launch on Remembrance Day of Pathways to community control was a poignant moment for Stephanie Bell, chairperson of AMSANT.
For the first time, the Commonwealth and a “state” government—the Northern Territory—had reached an agreement with the Aboriginal Community Controlled health sector to expand community-controlled primary health care across a whole jurisdiction.
I have a story in the Crikey bulletin today, that asks the question: Are pharmacists the most defensive, insular and change resistant of all the health professions?
It’s about how health reform advocate John Menadue was “disinvited” from speaking at an Australian College of Pharmacy meeting, after making a provocative speech to a pharmacy conference, as previously reported at Croakey.
I spoke to several senior pharmacists and others in the health sector when researching the story (the Australian College of Pharmacy did not return my calls but I will be happy to post follow-up comments from them, the Guild and others).
Here is some of what they had to say, both about the specifics of the Menadue case and the pharmacy profession in general:
Sandy Jeffs is an award winning poet who has recently released a memoir, Flying with Paper Wings, which, amongst other things, tells her story of living with schizophrenia.
Here she shares with Croakey readers some of the background to the book and her writing of it:
All eyes may be on the US just now when it comes to discussions about health care reform, but perhaps it’s worth looking to the French as well.
Croakey’s roving health correspondent Simon Burrow reports on his recent experiences with the French health system:
Health workforce maldistribution and shortages, and the oncoming tsunami of medical graduates are generating widespread discussions about the future of health and medical training in the context of moves towards health reform.
Professor Bruce Robinson, dean of medicine at the University of Sydney, has recently suggested that one solution may be to broaden the range of services involved in providing postgraduate medical education. The University of Melbourne’s Emeritus Professor David Penington recently urged the Feds to incorporate university hospitals into health reform.
Now Professor Peter Brooks, who has been a strong advocate of workforce reform and innovation, says it’s time to take the debate a step further.
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