LATEST ARTICLES

Beneath the Drapes. July 2007

Medical Forum·

Dr Peter Silberstein was named in this year's Queen's Birthday honours for "service to medicine, particularly as a paediatric neurologist, and through executive roles with disability support organizations." Dr Mike Daly was honoured for "service to medicine, particularly to veterans in the fields of counselling and stress related illness."

Ms Lorraine Glover, previously sales and marketing manager at Visiomed, has been promoted to executive manager with responsibility for "coordinating the integration of the company's operational divisions and providing support in the areas of marketing and investor relations".

Mr Scott Thompson has taken over ...

Read More...
WA News
·2 mins read·

June 2007

Medical Forum·

Canadian cash cow

Canadian operation www.mdBriefCase.com.au is now targeting Australian doctors, medical students and nurse practitioners with free CME activities. As elsewhere, ‘free' means financed by the pharmaceutical industry while the RACGP and ACCRM are paid to accredit. Heavy promotion is through regular email broadcasts and prizes offered to survey participants, with results used to fine tune content and provide feedback to sponsors. Its all about creating awareness around a product or service within a clinical area - educational grants generate particular content, usually from specialists, paid by mdBriefCase to write independently with "AMA standards for scientific validity, objectivity and completeness" whatever that is.

Govt fat burn fans

Aussies are fat, with 80% dying from preventable diseases. A stunning proactive move by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) has been the 4-year Australian Better Health Initiative ($250m from the feds and $24.6m from State coffers). Even the federal opposition has a new shadow minister for Sport and Recreation and Health Promotion in Senator Kate Lundy - to help people live healthy, active lives and cut the estimated $1.5 billion preventable disease bill for Oz. Wow! The public sector Australian Health Promotion Association is trumpeting support, with eyes on the new preventive health budget no doubt. They run an annual conference and publish the Health Promotion Journal of Australia to add science to what we already know.

Kalamunda curtailed

Despite earlier talk of a GP-focussed community hospital at Kalamunda, the reality is ... Read More...
WA News
·4 mins read·

Beneath the Drapes. June 2007

Medical Forum·

Long term trustee Mr Don Good has been appointed Chairman of Trustees for St John of Good Health Care, replacing Sister Isobel Moran who held the role for seven years. It may be a sign of the times that an accountant is taking over from a nun.

Still at St John of God, Ms Anna Roberts has been appointed inaugural Mental Health Program Coordinator ... Read More...
WA News
·2 mins read·

May 2007

Medical Forum·

Medical Forum's caesarean snowball

Our April feature on WA's escalating caesarean section rates has gathered a lot of media attention in the last few weeks. The story was first picked up by The West at the start of April and then reappeared on the front page after Easter, with Health Minister Jim McGinty touting a tough new policy on elective caeseareans to arrest the state's 33% c-section rate. Even TV channels picked up the story. With all this attention, it looks like the elective caesearean could be headed the way of the circumcision and no longer performed in the public system for non-medical reasons.

Masters of lying low

Perth's recently touted Masters of General Practice conference has fallen through, with rumours that lacklustre registration numbers were to blame. Flyers only reached GPs and businesses in late December, giving potential delegates less than eight weeks to get their act together. Not surprisingly, the organisers have been keeping low, but from what we hear, the conference has not been officially cancelled, merely postponed ... indefinitely.

Where's the wellness?

Where should health consumers go to attain wellness? Well, according to HBF's new Wellness cover ... Read More...
WA News
·3 mins read·

Beneath the Drapes. May 2007

Medical Forum·

RPH's head trauma surgeon Dr Sudhakar Rao has been appointed as WA"s first Director of Trauma Services. Dr Rao established WA's first registry of trauma data 12 years ago and has been instrumental in the planning of trauma services at the new Fiona Stanley Hospital.

Dr Steve Patchett, former acting Director of the WA State Forensic Mental Health Service, has been appointed as ... Read More...
WA News
·2 mins read·