Articles

First published: Friday, August 11, 2006

We have seen sufficient evidence in The Age this week that many within and outside the medical profession are concerned about the effects on our patients of the marketing efforts of the pharmaceutical industry. From the industry’s influence on the direction and publication of research, through its support for patient lobby groups and its indirect advertising in the infotainment media, to its influence on opinion leaders and ultimately on the prescribing patterns of doctors at the coalface, this is an issue well recognised by professional colleges and sadly rejected by the largest medical political lobby, the Australian Medical Association.

Read more

First published: Thursday, March 16, 2006

For how much longer can Australians take readily available good health care for granted? Even urban areas are experiencing shortages of doctors and hospital beds. Will it get worse? What are the solutions?

Read more

First published: Friday, October 7, 2005

I only ever knew one of my grandfathers. He was, among other things, a Queensland Lightweight Boxing Champion and a disabled Gallipoli veteran. At about the age of eight, I remember accidentally bouncing a beach ball on his head. I floored him.

This taught me to be careful with Grandad. I’d known about his mangled arm but hadn’t realised bits of his skull were still in the Middle East.

Read more

First published: Saturday, September 17, 2005

ONGOING education is a vital part of being a doctor – very little in medicine being still the same as when most of us left university. If you don’t keep up to date both you and your patients are in big trouble.

But recent criticisms of the postgraduate education system, Continuing Professional Development (CPD), is somewhat misplaced. Some doctors may be rorting the system – but most take it very seriously.

Read more