The following health and related news items are sourced from National, State and online news, current affairs and opinion sites for June 2007.  News is archived monthly into the News Archives

National News
State News
International News
Other News & Reports

National News

Labor (ALP) releases their healthcare strategy - 28 June, 2007
Fresh ideas, future economy: Preventative health care for our families and our future economy...More

Medicare lifts GPs' financial health - 28 June, 2007
Incomes of family doctors have risen more than 20 per cent in the past three years thanks to federal Government changes to Medicare...More

$500,000 can't buy a doctor - 27 June, 2007
The rural medical practice offering a $500,000 lump sum to any GP, anaesthetist or obstetrician who is willing to move there says not one city-based or recently qualified doctor has applied for the post...More

AHA Calls On Commonwealth To Repay $1.1 Billion Funding Shortfall - 25 June, 2007
The Australian Healthcare Association (AHA) today welcomed the report from state and territory governments on health funding and called on the federal government to make up the $1.1 billion funding shortfall in the next Australian Healthcare Agreements (AHCAs) and to ensure a fair and accountable funding system for public hospitals...More

Diabetes Summit To Boost Chronic Disease Campaign In Torres Strait - 25 June, 2007
A two-day health summit on Thursday island will draw community leaders and government together to help combat chronic disease in the Torres Strait, Health Minister Stephen Robertson said today...More 

Fair Deal On Health Funding is Needed - 25 June, 2007
Labor's Shadow Minister for Health Nicola Roxon today welcomed the release of the report from State and Territory health ministers, Caring for our Health? More

Health "Peace-keepers" needed for Indigenous Health, Doctors Group says - 25 June, 2007
The Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine (AFPHM) has strongly supported the Federal Government's response to the report Little Children are Sacred...More

$4m Shot in the arm for alternatives - 23 June, 2007
One of the biggest discrepancies in modern healthcare - that herbal and other alternative treatments have little of the formal scientific evidence demanded of prescription drugs - will be tackled after the federal Government announced a $4 million grant to establish a new National Institute for Complementary Medicine...More

Successful mental health reform awaits structural change - 23 June, 2007
(Comment) We have now reached a critical point in the most recent cycle of mental health reform...More

Better science means a rebiuld for healthy foods pyramid - 23 June, 2007
When asked what to eat for good health, most dietitians and other health professionals turn to the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating (AGHE), the federal Government's food section model, to outline the amounts and types of foods needed daily to meet nutritional requirments... More

Doctor crisis to hit NT health plan - 22 June, 2007
Doctor shortages in regional Australia pose a "significant challenge" to the Government's plan to introduce compulsory health checks for Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory...More

Threat to drug subsidies - 14 June, 2007
Reforms to the PBS now before the Senate reflect pressure from the US to weaken the 60-year old drug subsidy program, and could lead to it being undermined altogether, experts claim...More

Bird flu a 'real threat' - 9 June, 2007
The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu is mutating unpredictably and at a rapid pace, a senior WHO official has warned Asia-Pacific health ministers...More

Patients the losers and makers the winners in PBS tinkering (Opinion) - 9 June, 2007
Its become an axiom of Australian medicines policy that everyone loves the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, or must appear to do so, particularly if they're planning to change it...More

Abbott sparks medical ethics debate - 8 June, 2007
Tony Abbott moved to spark a debate on appropriate boundaries for Australian scientists with the release of a report on ethical dilemmas in medical research...More

APEC Health Ministers Meeting closes - 8 June, 2007
Media and other report releases relating to the APEC meeting held in June 2007 in NSW...More

Beware the grant - getting lottery - 6 June, 2007
(Opinion) As Australia begins to think about its research quality framework...More

Get health policy out of the emergency ward - 5 June, 2007
Governments are always talking about taking the pressure off public hospitals...More

Refugees no burden on health system - 4 June, 2007
Contrary to common prejudice, refugees pose no added burden to the public health system...More

Rural experience a great platform for future medical career - 2 June, 2007
Would-be doctors who accept one of the 100 medical school places under the federal Government's Medical Rural Bonded Scholarships scheme receive $22,744 per year to assist their studies, a sum that is both tax-free and indexed annually...More

Unbiased campaigns need wider participation - 2 June, 2007
The Government has come under fire recently for the amount of money it is spending on advertising...More

State News

Doctors threaten to quit - 26 June, 2007
South Australian psychiatrists have threatened to resign en masse from the state system next week, dramatically widening the public sector revolt against the Rann Government's bid to rein in costs and pay growth...More

$1million to fight chronic disease in Torres Strait - 26 June, 2007
Queensland Health will invest more than $1million this year to improve the prevention and management of chronic disease in the Torres Strait, Health Minister Stephen Robertson said today...More

Focus on stopping people getting ill - 20 June, 2007
Increased funding for preventive measures has helped push health spending to $12.5 billion, or 28 per cent of the total state budget...More

International News

Death rates rise on global warming, study finds (Update 1) - 28 June, 2007
(Bloomberg) Global warming may spur more deaths during the summer months because people are better adapted to cold snaps than periods of extreme heat, according to any analysis by Harvard University researchers...More

Study: Diabetes keeps rising among youth - 28 June, 2007
White children account for most of the new cases of diabetes in children, says a new study, but the disease is found in all ethnic groups, and rates of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes are on the rise...More

Disparities in Health Care are driven by where minority seek care - 25 June, 2007
(Summary report) Many studies have documented that minority patients recieve lower-quality health care than non-minority patients at the same medical facilities... More

Frontiers in Health Policy Research and Health Care Program Meeting - 20 June, 2007
Presentations from a recent event around economics and current health policy challenges...More

Mirror, mirror on the wall: an international update on the comparative performance of American health care - 17 June, 2007
(Commonwealth Fund) Despite having the most costly health system in the world, the United States consistently underperforms on most dimensions of performacne, relative to other countries...More

Aiming higher: results from a state scorecard on health performance - 13 June, 2007
(Commonwealth Fund) View the number of lives and dollars each U.S state could save by achieving benchmarks in healthcare...More

School-based obesity prevention promising - 13 June, 2007
A multi-component health promotion program in schools may help excess weight gain among 12 to 13 year olds, a Dutch study shows...More

Toward a more efficient and effective system of financing long-term care - 11 June, 2007
(Kaiser Network) Why the current public-private partnership needs to change...More

Health costs push companies to set targets for workers - 11 June, 2007
Employers not only want a healthy group, they want to keep a lid on health costs - and insurance premiums...More

Who pays for efficiency? - 11 June, 2007
Saving money can be expensive...More

Sleep on it, kids, or face weighty consequences - 6 June, 2007
University study looks at kids going to be late and its link to obesity...More

Pay shows scant effect on medical treatment - 5 June, 2007
A central premise of the government's Medicare planners in recent years has been a concept called "pay for performance" - the idea that medical care can be improved by financially rewarding better treatment...More

Study finds Americans can maintain weight loss - 5 June, 2007
A new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows people can maintain their weight loss...More

Gates grant targets health gauges - 5 June, 2007
Gift of $105Million is made to measure impact of programs...More


Other News & Reports

Performance reporting for consumers: issues for the Australian private health sector
Sheahan, Little & Leggat (ANZHP)...More

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health performance framework 2006
AIHW report...More

EHR 2015: advancing Canada's next generation of healthcare
Canada Health Infoway...More

Analysis for policy: evidence-based policy in practice.
Government Social Research...More

Major employers introduce platform for new option for health and retirement security
Erisa Industry Committee press release. Available for download...More

Do citizens have minimum medical knowledge? - a survey
Bachmann, Gutzwiller, Puhan et al.  Available for download...More

Training Physicians for public health careers - Committee on Training Physicians for public health careers
Prepublication now available via NAP...More

The learning healthcare system - IOM Roundtable on Evidence-Based Medicine
Summary now available from Roundtable available via NAP...More

Report on the GAP Congress on Wellness & Ageing - Global Access Partners
Breaking the barriers: the role of Government, Industry, providers and consumers..More