Canberra helps SCU students learn Asia
A total of 25 health and exercise science students from Southern Cross University will undertake study and work placements in Vietnam and China next year with the held of Australian Government grants.
Announcing the support, the federal MP for Page, Kevin Hogan said the placements are part of the New Colombo Plan program aimed at fostering a better understanding of Asia-Pacific countries by Australian students.
The ‘old’ Colombo Plan, launched in 1951 and continuing to a lesser degree today, was focused on sponsoring Asian students to come to Australia for their studies. The new version has been sparked by the realisation that Australians lack knowledge about the countries where our economic, and perhaps cultural future lies.
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- Written by: Robin Osborne
Health (in)equity the focus of WMA head’s Boyers
Australian audiences can hear a valuable series of weekly talks by the distinguished President of the World Medical Association (WMA), Professor Sir Michael Marmot. The first lecture is 'Health inequalities and the causes of the causes', and airs on Saturday 3 September at 1 pm. All four lectures will be available at the ABC's Boyer Lectures.
The annual Boyer Lectures, to be broadcast on ABC Radio National, will be the 57th of the 4-part weekly series prepared and delivered by distinguished people with a close Australian connection.
While born in England, Prof Marmot was schooled at Sydney Boys High, and later graduated from the medicine program at The University of Sydney. He is Director of the Institute of Health Equity, a leading researcher on health inequality issues for more than three decades, a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, an Honorary Fellow of the British Academy, and an Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health of the Royal College of Physicians.
He was a member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution for six years and in 2000 was knighted for services to epidemiology and the understanding of health inequalities.
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Med student training blossoms
With the latest group of students arriving in the Northern Rivers to undertake placements at local GP practices and hospitals, the program run by the University Centre for Rural Health/North Coast is proving its appeal to undergrads from metropolitan universities.
During stays ranging from 4 to 18 weeks, the 39 students will gain a good understanding of what it means to practice medicine in the community, and the importance of the relationship between patients and their family doctor.
The students are from Western Sydney University, University of Newcastle and University of Wollongong. They join the current group pf 16 ‘long-stay’ students from the University of Sydney, who spend a year in the latter phase of their studies.
The UCRH has educational campuses in Lismore, Murwillumbah and Grafton. It is committed to addressing rural health workforce shortages, and these placement programs play an important role in this.
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- Written by: Robin Osborne
Getting Your Just Desserts
Frozen rebates. They sound like they could be a new dessert - cold, quite tasteless but certainly not fattening. Some thought they were just a passing fad but it looks like there here to stay.
As a result many general practitioners will be disappointed by the return of the Coalition. Health financing was one of the key areas of difference between the two major parties in the recent election.
Bulk billing rates are at record highs. To the economists of the Liberal Party this means the rebates are at least adequate. The market has spoken and in these times of austere government spending it would be reckless to increase them.
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- Written by: David Guest
GPSpeak Editorial Spring 2016
Huntington's chorea is an autosomal dominant disease that affects patients in their middle to old age with a progressive dementia and writhing movements of their face and limbs. Since 1993, it has been possible to estimate the risk in children of affected patients. However, there is no cure and many individuals at risk have preferred not to know their status and carry on their lives in ignorance, if not bliss. Suicide rates in patients diagnosed as being positive can be up to 9%. Patients testing negative may experience “survival guilt”.
Testing for antenatal chromosomal abnormalities have also become increasingly available in recent years. Once again there are no trivial therapeutic options with termination of pregnancy an unacceptable choice for many people.
In the early 1980s there was no therapy for HIV and performing diagostic tests posed similar ethical challenges for doctor and patient alike.
In medicine we are taught that if the result will not change the therapy, the test should not be performed. However, as we see in end of life care, a better understanding of the disease process and a more accurate prognosis may allow patients to cope with their disease.
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- Written by: David Guest
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