The publication of a paper in Nature describing “stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency” (STAP) caused an international sensation. It was potentially the Holy Grail of stem cell research - how…
Academic rigor, journalistic flair
Barwon Health
Formed in 1998, Barwon Health is one of the largest and most comprehensive regional health services in Australia, providing care at all stages of life and circumstance.
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The dispute about new contracts that senior doctors are being presented with in Queensland is the most serious medico-industrial campaign in recent memory. The details of the negotiations are outside the…
Once upon a time, not too long ago, ‘whiplash injury’ was regarded as a prototypical malingerer’s diagnosis. I can even remember an episode of the Brady Bunch where the dad ‘proved’ the plaintiff in a…
Imagine if you could get Botox on the PBS!! Expressions would start disappearing off faces all around you, turning Australia into a society of strangely youthful but surprised-looking middle-aged people…
The recent memorandum of understanding signed between supplement company Swisse and La Trobe University to establish a Complementary Medicine Evidence Centre (CMEC) looks to me like the latest effort by…
So it appears we are to be treated to another pointless examination of a manufactured controversy in the name of health science. One can only guess at the motivations for the Federal Government announcing…
Over the previous weekend the morning magazine shows I have on during lazy mornings had 2 glamorous nutritionist types breathlessly discussing the latest ‘superfoods’ that would be big in 2014. It’s difficult…
**For every complex problem, there is an answer which is clear, simple and wrong HL Mencken** The latest resurrection of the Medicare co-payment debate has resulted in storms of criticism and vituperation…
Before I begin this post in earnest, I’d like to thank regular readers and commenters for their efforts this year in Medicandus. Although posts have become a little thin in the last couple of months due…
The FDA has ordered a shutdown of the internet-based genome testing company 23andMe, in a move which I believe will help discourage inappropriate uses of gene testing. While an article elsewhere on this…
If you’re anything like me, your medicine cupboard is chockers with various non-prescription pain remedies: liquids, pills, capsules, children’s painkillers, formulations that are “gentle on the stomach…
Friends of Science in Medicine (to whose goals I am a signatory) has gotten together with the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (RCPA) to produce some excellent and sensible advice about dodgy…
Regular readers will know that I have had a bit to say in the past about the way the chiropractic profession is run in Australia. I have refrained thus far from posting about the latest controversy, but…
I’ve been in Italy this last week, for the EFIC Congress, which is the biggest international scientific meeting that pain types go to in a year when there is no official World Congress. On the first day…
This apparently scandalous story was brought to my attention this week. The story was about what seemed to the reporters to be a massive coverup of the toxicity of acetaminophen, which is the US spelling…
The announcement of a new research centre at UTS Sydney to perform research on CAM raises some interesting issues for discussion. The first and most obvious question is why there needs to be a separate…
I’m currently in Sydney at the Annual Scientific Meeting of my original tribe. The session I went to this morning were my first look back at the state of stroke rehabilitation for nearly a decade. Things…
Science can be a funny way to make a living, with the profession full of oddball characters. It seems only right that the bizarre, the absurd and the obsessive in science and medicine should be celebrated…
Codeine is the most widely available opioid analgesic in Australia, but the problems with its well-intentioned overuse are not so widely known or talked about. I was therefore delighted to see it being…
Over the weekend there was a story in the Fairfax press which highlights why I think the bizarre anti-fluoride conspiracy beliefs that you see around the place are not harmless whimsy. I’ve discussed in…
