medicine

Analysis and Comment (7)

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Culture can be understood as the meanings, technologies and practices that gather around medicine within western societies. Tulane Publications/Flickr

The cultural assumptions behind Western medicine

By Deborah Lupton

When most of us think about the medical approach that dominates in Western countries, we tend to view it as scientific and therefore as neutral, not influenced by social or cultural processes. Yet research…
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The government has launched several inquiries into patent law and pharmaceutical drugs. Daniel Weir

Julia Gillard, Big Pharma, patent law and public health

By Matthew Rimmer

It takes a lot of bravery for governments to stand up to big business. But the Gillard government has shown a lot of guts during its tenure. It stood up to Big Tobacco in the battle over plain packaging…
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Taxpayers should get something in return for their investment – good doctors, where they’re needed. UoNottingham

Medical intern crisis won’t be solved with just more hospital places

By Stephen Duckett, Grattan Institute

Almost two hundred medical students from diverse countries have just finished their medical education as full-fee-paying students. They’re now looking for the one year of employment (internship) they need…
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Unless you’re up to date with the healthy food guidelines, don’t preach to fat people about what they should eat. Stocky Bodies (Isaac Brown)

Doctor, don’t make assumptions about your fat patients

By Penny Wilson

A couple of weeks back I awoke with a swollen and painful knee. I’ve had problem knees since high school and figured that this was just another chapter in the saga. Some days later I was fed up – my knee…
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The increasing trend of outsourcing drug production is leading to shortages in cancer drugs. Flickr

Risky business: the human cost of outsourcing drug production

By Catherine de Fontenay, Melbourne Business School

It’s the pharmaceutical industry equivalent of the butterfly effect: a drug manufacturing plant in Ohio shuts down production after regulators on two continents uncover contamination problems. Suddenly…

Research and News (3)

Research Briefs (7)

Transient electronics are here to stay

American Chemical Society

Tiny electronic devices implanted into living tissue can dissolve harmlessly when they’re no longer needed. A team from…

Participants (41)