The NHMRC code on animal use requires researchers to minimise harm, pain and distress but doesn’t provide guidance on how to do it.
International Fund for Animal Welfare Animal Rescue Blog/Flickr
Draft guildelines for the use of non-human primates in research will dilute what protections these animals have, despite numerous reasons to stop the practice entirely.
Restraining the growth in costs and providing better treatments and cures needs a healthy national medical research effort.
Dave Hunt/AAP
It’s been a great privilege to have been the head of NHMRC for going on a decade. That’s four governments, six health ministers, a funding increase from A$437 million in 2006 to A$859 million today.
The statement by the NHMRC is based on a summary of research on homeopathy’s effectiveness for treating health conditions.
Guillaume Brialon/Flickr
Two years in the making, a statement released by the National Health and Medicine Research Council has found no reliable evidence that homeopathy is effective.
Biological differences mean that women and men often have different health outcomes.
Freddycat1/Flickr
Despite significant gains in gender equity over the last few decades, a bias still reigns in one area of medicine. The lack of female representation in both preclinical studies and clinical trials has…
The idea of research reducing health-care costs may seem counter intuitive because it often leads to the development of expensive drugs, technologies, and treatments.
EPA/ANGELIKA WARMUTH
Quality health care can be expensive and medical research has traditionally been thought to play a role in making it so. But research can also help cut the cost of medical care. The notion of research…
The Coalition government seems to take a very keen interest in medical science, but what about the other fields?
AAP/Dan Peled
As a relatively small and young country, by population if not by landmass, Australia has played a noticeable role on the world stage when it comes to science. Contributions to new technologies, from Wi-Fi…
The budget calls for the creation of a medical research future fund from estimated savings in health expenditure.
AAP/Lukas Coch
One of the few real surprises in the budget was the creation of medical research future fund, to be partly funded by the introduction of a $7 GP co-payment. This injection of money provides an opportunity…
Homeopathic medicines are not drugs and homeopathy involves much more than the use of a particular therapy.
Oonagh Taeger/Flickr
The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) recently completed a review of the evidence for homeopathy’s effectiveness and, after analysing systematic reviews of clinical trials, concluded…
The medical establishment needs to acknowledge that people can worry themselves sick about wind turbines.
Terence Doust/Wikimedia Commons
The Australian Medical Association has released a statement once again affirming that there is no evidence that wind farms harm human health. Geoffrey Dobb, chair of the AMA’s Public Health Committee…
What does the future hold for research funding under an Abbott government?
AAP/David Crosling
SECURING AUSTRALIA’S FUTURE: As the Commission of Audit reviews government activity and spending, The Conversation’s experts take a closer look at key policy areas tied to this funding – what’s working…
Hours spent writing grant applications could be spent actually doing research with a grant-determining formula.
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The winners and losers of the 2013 National Health and Medical Research (NHMRC) Project Grants were announced in October. A record low success rate of just 16.9% (down from last year’s 20.5%) meant the…
Bad science is easy to spot; but can we tell which proposals are winners?
an untrained eye
I’ve heard that we should stop talking about “pure” science and “applied” science; that we should only be talking about “good” science and “bad” science. Last year, CSIRO Chief Executive Megan Clark said…
Public confidence in medical research is vulnerable to attacks on its integrity.
Andrew Huff
Clinical trials of an experimental cancer drug being undertaken by the University of New South Wales were suspended this week, after questions about the accuracy of some preliminary results were made public…
Health-services research can help work out how best to share the health-funding pie.
Wout/Flickr
In the eighth part of our series Health Rationing, Philip Clarke and Nicholas Graves suggest ways to make the health-care system more efficient and affordable. Who would want be the health minister? If…
‘Light’ wines are potentially big business if they can be successfully marketed to the diet-conscious consumer.
Steve Petric
Dieters can now have their wine and drink it, guilt-free and minus the hangover. That’s the promise of so-called “light” or low-alcohol, low-calorie wines. But these wines are not considerably lighter…
Reflexology is just one of the therapies subsidised by private health insurers that’s being reviewed.
Chris/Flickr
Significant growth of natural therapy benefits subsidised by private health insurers, coupled with concerns about the poor evidence base for some of the services offered, has apparently resulted in the…
David Koch meets breastfeeding advocates who converged outside the studio where his show is recorded.
AAP/Damian Shaw
The host of Sunrise breakfast television show, David Koch, aka Kochie, has stirred controversy by saying mothers should breastfeed “discreetly” and that while he agreed that breastfeeding should be done…
Taxpayer-funded research should be out there for everyone to access.
muffin9101985/Flickr
The issue of open access to research findings has been in the media for a number of reasons lately, some positive - the release of the Australian Research Council’s (ARC) open access policy - and some…
A rat used for cancer research in the United States.
Janet Stephens
Monika Merkes, La Trobe University e Rob Buttrose, The University of Melbourne
More than six million animals are used in experiments in Australia each year. Many endure pain and distress, and most are killed after their use. The research community claims that our regulatory framework…
Medical research funding received a green light today, but others in the research sector remain worried about cuts.
Howzey/Flickr
Universities Australia has welcomed the announcement of A$652 million in National Health and Medical Research Council grants, but warned moves to abolish, cut or further delay other funding programs would…