A new marketing campaign by the Queensland Government has been designed to get people to visit their GP, not hospital Emergency Departments. [ + ]

Researchers will benefit from 95 grants totalling almost $70 million by the National Health and Medical Research Council. [ + ]

National Boards have announced practitioner registration fees for 2014/15, including six Boards that have reduced their fees, two which have frozen their fees and six which have limited their fee increases to the national consumer price index (CPI). The Medical Radiation Practice, Nursing and Midwifery, Occupational Therapy, Osteopathy, Optometry and Physiotherapy Boards have reduced their fees. [ + ]

Departmental advice has been released indicating that time spent by nurses in the delivery of health assessments in general practice can be counted when billing a time-based item. [ + ]

Scientists at QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute have identified a way to prevent transplant complications for bone marrow transplant patients. [ + ]

It's been a while since the idea of eating human placenta for health benefits first appeared in our news feeds, and now researchers at The University of Queensland have discovered how to make even more of the organ. [ + ]

The University of Queensland's Professor Mark Kendall is in the spotlight this week for inventing vaccine-replacing technology: the Nanopatch. [ + ]

Leading Age Services Australia (LASA), the industry peak body for all age service providers,has announced the appointment of Dr Graeme Blackman OAM as its independent Chair, taking over the role from Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove AK MC. [ + ]

If regenerative medicine is to become a reality, research efforts must now focus on the environment that stem cells need to grow and transform, a review has found. [ + ]

As the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) expands its reach, health professionals are reminded to direct patients to the online self-assessment tool, My Access Checker. [ + ]

Almost 60 per cent of Australians have a low level of individual health literacy. This is important to the safety, quality and effectiveness of health care, according to the National Statement on Health Literacy (national statement) released  by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (the Commission). [ + ]

Professor H Patrick McNeil has been appointed inaugural Executive Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at Macquarie University. [ + ]

Monash University’s Centre for Human Bioethics will play a key role in how the world responds to infectious diseases - including public health emergencies of international concern such as the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa. [ + ]

 Speech Pathology Australia is highlighting the plight of more than 1.1 million Australians who have a communication or swallowing disorder that impacts on their quality of life, during Speech Pathology Week (24 - 30 August). Every Australian community – suburb or town – has its share of Australians who every day confront the challenges of having a communication or swallowing disorder and the Speech Pathology Week theme ‘Nation for Communication’ will promote the issue. [ + ]

Community and health consumer groups have rejected the Australian Medical Association’s proposal for mandatory medical co-payments as representing a first step towards the breakdown of universal access under Medicare. [ + ]