The management of common health conditions varies considerably depending upon where people live, according to the paper Exploring Healthcare Variation in Australia released by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (the Commission) and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). [ + ]

Sanofi Pasteur has awarded $100,000 in Vaxigrants sponsorships to five healthcare organisations to help increase local community immunisation rates and awareness about the benefits of vaccination. [ + ]

[caption id="attachment_8246" align="alignright" width="133"] Professor Warwick Anderson[/caption] [ + ]

After nearly two years in the making the Aged Care Industry IT Council’s (ACIITC) Information and communications technology vision for the industry was recently launched by Minister for Social Services Kevin Andrews. The event was very well attended with close to 90 representatives from industry, bureaucracy and federal parliamentarians. [ + ]

The Australian Dental Association (ADA) says the impending release of the 2014 Skilled Occupation List (List) will bring despair to many newly graduating dentists. The ADA says  despite its repeated calls to take corrective action, reports indicate that dentists remaon in the list for 2014, which means dentists with overseas qualifications can enter Australia and limit jobs from graduates from Australian universities. [ + ]

[caption id="attachment_8379" align="alignright" width="133"] LASA CEO Patrick Reid[/caption] [ + ]

[caption id="attachment_6263" align="alignright" width="157"] Minister for Health Peter Dutton[/caption] [ + ]

[caption id="attachment_8246" align="alignright" width="133"] Professor Warwick Anderson[/caption] [ + ]

The COAG Reform Council’s final report on healthcare reform, Healthcare in Australia 2012—13: Five years of performance, shows that over five years governments have delivered positive results for Australians, but a number of areas of concern are clearly emerging. [ + ]

The discovery of biomarkers for prostate cancer in seminal fluid (semen) could help improve diagnosis and management of this most common cancer in men. [ + ]

[caption id="attachment_7936" align="alignright" width="162"] Dr Michelle McIntosh will use the new facility for her Inhaled Oxytocin project. Image from Monash University[/caption] A landmark grant will be used to build a world-class and Australian-first translational pharmaceutical science laboratory at the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences in Melbourne. Directly supporting capacity building, skills growth and education development, the new Translational Research Lab has been made possible by a $1.2 million grant from the Helen Macherson Smith Trust (HMSTrust), $1.1 million of in-kind contributions from industry partners PerkinElmer and Shimadzu and a further $350,000 contribution from the McCallMcBain Foundation to build state of the art facilities at the precinct. [ + ]

Health workers are being given tools to support the reduction of alcohol and drug use within Indigenous communities with  the establishment of a new national information service, the Australian Indigenous Alcohol and Other Drugs Knowledge Centre . The new Indigenous health service was launched by Chair of the National Indigenous Drug and Alcohol Committee (NIDAC), Associate Professor Ted Wilkes, at the 3rd National Indigenous Drug & Alcohol Conference (NIDAC) in Melbourne.  [ + ]

The Queensland Health Budget for 2014-15 has seen an increase of 6.4 per cent to $13.6 billion. [ + ]

Prostate cancer survival in NSW has improved over the last 20 years but the gap between rural and city patient’s remains, with survival differing significantly based on an individual’s postcode. [ + ]

Building clinical nursing research capacity has been the focus for Professor Wendy Chaboyer, recipient of the Griffith University Vice Chancellor’s Research Leadership Excellence Award. [ + ]