The hospitals of tomorrow

Rooftop play garden at Fiona Stanley Hospital

1. Who is the play space designed for? The rooftop play garden was designed for Patients, siblings and parents alike.

In conversation with Dr Yusuke Ueno-Dewhirst

The high cost of false positives

Cancer screening has never been shown to “save lives,” argue experts

Four-strain flu vaccine a first for 2016

Influenza (flu) vaccines that provide protection against four strains of the flu virus (quadrivalent vaccines) are being introduced into the National Immunisation Program (NIP) for the first time in 2016.

How I met my son - a story of acceptance

‘The sky didn’t fall, and our family didn’t fall apart. We just started using different pronouns. Oh, I had to change the name stored in my phone with his number. That was a bit of a pain.’ – Yolanda Bogert

Harvesting stem cells with fewer side effects

For bone marrow transplantation, stem cells are routinely harvested from healthy donors and used to treat patients with cancers including leukaemia.

Boosting hospital funding and ditching blame

Once again, states and territories are mired in negotiations with the Commonwealth about public hospital funding.

Could drug subsidies end Hepatitis C?

Hepatitis C is a hidden epidemic affecting 170 million people worldwide. Thanks to new public subsidies of powerful drugs, Hepatitis C could be wiped out within a few years.

Why chocolate is the secret to happiness

According to Simon Cotton, from the University of Birmingham Money may not buy happiness or grow on trees but when it comes to chocolate, it seems you can have both. Chocolate really does grow on trees and the chemical feel-good factor comes from the world’s most widely consumed psychoactive drug.

Painless insulin delivery through nanopatch

No more finger pricking? This team of scientists have been developing a patch that sits on the skin and is capable of detecting the sugar levels in your sweat. A wearable, sweat-sensing patch that can monitor and regulate blood glucose levels is described in a paper published online this week in Nature Nanotechnology. The graphene-based patch is shown to deliver metformin, a drug used to treat diabetes, through the skin to reduce high blood glucose levels in diabetic mice.

Mindfulness and nursing

What is mindfulness? It’s the practice of bringing your awareness into the present moment.  It’s about noticing the ‘right now’ by engaging your five senses and watching your thoughts as they come and go without holding onto or pushing away what your are experiencing.

Paracetamol painfully poor for arthritis

In a large-scale analysis of pain-relief medication for osteoarthritis, researchers found that paracetamol does not meet the minimum standard of clinical effectiveness [1] in reducing pain or improving physical function in patients with knee and hip osteoarthritis. Although paracetamol was slightly better than placebo, researchers conclude that, taken on its own, paracetamol has no role in the treatment of patients with osteoarthritis, irrespective of dose.

Healthy eating on shifts? Be a planning boss

Working shifts means that eating regular meals goes on the back-burner. And eating healthy food, well that's just for those normal people working regular jobs right? We all know how it goes, a coworker calls in sick, you get six new admissions and there is no time to sit down, let alone digest anything.

As clean as it looks - Using Flourescent marker audits to evaluate cleaning efficacy