Health archive

Paramedics face the threat of violence every day. Just this past month, two Victorian paramedics were assaulted. One was stabbed and another pregnant paramedic punched after saving a patient’s life. Authorities warn these incidents are part of an “appalling trend” of escalating violence against par...

Getty Images New Zealand is facing a critical shortage of doctors, both in hospitals and general practice. In my recent research, I argue a strict requirement for patient consent to train junior doctors is one of a number of impediments to medical training. New Zealand is an outlier in requiring p...

Olia Danilevich/Pexels Teenagers lead busy lives. And to get through everything from school exams to softball games, they need nutritious food. But research suggests Australian teens aren’t getting the nutrients they need, because their diets often revolve around sugary, salty and processed foods. S...

Chris_Soucy/Getty In recent years, we’ve seen a sizeable shift in medicinal cannabis prescribing, to products containing higher levels of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) – the component that can cause drowsiness or a high. Now, our new study shows some of the harms with this shift, including from product...

Andres Siimon/Unsplash In April, the United Kingdom passed landmark laws that aim to create a “smokefree generation”. This means anyone born on or after January 1 2009 can never legally be sold tobacco products. The law is a triumph for public health. And it puts the financial interests of the toba...

Arnaud Mesureur/Unsplash Words escape you. Your skin tingles. You are overwhelmed by how small and insignificant you really are, bursting with a feeling that is hard to define. This is awe. Awe is a complex emotional state we experience when the enormity of what we see or feel transcends what we und...

mihailomilovanovic/Getty Images Australians are familiar with the disturbing statistics of intimate partner homicide: one Australian woman is killed every 11 days, on average, by a current or former intimate partner. While these deaths are increasingly reported on, suicide represents a largely hidde...

Stephen Andrews/Unsplash During a cost-of-living crisis, many Australians may be wondering if their private health insurance policy actually delivers. Rising premiums, the high costs of specialists’ fees, large out-of-pocket costs and bill shock are some common concerns. So it might be tempting to l...

The World Health Organization (WHO) wrapped up Exercise Polaris II, a 2-day high-level simulation exercise, based around an outbreak of a fictional new bacterium spreading across the world. Bringing together 26 countries and territories, 600 health emergency experts and over 25 partners, the exercis...