Articles by Melissa Sweet

The health sector is reporting only on a very limited portion of the budget, rather than approaching all policies through the lens of health. Is this the right approach?

What should be the focus of health debate in an election year? Crikey blog Croakey asked health researchers, lobbyists and professionals what they want to see from the the federal election campaign — particularly the role of the media in examining policy initiatives and driving the debate … Fiona Armstrong, Climate and Health Alliance: To ask questions […]

Such terrible, devastating news. Health economist Professor Gavin Mooney and his partner Delys Weston have been murdered in Tasmania. Gavin will be known to regular readers of Crikey’s health blog Croakey as a prolific contributor since this blog’s start and an active Crikey commenter. Delys had recently completed her PhD in the political economy of global warming. Mooney will […]

ProPublica has established a Patient Harm Community on Facebook for patients who have been harmed by healthcare.

Last night as journalists filed out of the Department of Health and Ageing budget lock-up, a crowd was gathering for an evening with someone billed as one of the “rock stars” of global health.

Health and education reformers might be able to save a small fortune (at least in the production of reports) by pooling their efforts in future.

The Better Access program, introduced by the Howard government in 2006 to improve access to treatments for common mental disorders, was controversial before it even began.

Too often we seem to forget in debates about our mythical “health system” that much healthcare is provided by private interests, whether private practitioners or companies.

What are the lessons learned on the hard road towards mental health reform? And amid all the debate, what does the future hold? The final chapter of Crikey’s four-part investigation into the vexed social and political issue.

Patrick McGorry and Ian Hickie may be considered revolutionaries by some, their headspace initiative and radical system reforms will come at a cost to some patients.

It’s not only psychologists at war over mental health reform — considerable vitriol is also being directed at the country’s most prominent psychiatrists, Ian Hickie and Pat McGorry. Crikey’s series on mental health reform continues.

Concerns are widespread about the influence of pharmaceutical and other corporate interests on health and medical research, education, practice and policy.

With so many forces driving more and more health spending, surely it’s time you set up The Less is More Institute to identify and advocate for initiatives to reduce the use of health services that are unnecessary, harmful or not good value.

So what does the health sector think of the carbon tax announced yesterday?

If health reform was a baby, you’d have to say that it’s facing an exceedingly tough start to life.

The Australian arm of pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline will work towards publicly declaring how much it pays individual doctors and other healthcare professionals.

“Locational disadvantage” has an enormous impact on the lives of residents in many Australian suburbs. But an experiment in Sydney’s 2168 postcode area is yielding results.

In a few months, the University of Queensland will graduate the country’s first crop of home-grown physician assistants, but it is far from clear whether they will find jobs.

So we have another “historic health reform deal” which is making loud promises while falling short on detail. Getting the agreement is one thing, writes Melissa Sweet, but there’s a long road ahead.

Before high-profile figures such as Peter Beattie hit the public stage pushing prostate cancer screening, they could do worse than read up on the subject.