Should medical and scientific experts turn to spin doctors for advice when concerns are raised about their relationships with industry? A leaked email chain poses some important question for medical professionals, writes Melissa Sweet.
Articles by Melissa Sweet 
About Melissa Sweet
Melissa Sweet is a freelance health journalist who moderates Crikey’s health blog, Croakey, and prods members of the Crikey Health and Medical Panel to contribute articles to Crikey and Croakey.
She has been reporting on health and medicine for too long to mention, and is the author or co-author of various books. She has honorary appointments at the Sydney School of Public Health at the University of Sydney, and at Notre Dame University’s School of Medicine, Sydney. Melissa is a founding board member of the Public Interest Journalism Foundation, based at Swinburne University, and has helped establish YouCommNews, a website to enable community commissioning and funding of stories.
Is Twitter an essential tool for public health advocates?
I still encounter plenty of cynically raised eyebrows whenever I suggest that Twitter has become an essential tool for public health advocates.
Will the regional agreement help lead to a fairer distribution of health?
Broadband’s importance for a population’s health also lies in its ability to connect individuals and communities, and to disseminate information (and thus, as the saying goes, power).
What the Independents were told on rural health
While the wait for a government continues, here is the advice that the National Rural Health Alliance gave the independents last week: “The NRHA proposes that interested parliamentarians seek a formal written commitment that the new Government should: 1. Plan and deliver broadband access to homes and businesses throughout the nation. Fast broadband is essential […]
YouCommNews launches with investigation into influenza policy
Did conflict of interest compromise the investigation of febrile convulsions in children following receipt of seasonal influenza vaccine in 2010?
Federal response to WA influenza vaccination review is sorely lacking
The WA government recently released an important and damning report reviewing the responses of health authorities after children in WA suffered febrile convulsions following seasonal influenza vaccination.
Witch hunt of a former WA health bureaucrat
In the WA Parliament yesterday the National member, Max Trenorden, told of the “witch hunt” of Michael Moodie, a former senior health bureaucrat, writes Professor Gavin Mooney.
On mental health, the Rudd government just isn’t listening
With a “deep sense of disappointment” Professor John Mendoza resigned as chair of the federal government’s National Advisory Council on Mental Health. And many others in the mental health sector share his abject lament.
Mendoza to Crikey: Rudd’s mental health approach Python-esque
Last month, in the wake of the government’s hospital funding agreement with the states, John Mendoza wrote a scathing critique of the Rudd government’s approach to mental health .
Health Budget 2010: What the experts say
Croakey wraps reactions to last night’s Budget from Australia’s health experts and community, covering everything from dental policy (or the lack of it), primary health care and alcohol policy and prevention.
The questions journos forgot to ask at the National Press Club
The National Press Club failed to really grill the prime minister about his health proposals — or lack of them, writes Melissa Sweet. Here are the questions they forgot to ask.
Drinking with the enemy: the soft drink marketing wars
Soft drink giants Coca-Cola and PepsiCo are locked in a neck-and-neck battle to become new best friends of public health. It’s what you do when your industry is facing flak as an enemy of public health, writes Melissa Sweet.
A simple truth: you can’t have health reform without pain
If only health reform was as simple as taking two quick pills and waking up in the morning with a shiny new system, writes Melissa Sweet.
When it comes to back pain, the experts are best avoided
GPs who have a special interest in treating back pain are more likely to recommend tests and treatments that are ineffective or possibly even harmful.
Surgery is not the solution to obesity epidemic
The House of Reps committee wimped out on making a strong call to action for some bold obesity prevention policies — like tougher regulation of food formulation and a ban on junk food advertising to kids, writes Melissa Sweet.
NT Govt under pressure over “insane” laws harming teenagers
The NT Government is under growing pressure to rethink laws requiring health professionals to report all under-age teenage patients they suspect of being s-xually active, writes Melissa Sweet.
Questions for the legal system following Gassy case
Something is surely amiss when a defendant, whom many experts believe to have a serious psychiatric disorder, is allowed to appear and represent himself before the country’s highest court.
Robin Hood, the health budget and other contemporary tales
Finding someone with high expectations of the Federal health budget is about as difficult as scoring a dental appointment in the bush, but we tracked some opinions down anyway.
Injecting some independence into blood clot prevention
The NHMRC’s processes in developing guidelines to prevent blood clots stand in stark contrast to those used in another set of controversial, commercially-funded Australian and NZ guidelines, writes Melissa Sweet.
