News January - March 2009
- The Bridge Newsletter March 2009
- Bone issues breaking into male territory - 29 March 2009
- Study to change how critically ill patients are treated across the world - 25 March 2009
- Detect second breast cancer, reduce risk
Dr Nehmat Houssami in the Times Of The Internet - 19 March 2009 - Cause or effect? How media affects indigenous people by Melissa Sweet - 17 March 2009
- International Public Health welcomes students from all over the world.
- Could the economic crisis could present opportunities for health reform?
- Want a different perspective of health research? - new Qualitative Health Research Unit begins in 2009!
- New Courses for 2009!
Bone issues breaking into male territory
March 29, 2009
In The Age newspaper
Osteoporosis, long considered a women's disease, is affecting an increasing number of elderly men, who are unwittingly fracturing bones while performing activities as simple as picking up their grandchildren.
One in four men over 80 has suffered a bone fractures in the back after bending over or falling, but the injuries are going undetected and untreated.
The Concord Health and Ageing in Men Project (CHAMP) - one of the world's largest and most comprehensive studies of the health of older men - found that one in four men aged over 70 was eligible for Medicare-supported treatments for osteoporosis, but less than one in 10 of those eligible was receiving it.
The study's author, Kerrin Bleicher, said the findings were a reminder to elderly men to seek treatment at the first sign of back pain.
Read the full story here.
Study to change how critically ill patients are treated across the world
March 29 2009
In The Age newspaper
osteoporosis, long considered a women's disease, is affecting an increasing number of elderley men, who are unwittingly fracturing bones while performing activities as simple as picking up their grandchildren.
One in four men over 80 has suggered a bone fracture in the back after bending over or falling, but the injuries are going undetected and untreated.
The Concord Health and Ageing in Men Project (CHAMP) - one of the world's largest and most comprehensive studies of the health of older men - found that one in four men aged over 70 wsa eligible for Medicare-supported treatments for osteoporosis, but less than one in 10 of those eligible was receiving it.
The study's author, Kerrin Bleicher, said the findings were a reminder to elderly men to seek treatment at the first sign of back pain.
Read the full story here.
Detect second breast cancer, reduce risk
From the Times of the Internet
19 March 2009
Early detection of subsequent breast tumors in women who have already had the disease can halve the women's risk, an Australian researcher says.
"Intuitively, it makes sense to consider that early detection of second breast cancers will improve prognosis, since breast cancer survivors have a long-term risk of developing further disease or relapse in either breast," study leader Nehmat Houssami of the University of Sydney's School of Public Health, Australia, said in a statement.
Read the full story here.
Cause or effect? How media affects indigenous people
by Melissa Sweet, originally published in The Inside Story
17 March 2009
I began reflecting on the significance of how the media covers Aboriginal health last April as I sat in a conference room overlooking Sydney's Darling Harbour and listened to people talking about the need for researchers and Aboriginal people to find news ways of working together and critiquing the traditions of Aboriginal health research.
I heard about the mistrust that had built up, and of researchers who took but did not give, who imposed their own world view, who appropriated Aboriginal people's stories for their own ends, who endlessly described the problems rather than developing and testing solutions, and who used language and methodology in a way that stressed the negatives and neglected the positives. "We're tired of being told that we are helpless, hopeless and useless," one Aboriginal academic told the conference, convened by the Coalition for Research to Improve Aboriginal Health.
Read the full story here.
International Public Health welcomes students from all over the world.
3 March 2009
Student enrolments in international public health programs are at an all time high. International students are well represented with students coming from 15 different countries including the Cayman Islands, China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, United Arab Emirates and USA. The School has also been very successful in attracting AusAID scholarship students from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Kenya, Lesotho, Pakistan, Tanzania and Uganda. The international flavour of the program was evident at a welcome lunch hosted by international public health staff.
“It is wonderful to have students from all parts of the world. We teach them a lot while they’re here but they also teach us and their fellow students,” said Bob Cumming, Professor of Epidemiology and Director of the Master of International Public Health program.
Find out more about the School's International Public Health programs.
Could the economic crisis present opportunities for health reform?
13, 17 February 2009
In two recently published articles Professor Stephen Leeder, Director of the Menzies Centre for Health Policy, analyses the possible opportunities for health reform in the current economic climate:
- 13 February 2008
We have entered the Year of the Ox. Might it morph into the Year of the Oxymoron, where contradictory combinations of words – tough love, compassionate conservatism, decentralised governance – will reach epidemic levels, affecting health policy?
Read more here. - 17 February 2008
Rahm Emanuel, Barack Obama's chief of staff, is reported to have said two weeks after the presidential election: "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. What I mean is that it's an opportunity to do things you could not do before."
With the interim report of the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission published yesterday the time for implementing reform could hardly be better. In Australia the decision to fund infrastructure renewal and development as part of the Federal Government's response to the economic downturn creates opportunities for the health system.
Read more here.
Want a different perspective of health research?
A new unit developed and coordinated by Dr Stacy Carter provides the opportunity.
Introducing Qualitative Health Research (PUBH5500) begins in 2009 and is already attracting interest. This new unit gives students an opportunity to understand qualitative knowledge and its relationship with other forms of research. A mixture of lectures, activities and skill development, students will also have the opportunity to meet working researchers and hear about what they're doing.
Students will also experiment with data collection (including interviews, focus groups and observation), use qualitative data management software, and try some basic forms of qualitative data analysis.
According to Dr Carter, watching what people do in their ordinary lives and talking with them allows qualitative researchers to develop new explanations and gain unexpected insights into important health and medical issues.
She is confident that, by the end of the unit, students will be ready to start doing qualitative research for themselves.
“I hope that this unit will open a window on a completely different world of research for students, and get them excited about the discovery that's possible using qualitative inquiry. It's also designed to be fun!” she said.
A flyer (pdf) with more information about the unit and dates for 2009 can be downloaded here.
More information:
Dr Stacy Carter - Qualitative Health Research’s Champion
Dr Carter trained as a speech pathologist before coming to the University of Sydney and completing a Master of Public Health and PhD.
According to Dr Carter her ‘temperamental unsuitability’ to quantitative research led to her interest in qualitative inquiry. “I am extremely curious, and find people's stories and explanations fascinating – I always want to know more. Anyone who has conducted survey research knows that many respondents do a lot more than circle a number on a likert scale - they give you an explanation that contradicts their answer on paper or they tell you a story that explains what is important to them about that issue. It was just too frustrating for me to ignore all of that - it often seemed so much more informative than the 'official' answer. So - off to qualitative inquiry with me!” she says.
New Courses for 2009
The School of Public Health is pleased to announce that two new postgraduate coursework programs will be starting in 2009.
- The Master of Health Communication was developed by both the School of Public Health and the Department of Media and Communications. The course is tailored to provide both media skills for proffessional communicators in health and medicine working in public affairs, public relations, community relations and journalism as well as an evidence-based education in public health issues.
"Many of our academics have professional industry experience, either as working journalists or health advocates, and students are assured of cutting edge knowledge, contacts and networking opportunities," said Dr Fiona Giles from the Department of Media and Communication.
Find out more about the Master of Health Communication here. - Students interested in health policy will now have the opportunity for further study with the Master of Health Policy beginning in 2009. The only program of its kind in Australia, the health policy course extends the professional skills of students.
The course offers a critical perspective on the workings of our health care system. It emphasises that good health policy is based on sound evidence and evaluation, but also recognises the role of political power, budgetary constraints and value choices.
Find out more about the Master of Health Policy here.