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Novel mHealth app detects depression
Passive app requires ‘no effort on the part of the user’ Feeling down? Your smartphone will most likely know before you or your doctors do, after a recent study showed promise for an mHealth app that detects depression and monitors at-risk populations. Researchers at Northwestern University’s department of preventive medicine have developed a novel mobile…
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Supermarket Comparisons – are they individually different?
i2P began reporting on Aldi well before they opened their first store in Australia and it has always been favourable. They are renowned for their constant attention to detail in designing their internal systems and their continual auditing of costs. They also tend to put cost savings back into their retail prices. And by putting…
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Plant extracts offer hope against diabetes and cancer
Diabetes is the fastest growing metabolic disease in the world. A new study has shown that traditional Aboriginal and Indian plant extracts could be used to manage the disease and may also have potential use in cancer treatment. Researchers from Swinburne University of Technology identified plant species that could potentially be applied in the management…
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Fish oil – is it on the nose?
Considerable confusion and many unsubstantiated beliefs abound when it comes to fish oil supplements. An estimated one in four Australians currently take them for a wide range of conditions, even though good research is unconvincing. However, there are suggestions that increased doses of fish oil might provide health benefits. What are fish oils – and…
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Top Vitamin D Research of 2014
Higher vitamin D blood levels may reduce the risk of many types of disease including autoimmune diseases, cancers, cardiovascular disease, dementia, diabetes mellitus and falls and fractures. Research into the health effects associated with vitamin D continued to be strong in 2014. The number of publications with vitamin D in the title or abstract listed…
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Future Pharmacy Starting From a Compound Base
Pharmaca is a US-based integrative pharmacy company that has developed a pharmacy model which could be adapted to an Australian “future pharmacy” model. Basically, it is a compounding pharmacy first, with outreach into evidence-based complementary medicine (hence they are integrative medicine specialists) plus a retail segment. By US standards it is a small to medium…
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Lifestyle medicine – the right idea at the right time
Eat well, stress less, move more and love more……these four simple principles of lifestyle changes have been shown to be of significant benefit in the management of chronic disease risk, influencing ageing and reducing health care costs. Speaking at the Personalised Lifestyle Medicine Institute’s Thought Leaders Consortium in Seattle, Dr Dean Ornish, President of the…
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Digitally enabled care is fundamental to quality care
Clinicians are more open to utilizing burgeoning healthcare technology as part of their practice, and patients are more receptive to interacting with that technology, according to a new PricewaterhouseCoopers Health Research Institute report released last month titled “Healthcare delivery of the future: How digital technology can bridge the gap of time and distance between clinicians…
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NPS Media Releases – UTI’s, Antibiotic Awareness, Antibiotic Campaign
20 November 2014 NPS MEDICINEWISE REDUCING ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE PROGRAM: URINARY TRACT INFECTIONS—EXPLORING ANTIBIOTIC TREATMENT The next phase of the NPS MedicineWise Reducing Antibiotic Resistance program for health professionals has launched today focused on the complex topic of managing urinary tract infections (UTIs). An interactive case study and the latest issue of Medicinewise News—which contains an…
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Pharmacists may be intellectually bankrupt today – financially bankrupt tomorrow
Pharmacists collectively deserve the derogatory comments proffered regularly by the AMA about providing professional services between the “toilet paper and the toothpaste”. Not enough has been done by pharmacy leadership organisations or individual pharmacy proprietors in terms of investment in appropriate clinical spaces. Nothing in terms of spatial identity and patient comfort has evolved anywhere…