Bianca Nogrady

Novel shoe intervention may cut low back pain, delay knee arthroplasty in osteoarthritis

May 7, 2025No Comments

From Medscape Medical News, 6 May 2025: A shoe-based biomechanical intervention worn for a short time each day may achieve greater improvements in low back pain and greater reductions in the risk for total knee replacement surgery than standard physical therapy, according to two studies presented at the World Congress on Osteoarthritis (OARSI) 2025 Annual … Continue reading Novel shoe intervention may cut low back pain, delay knee arthroplasty in osteoarthritis

April 20, 2025May 7, 2025No Comments

Australian politicians promise billions for healthcare

March 13, 2025No Comments

From Medscape Medical News, 10 March 2025: Medicare, Australia’s national health insurance scheme, is set for its biggest boost in funding since its creation half a century ago, as both major political parties promise billions ahead of this year’s federal election. The incumbent Labor government, led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, announced an AU$8.5 billion … Continue reading Australian politicians promise billions for healthcare

Outback Starman

February 25, 2025No Comments

From Australian Geographic, 17 June 2024 It was the early 2000s, and Trevor Barry had just enrolled in a graduate certificate of science in astronomy at Swinburne University of Technology. The fact he hadn’t completed high school, let alone a university degree, proved only a minor impediment to enrolment for the already accomplished amateur astronomer. … Continue reading Outback Starman

Australian junior doctors protest working conditions

February 25, 2025No Comments

From Medscape Medical News, 14 February 2025: Junior doctors in Australia’s largest state are on the brink of strike action over working conditions, after a hospital administrator derided them as “clinical marshmallows [sic]” in a leaked email. The email from an administrator at John Hunter Hospital in New Lambton Heights, Australia, was commenting on a … Continue reading Australian junior doctors protest working conditions

US censorship, funding cuts stymie Australian science research

February 17, 2025No Comments

From The Saturday Paper, 8 February 2025: In less than three weeks since he took office, United States President Donald Trump has thrown the global powerhouse of American science and medical research into disarray. The impact is spreading to Australian researchers, whose concerns range from their access to funding and ability to collaborate, to the … Continue reading US censorship, funding cuts stymie Australian science research

Australian public psychiatrists resign en masse

January 31, 2025No Comments

From Medscape, 22 January 2025: More than half of psychiatrists working in public mental health in Australia’s largest state have resigned in response to what they say is years of unresolved workforce shortages and underresourcing. The mass resignations encompass more than 180 of the nearly 300 psychiatrists in New South Wales. The clinicians left their … Continue reading Australian public psychiatrists resign en masse

The crisis in the NSW mental health system

January 19, 2025No Comments

From The Saturday Paper, 18 January 2025: Psychiatrist Prachi Brahmbhatt likens the current state of public mental healthcare in New South Wales to battlefield medicine. “When the clinical leader is so pushed that they don’t have time to stop and think about the decisions that they’re making… while you’re trying to do seven things at … Continue reading The crisis in the NSW mental health system

Planning to protect animals during natural disasters

December 11, 2024No Comments

From The Saturday Paper, 7 December 2024: A soot-smeared man clutches his dog and weeps in relief. A grazier stands defeated before a field strewn with dead cattle. A woman tries desperately to grab a koala picking its way through flaming debris. A fleeing kangaroo is silhouetted against an inferno. In every disaster, some of … Continue reading Planning to protect animals during natural disasters

‘Let things go feral’: how to do carbon-positive gardening in your own back yard

December 11, 2024No Comments

From the Guardian, 8 December 2024: My vegetable garden is a jungle. The grass is waist-high, the weeds have consumed my gardening tools and representatives from all classes of the animal kingdom – possibly also a jabberwocky – are enjoying a comfortable existence in there, eating my salad greens and each other. Letting things go … Continue reading ‘Let things go feral’: how to do carbon-positive gardening in your own back yard