Health in the news (updated 25 October)

An idiosyncratic round of health news.

25 October

A Novel Approach to Alzheimer’s Treatment

Researchers have identified a new protein pathway that plays a crucial role in the development of Alzheimer’s disease. By targeting this pathway, early studies show promising results in reducing amyloid plaque buildup and improving cognitive function in animal models. This discovery opens the door for entirely new therapeutic strategies.

 CRISPR Gene Editing for Genetic Blindness Reaches Human Trials

Following years of preclinical success, a groundbreaking CRISPR-based therapy for a specific form of inherited blindness has officially entered human clinical trials. Initial reports from a small cohort of patients are encouraging, with some experiencing partial restoration of vision. This marks a significant milestone for gene-editing technologies in ophthalmology.

 AI-Powered Diagnostics for Early Cancer Detection

A new artificial intelligence algorithm has demonstrated unprecedented accuracy in detecting early-stage pancreatic cancer from routine imaging scans. This AI tool, trained on a massive dataset of patient images, could revolutionize screening protocols and dramatically improve survival rates for a notoriously aggressive cancer.

 Understanding the Link Between Sleep and Mental Health

New research has unveiled a direct molecular link between chronic sleep deprivation and increased risk of depression and anxiety. The study pinpointed specific brain circuits that are disrupted by insufficient sleep, offering new targets for interventions aimed at improving both sleep quality and mental well-being.

Major Expansion of Medicare Bulk Billing Incentives 🩺

The most significant and topical announcement involves the expansion of bulk billing incentives, effective from November 1, 2025. This aims to make GP visits cheaper and easier by:

• Extending Eligibility: The expanded incentives will cover an additional 15 million Australians, applying to most common GP services.
• New Incentives: Introducing the Bulk Billing Practice Incentive Program to encourage entire general practices to transition to a full bulk billing model. The government’s goal is to have nine out of ten GP visits bulk billed by 2030.

Implementation of the New Aged Care Act and “Support at Home” Program 🏡

The commencement of the new Aged Care Act 2024 and the replacement of the Home Care Packages Program with the new Support at Home Program on November 1, 2025, has generated substantial political and public attention due to the sweeping changes involved:

• New Program Structure: The “Support at Home” program will replace the existing system, aiming to offer improved access to services, products, and equipment for older Australians to remain in their homes.
• Funding Changes: New fee structures will take effect, which change how individuals’ contributions are calculated, ensuring a more balanced and sustainable funding system.

3 June 2025

Misogyny in cancer research and treatment

The Lancet Commission on Women, Power and Cancer has found that in many countries, women are more likely than men to lack knowledge and the power to make cancer-related decisions and are more likely to risk financial catastrophe from cancer. Men dominate cancer research, clinical care and policy-making. Women are underrepresented as leaders and often experience gender based discrimination including bullying and sexual harassment. They also found that women are over-represented in unpaid care for cancer. The Commission recommends systematic reform of cancer data collection, monitoring, and research and the implementation of policies and strategies to better inform women about cancer risks and treatment and eliminate discrimination and abuse of women who work in cancer research and care. The Commission’s work is consistent with the medical misogyny series being run in the Age and the Sydney Morning Herald.

Are we over medicating for cardiovascular prevention?

A study of over 2 million people in the UK published in The Lancet suggests that preventive medication for stroke and heart disease is probably unnecessary for about a third of people taking them who are very unlikely to have a stroke or heart attack. Even for people with type 1 diabetes, it is may not be worth it for a quarter of those taking preventive medication. The study compared predictions of outcomes for the QRisk screening tool commonly used for determining cardiovascular risk in the UK with an AI based risk prevention prediction (TRisk) and found the QRisk tool tends to over estimate risk. It’s unclear how this finding would translate to Australia, where the Aus CVD Risk calculator is more commonly used. The Lancet study highlights a broader trend: the increasing use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning in medicine.

NB 1.8.1 has arrived

A new more catchable COVID variant (NB 1.8.1) has arrived. Luckily it doesn’t appear to cause more severe disease. Even so it is causing a significant up tick in infections and hospital presentations. It is particularly a problem for older people. The more recent vaccines are expected to remain effective in reducing the risk of infection and severe disease.

27 May 2025

Is it the beginning of the end for Australian private hospitals?

The Healthscope private hospital, Australia’s second largest hospital chain, after Ramsay Healthcare, has collapsed and is now in the hands of the receivers. Owned by private equity company Brookfield, Healthscope is promising to maintain its commitments to patients (and presumably clinicians) and loan funds are being tipped in by the Commonwealth Bank as well to make sure they stay afloat. But the bigger question is whether the cost pressures and staffing shortages faced by Healthscope and the ongoing war between private health insurers and private hospitals are now endemic across the sector. Add to that the blatant gouging by a significant proportion of specialists and its no wonder there are problems.

Norman, Rebel and Adele caught in Deep Fake supplement videos

AI generated replicas of Health Report presenter Norman Swann, Rebel Wilson and Adele have been used in Deep Fake videos to promote unproven health and weight loss supplements. Not surprisingly, Norman is annoyed. Those who know and love Norman (and Rebel) will pick that it’s AI generated, but it’s good enough that lots of people won’t. Deep Fakes are now a serious problem and despite good intentions, government hasn’t kept up. An irritated Norman and a significant number of people who have been ripped off may add some encouragement to address the problem.

RFK makes his first serious foray on health with report on chronic disease and children

US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy has released his MAHA commission report: Making Our Children Healthy Again. The 68 page report sets out the sorry state of children’s health in the United States. Amongst other things the report notes that about 20 per cent of US children are obese; childhood diabetes and cardiovascular risks are increasing; autism diagnoses have increased six fold; teenage suicides are up; auto immune disease is up; and diagnoses of ADHD have spiked. The report identifies four potential drivers of the increase in chronic disease: poor diet and the increase in ultra processed foods; exposure to environmental chemicals; lack of physical activity and chronic stress; and over medicalization. The report is a scene setter for what the Trump administration intends to do to address the problem. . Further work is under way to set out the Trump administration’s response. But the farmers and food industry are already circling the wagons. On the other hand public health advocates have welcomed the report. Whatever your views on Trump and RFK there is not much doubt that something is going very seriously wrong for the health and well-being of children and adolescents and that past administrations have done little about it.

Are GP Management Plans for Chronic Disease worth having?

Nearly half the population now has one or more chronic diseases. Most require a combination of self management and clinical support to reduce the impact of chronic disease on life expectancy and quality of life. GP management plans were introduced more than two decades ago to better coordinate treatment and support for chronic conditions. Over $400 million per year is now spent on them. In practice they are a payment model for GPs to prepare a plan, make referrals to nursing and allied health and monitor progress using a series of items on the medicare schedule. Overall, the Chronic Disease Management items cost more than $1 billion per year. There are plenty of criticisms of this bureaucratic, finance driven model. In practice coordination between GPs, specialists, hospitals and allied health remains poor and the evidence that GP management plans have much impact on health outcomes is mixed. In response the Commonwealth will streamline and simplify the payment, planning and referral arrangements from July 1. Time will tell if this makes much difference to outcomes.

20 May 2025

Don’t dream it … be it! (apologies to Rocky Horror)

Ever wondered why music seems to have a visceral effect? It might be because your body actually physically resonates with it, according to Neural Resonance Theory. Essentially, the body has metrical pulse and rhythmic structures that synchronise with and predict music. So maybe we don’t just listen to music, we become the music. This might have implications for music therapy, the way music is taught and cross cultural music research.

Potassium anyone?

We still eat too much salt resulting in hypertension, stroke and cardiovascular disease. The World Health Organisation estimates that nearly 2 million people each year die from the effects of too much sodium. Instead WHO recommends we switch from regular (sodium chloride) to potassium enriched salt to reduce these risks. That can be difficult if you’re keen on processed food. On average it contributes two thirds of our excessive salt intake. Avoiding processed food and substituting potassium for sodium chloride is the way to go.

Notes on the weight loss war

The obesity wars are raging. Should everyone who is overweight or obese simply pump up their insulin with semaglutide to lose weight or should we reform the food supply? Which drug is best? Should we subsidise weight loss drugs? Not surprisingly, the two thirds of punters who are overweight have made up their mind. Ozempic, Weygovy, and Mounjaro are in demand. But there two known and one unknown problems with these drugs . First, 15% of those who take the drug don’t lose weight and not everyone who uses them loses all the weight they’d like to. Second, if you stop taking them you have a 95% chance of regaining the weight. Finally, it’s too soon to tell if drugs result in any serious adverse effects with long term use.

Is AI better than GP?

What is HDL and LDL and what level of HDL and LDL should I aim for? We used to google these questions, but the google answers are general and often either too technical or too simplistic to be useful. Now people are turning to AI tools like Gemini and ChatGPT, where you can tailor the question depending on the answer and who you are (e.g. which statin would be best if I’m a 50 year old overweight woman with atherosclerosis and what level of LDL and HDL should I aim for?). About 10 percent of us had used ChatGPT to ask a health question in 2024, mostly to check out symptoms and conditions, medical terms and treatment. No doubt there are risks, and ‘talk to your GP’ remains the go to advice, but soon everyone will be doing it.

2 May 2025

Ketamine for depression now available

A form of ketamine (Esketamine) will now be available for ‘treatment resistant’ depression through the PBS. Originally used as an anesthetic it will be available as a nasal spray for patients who have tried two different anti depressants without success. But don’t get too excited, the most recent systematic review in the American Journal of Psychiatry finds that its effects for treatment resistant depression are only weak with potentially risky side effects. It will need to be watched closely.

Canary in the Coal Mine: Justice system contact and early death for young people

A study of nearly 50,000 young people who had contact with the justice system in Queensland published in the Lancet has found these young people are 4 times more likely to die than the average for people their age over an average period of 13 years. This does not mean the justice system caused the deaths. The vast majority of deaths occurred in the community from suicide, vehicle accidents and overdoses. But it does mean young peope who have contact with the justice system are vulnerable. Prevention of deaths in custody is important, but much more support in the community is needed if the death rate is going to be prevented.

Eat crap and die

Eat enough ultra processed food and you’re likely to significantly increase your chance of dying prematurely. UPF is defined by the highlyindustrialised processing of food with the addition of, sugar, salt, fat, artificial ingredients, preservatives and so on. A major systematic review has found that for each additional 10% of ultra processed food you eat you increase your chance of death by 2.7%. About 14% of premature deaths in the UK and the US were attributed to ultra processed food. More grist to the mill, so to speak.

Laboratory grown tooth anyone?

Unlike sharks and crocodiles humans don’t regrow lost teeth. We end up with a crude mix of fillings, implants and prosthetics instead. The search for a better way is on going. Now researchers at Kings College have grown a tooth in the laboratory. Basically, they have figured out how to get cells to become a tooth cell. This is a novel first step, but it will be a while, if ever, before your dentist helps you regrow your own teeth.

Floods cause rise in serious infections in Queensland

Before widespread use of antibiotics serious infections generally resulted in draining the pus, cutting the flesh and burying the dead. Then we had the ‘golden age of antibiotics’ from about 1940 to the 1960s. Now we are seeing the rise of antibiotic resistance and infections that are hard to treat. The recent outbreak of melioidosis in Queensland following their floods is a case in point. Melioidosis is a soil and water borne bacteria that can cause severe infections and can be tough to treat. So far there have been 28 deaths from around 200 infections. Climate change is exacerbating the problem. A timely reminder of new and emerging health issues.

29 March 2025

Big boost for GPs to fix bulk billing

Labor has promised to put $8.5 billion into fixing bulk billing. Medicare is now an untouchable political icon, and not surprisingly, the Coalition immediately matched it. Bulk billing rates have fallen to below 80%, and less than 50% of GP patients are bulk billed for all their consultations. Out-of-pocket costs for a standard GP visit are now typically $40-50 The situation is much worse for specialists, where you can be charged two or three times the Medicare rebate. Labor’s initiative is to increase the incentives for bulk billing so that GPs who bulk bill a consultation will get around $27 more for a standard consultation if they bulk bill and a further 12.5% of the total if their practice agrees to bulk bill all patients for all services. More again if it’s a rural practice. The aim is to get bulk billing to 90%. Will it work?

Good bye to the NHS

It may have passed you by that one of the world’s largest quasi-government organisations, The National Health Service, England, has been abolished by the UK government. Imagine if Trump rather than Starmer had done that! Long eulogised and simultaneously criticised as the paragon of centralised health systems, the plan is to move the policy and regulatory functions back into the Department of Health and Social Care and devolve the operational responsibility for delivering health services to localised health services, including integrated care boards and NHS trusts. It will be interesting to see if this leads to some rethinking in Australia’s (fragmented health) system.

“To disssect or not to dissect” that is the question

Dissecting bodies has long been a mainstay of medical education, including the odd student keeling over, but have contemporary technologies reached the point where dissection is old hat? And the answer is …. maybe.

Weighty decisions for those with long term conditions

The UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) thinks that if you have a long term health problem including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, dyslipidaemia, heart failure, learning disability, obstructive sleep apnoea, peripheral arterial disease, polycystic ovary syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or other psychoses, and stroke or transient ischaemic attack you should have your weight checked annually. If you’re overweight, and two thirds of us are, then the recommendation is that you get ‘wrap around care’ focusing on diet, nutrition and physical activity. This is clearly not happening very effectively in Australian general practice.

CALD vs CARM: how should we describe diversity?

We used to use Non English Speaking Background (NESB). Mostly, we now use the term Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD). There is a debate about using Culturally and Racially Marginalized (CARM) instead. Or should we use more nuanced and specific descriptions?

Get skinnier by going shopping

As the population gets more over-weight, the fashion industry has decided to keep us happy by increasing the volume of their sizes. You may once have been a 36, but, depending on the brand, you might wonderfully now find yourself a 34. Alternatively, despite those extra kilos that you know you’ve put on, you might still be a 36 (whew). Vanity sizing, designed to make you feel better about being porky, means ‘one size fits none‘.

Measles on the loose, or is that lose, in the lone star state

As of the 29th of March, there are now 400 cases of measles in Texas and rising. Measles is highly contagious and can have very serious adverse outcomes. The Measles, Mumps and Rubella vaccine (MMR) is highly effective in preventing measles, but vaccination rates have fallen in Texas as the anti vaxxer dogma spreads, not helped by the appointment of the US Secretary for Health Robert Kennedy Jnr. It’s early days, but the measles trend may be spreading to Australia as well.

Fluoride bites the dust in Utah

In the new era of anti-science, despite calls not to from every responsible health body, including the American Dental Association, the Governor of Utah Republican, Spencer Cox, has signed a law banning the addition of fluoride to water supplies in Utah. This comes despite the widespread consensus that having adequate fluoride in the water supply dramatically reduces the incidence of tooth decay. Yes there are debates about adverse effects, but the overwhelming evidence is that the benefits significantly outweigh the risks. This is another US trend that may well influence the Australian debate.