In the lead up to the Australian Federal Budget in May 2023, Australian Health Journal reached out to peak health industry bodies to hear about their priorities, either noted in pre-budget submissions lodged with Federal Government in January 2023 or in recent forums such as the Strengthening Medicare Taskforce.
Others have stated their priorities directly with Federal Government. Through these interviews, AHJ gives a final opportunity to communicate to all health stakeholders, the funding needs for a range of priorities. These range from new models of care to pilots and wholesale, system improvements to building more sustainable workforces to help grow certain sectors of the health system
The President of the Australasian Association of Nuclear Medicine Specialists (AANMS), Associate Professor Sze Ting Lee spoke with Australian Health Journal about the following:
- Usual levels of nuclear medicine services in Australia each year
- Current levels of nuclear medicine services in Australia
- How changing demographics in people moving to regional areas has impacted access to nuclear medicine services
- The nuclear medicine workforce including trainees
- Key recommendation from the pre-budget submission
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Specialist physiotherapist successfully mixes online & in-person
Dr. Kieran Richardson (FACP) is a Specialist Physiotherapist, conferred by the Australian College of Physiotherapists (Australian Physiotherapy Association) in 2016. Dr Richardson is the Director of Global Specialist Physiotherapy, a consultancy company providing online Formal Mentoring and Professional Development individual clinicians, clinics, and groups, as well as Second Opinions to clinicians and directly to patients all around the world.
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Nuclear medicine funding a win for men with prostate cancer
Australian men with higher risk prostate cancer now have access to a nuclear medicine scan to help detect and treat metastatic disease, after it was listed on the Medical Benefits Schedule (MBS) from 1st July 2022.
In 2021 over 18,000 Australian men were diagnosed with prostate cancer, resulting in over 3,000 lives being lost – and making prostate cancer Australia’s second most common cause of cancer death in men.
Australian Health Journal spoke with AANMS President Associate Professor Sze Ting Lee and Dr Geoff Schembri on the MBS listing and the efforts to get it listed.
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Smart technology in wound care
Throughout her journey around wound care, Santosh Kaur was frustrated to see the simple gaps in wound care resulting in negative patient outcomes. Santosh is the founder of SmartHeal which launched in 2020.
SmartHeal replaces the nurses taking cumbersome manual measurements and manual sharing of important wound data with a no touch technique. It aims for healthcare professionals to have live remote access to wound data, make wound assessments and assist with speech to text notes thus saving time, cost and people. SmartHeal also aims to assist healthcare professionals in providing optimum wound care by analysing the wound tissue for infection, moisture and providing suggestions for suitable dressing.
