The Health News Australia February 2 2018

• Health Minister Greg Hunt said the government would prioritise emerging medical research on genes and their functions, as he backed an innovation report designed to make Australia the healthiest nation in the world by 2030. The report released on Tuesday by Innovation and Science Australia makes 30 recommendations across five core areas, including education, industry, government, research and development, and culture and ambition, proposing the government adopt new “national missions” including better use of genomics and precision medicine.
• Australian researchers have found that half of all patients suffering from major spinal cord injuries still have surviving sensory nerve connections. Doctor Sylvia Gustin from Neuroscience Research Australia used cutting edge magnetic resonance imaging known as fMRI scans to record how twenty three people living with spinal injuries responded to touch. The scientists were surprised that many people who couldn’t feel the stimulation were still registering the touch in their brains.
• Tasmanians are waiting longer for ambulances than people in any other state or territory, with the average response time ballooning to more than half an hour. The Northern Territory at 25 minutes had the 2nd longest wait for an ambulance during code one emergencies in 2016 and 2017, according to a Productivity Commission report released on Tuesday.

News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 2nd of February 2018. Read by Tabetha Moreto.

http://www.afr.com/news/health-minister-greg-hunt-backs-genomics-as-great-personal-passion-20180129-h0qb0o

Health Minister Greg Hunt said the government would prioritise emerging medical research on genes and their functions, as he backed an innovation report designed to make Australia the healthiest nation in the world by two thousand thirty. The report released on Tuesday by Innovation and Science Australia makes thirty recommendations across five core areas, including education, industry, government, research and development, and culture and ambition, proposing the government adopt new “national missions” including better use of genomics and precision medicine.

Innovation Science Australia chairman Bill Ferris said a new focus on the emerging medical discipline of genomics could help in earlier diagnoses for Australians, as well as better prevention strategies and new treatments for rare diseases. Mister Hunt welcomed the finding and said he had been deeply engaged with the field of genomics since becoming Health Minister. Genomics addresses genes and their inter-relationships within the body, part of efforts to better identify their influence on how organisms grow and develop.

Groups including the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, World Health Organisation and US National Academies of Sciences are advancing research and development in the field of genomics, across fields including oncology, pharmacology and infectious diseases.
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Building on the Turnbull government’s December two thousand fifteen national innovation and science agenda, the report notes Australia’s average life expectancy of eighty two point five years is currently the sixth highest in the world, despite health expenditure of only four thousand four hundred ninety three US dollars per person, the fourteenth-highest level globally.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-31/spinal-cord-study-breakthrough/9376808

Australian researchers have found that half of all patients suffering from major spinal cord injuries still have surviving sensory nerve connections. Doctor Sylvia Gustin from Neuroscience Research Australia used cutting edge magnetic resonance imaging known as fMRI scans to record how twenty three people living with spinal injuries responded to touch.

The scientists were surprised that many people who couldn’t feel the stimulation were still registering the touch in their brains. Doctor Gustin said: “We found using functional MRI, activity in the brain was detected in forty eight percent of people with clinically complete spinal cord injury.”
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Doctor Gustin said the discovery offers cautious new hope to patients who may have been told they will never walk again.
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Researchers would also like to see all new spinal cord injury patients offered similar MRI scans of the brain, to see what areas remain active. The research is a collaboration between Neuroscience Research Australia, the Pain Management Research Institute, and the University of Sydney and was published in the journal Human Brain Mapping.

https://healthtimes.com.au/hub/paramedics/15/news/aap/report-shows-tasmanians-are-waiting-longer-for-ambulances/3141/

Tasmanians are waiting longer for ambulances than people in any other state or territory, with the average response time ballooning to more than half an hour. The Northern Territory at twenty five minutes had the second longest wait for an ambulance during code one emergencies in two thousand sixteen and two thousand seventeen, according to a Productivity Commission report released on Tuesday.

The report attributes Tasmania’s wait time rise from twenty six minutes in two thousand fifteen and two thousand sixteen to thirty one minutes in two thousand sixteen and two thousand seventeen to increased demand and the implementation of new computer-aided dispatch technology. Ambulances in the Australian Capital Territory had the quickest response time, at less than fifteen minutes, while Western Australia and Queensland were the next best on a statewide basis.

Victoria was ranked fifth despite improving for a fourth-straight year, slightly behind South Australia, where response times were almost nineteen minutes. New South Wales was third-slowest at twenty three minutes.
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Canberra had the shortest wait time, followed by Perth and Brisbane. A Council of Ambulance Authorities survey showed that patient satisfaction was high with ninety seven percent of Australians “very satisfied or satisfied” with ambulance services they received in the last twelve months.