The News – 15 July 2014

Overview

  • UNSW Australia has awarded a Doctor of Science (DSc) to Garvan’s Professor Ted Kraegen. The degree is accorded in recognition of a body of work that has made a significant contribution to a field of knowledge.
  • The Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service (GCHHS) has revealed that about 48,000 patient X-rays have not been reviewed by a radiologist.
  • Health services need to have a greater awareness of the warning signs to prevent more children being killed by their parents, according to researchers from Monash University.


Stories Discussed
News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 15th July 2014. Read by Rebecca Foster.

http://www.garvan.org.au/news-events/news/professor-ted-kraegen-awarded-doctor-of-science-by-unsw-australia

UNSW Australia has awarded a Doctor of Science (DSc) to Garvan’s Professor Ted Kraegen. The degree is accorded in recognition of a body of work that has made a significant contribution to a field of knowledge.

In a career that has spanned over 45 years at Garvan alone, Professor Kraegen has furthered our understanding of the physiology and biochemistry of the action of the hormone insulin, and the metabolic disturbance underlying type 2 diabetes.

His submitted body of work contains over 140 publications that profile the mechanisms modulating insulin action – representing many highly-cited peer-reviewed research breakthroughs.

 Among his many achievements, he was one of the first in the world to develop – for experimental purposes – an artificial pancreas that worked in people with type 1 diabetes. He also played a significant role in a team that initiated low dose intravenous insulin infusion for treatment of human ketoacidosis, a life-threatening complication in people with diabetes; this approach helped bring down the mortality rate in that condition from 12% to 3%. 

Kraegen is honoured to receive the DSc …

The Doctor of Science degree requires contenders to provide a dissertation on their work, including the papers they are forwarding for consideration.

… Kraegen has retired from his formal duties at Garvan, although he will “still continue to be involved, more on a consultative basis”.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-07-14/queensland-health-reveals-thousands-of-x-rays-lacked-review/5595162

The Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service (GCHHS) has revealed that about 48,000 patient X-rays have not been reviewed by a radiologist.

In what Queensland Health Minister Lawrence Springborg called a “systemic failure”, these cases missed out on formal reporting and diagnostic review by X-ray specialists.

Mr Springborg said the board uncovered the problem last Thursday and immediately referred the matter to the Minister, urging him to appoint an independent expert to review issues associated with the backlog.

The Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service chief executive Ron Calvert said two Gold Coast patients had been adversely affected, but he would not give details on the severity of the cases.

Mr Calvert said there was a very low overall risk to patients, but acknowledged the situation was unacceptable.

Mr Springborg said the “systemic failure” would have continued without intervention by the board.

He said initial inquiries revealed endemic trouble with the reporting network prior to September 2013.

Mr Springborg said he was committed to open and transparent reporting of issues and problems in the health system.

The head of the committee overseeing patient quality and safety, Collette McCool, said GCHHS board members had been aware there was a problem for some time but the magnitude came as a surprise.

The Minister said The Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service had proposed a three-part response to the problem, which would be implemented in full.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-23/health-services-need-to-heed-the-warning-signs-of-filicide/5406938

Health services need to have a greater awareness of the warning signs to prevent more children being killed by their parents, according to researchers from Monash University.

The call comes after the deaths of sisters Savannah, 4, and Indianna, 3, at Watsonia on Sunday and just two monthsafter Luke Batty, 11, was killed by his father at a Mornington Peninsula cricket oval.

Professor Thea Brown was part of a Monash research team that found 52 children were killed at the hands of their biological parents or stepfathers between 2000 and 2009.

While the rate of filicide (when parents murder a child) remains steady, other types of domestic murders are on the decline.

Professor Brown says mental illness and separation from their partner were common factors among parents who kill their own children.

She says perpetrators have often talked about wanting to kill their children, or expressed empathy for others who have killed in the past.

“We have found from our study that (they) do give a warning and they do talk to people about it,” Professor Brown said.

“But in the main, people don’t understand what’s being said to them or take it very seriously.”

She said these parents were often seeking help from a GP and psychiatric services before they killed their children and health workers needed to take warning signs more seriously.

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