The Medical Journal of Australia

Osteoporosis is frequently known as a silent disease because symptoms often don’t show up until there’s a bone fracture.

In this episode, we talk about the importance of building better bone health over your lifetime and why screening and detection are so important.

We also talk about fracture prevention and treatment of Osteoporosis.

This podcast is brought to you by Sandoz Australia - pioneering access for patients.

To talk about osteoporosis is Dr Queenie Luu who is a clinical rheumatologist in public and private practice. She launched the Osteoporosis Refracture Prevention and DEXA service at Canterbury hospital and she joins me now.

Emergency laparotomies are performed on thousands of Australians each year for critical conditions like bowel obstruction and peritonitis. It’s a high-risk procedure with a mortality rate of 6.9%.
 
Now, for the first time in Australia, a national clinical care standard has been published by Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care. It’s to support clinicians and healthcare services to deliver best care and improve patient outcomes.
 
To talk to us about the standard is Professor David Watters AM OBE. He is a Distinguished (Alfred Deakin) Professor at Deakin University and Barwon Health, and Director of Surgery at Safer Care Victoria. I’m also joined by Dr Chuan-Whei Lee, Staff Specialist and Joint Clinical Lead of Perioperative Medicine at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, and Clinical Senior Lecturer in the Department of Critical Care at the University of Melbourne.

“The MJA acknowledges the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the land on which we live and work across Australia.  This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Wangal people. I pay my respects to their Elders past and present.”

My name is Sally Block, the MJA’s news and online editor.
 
“The MJA acknowledges the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the land on which we live and work across Australia.  This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Wangal people. I pay my respects to their Elders past and present.”
 
With the proliferation of GLP 1s globally, a new study published in the MJA aims to provide an estimate of the number of adults eligible for TGA approved medicine for chronic weight management.
 
At least four in ten adults are eligible for the drug and hundreds of thousands are eligible for the treatment of secondary prevention of heart disease.
 
Co-author and PhD candidate Jasmin Castrillon joins me now.

My name is Sally Block, the MJA’s news and online editor.

“The MJA acknowledges the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the land on which we live and work across Australia.  This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Wangal people. I pay my respects to their Elders past and present.”

The lung cancer screening program was introduced in July last year, designed to help with early intervention for Australia’s deadliest cancer. So how’s it faring?

To discuss this, our special guest today is Professor Fraser Brims who is a consultant respiratory physician at St Charles Gairdener Hospital and Curtin University in Perth.

He has written a perspective for the MJA on the program calling for more investment so it can reach it’s full potential. 

He joins me on this podcast.

This week we look at improving the health of children and young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples through participation.
 
“The MJA acknowledges the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the land on which we live and work across Australia.  This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Wangal people. I pay my respects to their Elders past and present.”
  
Dr Jordan Cory a Kamilaroi woman and Bonnie Dukakis a Gunditjmara woman who were co-authors of an MJA paper on participation of Indigenous children and young people to improve health and wellbeing. 
 
In this podcast, they talk to Sally Block about the paper and many other aspects of the health of young Indigenous peoples. Cultural safety is explored and described - as not another tick a box alongside fire training in an organisation - but an evolving commitment.

Ms Dukasis is the CEO of The Koori Youth Council in Melbourne and we find out what they are doing for Indigenous young people.