The Australian and New Zealand Governments have signed a Treaty to establish a single, bi-national agency to regulate therapeutic products, including medical devices and prescription, over-the-counter and complementary medicines.
12/12/2003
The full bench of the Federal Court in Sydney has dismissed an appeal brought by the distributor of a faulty heart pacemaker. Earlier this year, the Federal Court awarded compensation to 70-year-old Kevin Courtney for his pain and suffering, after he had the Tempo pacemaker removed two years ago.
09/07/2003
While iPod MP3 players do not interfere with pacemakers or implantable cardioverter-defibrillators, their headphones can, according to research presented at the AHA annual scientific sessions.
12/11/2008
Australia needs a national registry to monitor the use of drug-eluting coronary stents to better assess concerns about the risk of late-stent thrombosis, experts say.
05/03/2007
Results of the Multicenter InSync Randomized Clinical Evaluation Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (MIRACLE ICD) study have been published in this week's JAMA. The trial, which examined the safety and efficacy of combined cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) and ICD therapy in patients with moderate to severe heart failure and life-threatening arrhythmias, found that combination CRT-ICD therapy improved six-month quality of life, functional status, and exercise capacity compared with th
30/05/2003
Under a change to the Therapeutic Goods Advertising Code health professionals will no longer be allowed to endorse therapeutic products in advertisements direct to consumers.
15/02/2007
A series of studies published in JAMA have concluded that implantable cardioverter-defibrillators are much more likely than pacemakers to malfunction.Source: Maisel W et al. Maisel W. Gould P et al. JAMA 2006; 295:1901-1906, 1929-1934,1907-1911.
02/05/2006
Makers of counterfeit drugs beware: your fake products can now be detected while still in the packaging, making them much easier to intercept.
15/02/2007
There is little need to restrict mobile phone use in hospitals except within 1 metre of sensitive medical equipment, a systematic review in the Medical Journal of Australia has concluded.
05/08/2004
A requirement by leading medical journals for clinical trials to be registered before their results can be published has been an outstanding success and changed the culture of the research community, their editors have claimed.Source: Laine, C. et al. Medical Journal of Australia 2007, published online.
10/06/2007
Over 80% of interventional cardiologists in New York State admit that their decision to perform angioplasty on riskier patients is influenced by the publication of mortality data.Source: Narins, C. et al. Arch Intern Med 2005, 165:83-87.
17/01/2005
The health problems of people with intellectual disabilities are sometimes challenging for health professionals but often remain unrecognised and unmet, according to a review.
Source: van Schrojenstein Lantman-de Walk, H. et al. BMJ Online First, published online.
11/12/2008
A device that sounds like a 21st-century version of a medicinal leech may soon be set loose inside the chests of heart patients. Resembling a robotic caterpillar, it will crawl across the surface of their beating heart, delivering treatment without the need for major surgery.
27/04/2007
Performing cardiac catheterization and revascularization early appears to be a better option than more conservative treatment for patients age 65 and above with unstable coronary artery disease, investigators report in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
06/08/2004
Self-testing of INR at home is as safe as conventional monitoring and could be a viable alternative for some patients, a large study suggests.
02/12/2008
The ACC and the AHA have issued new heart failure management guidelines. The updated guidelines emphasize early diagnosis by classifying the condition in stages and also change the name of the condition from congestive heart failure to heart failure to reflect the broad spectrum of the disease.Source: Hunt, S. et al. 2005, ACC/AHA practice guideline.
30/08/2005