Please find attached the fabulous article in yesterday’s Port Macquarie News featuring Prof Zardawi.
This reporter will also be attending our welcome reception on May 1st, so hopefully Ibrahim and Laverty will receive another great media grab.
Click here to download the article >> Port News -Prof Zardawi 170413
Australia and New Zealand are among the best places in the world to be diagnosed with prostate cancer, according to a visiting US professor who says aggressive treatment is being avoided in many cases.
In many countries, a diagnosis of prostate cancer almost always leads to removal or radiation therapy. In Australia and New Zealand, however, many low-risk patients are being managed by active surveillance.This means they are monitored with regular blood tests, biopsies and MRIs and aggressive action is taken only if the disease becomes life-threatening. Visiting American professor James Eastham, who will address urologists at a conference in Melbourne on Monday, is full of praise for his colleagues in Australia and New Zealand. He says about one in three men who are newly diagnosed with prostate cancer are candidates for active surveillance. In Australia and New Zealand, about half of these are managed with active surveillance. This is well ahead of the US, where only about 10 per cent of eligible patients are managed by active surveillance. This leads to over-treatment. ‘I’m impressed. This is not the traditional way of treating cancer,’ said Prof Eastham, from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York. He will reassure the annual scientific meeting of the Urological Society of Australia and New Zealand that the latest research from around the world suggests active surveillance is a safe and effective way to manage patients. ‘It maximises quality of life without compromising quantity of life.’ Prof Eastham also agrees with the society’s position on screening men at the age of 40. ‘We know testing saves lives,’ he says.
Twitter may help prevent heart disease, according to a new Australian study.
The fast and far-reaching way that information spreads through the social network has the potential to save lives by providing education about the illness, which the Heart Foundation says kills one Australian every 12 minutes.
A group of researchers from the University of Sydney reached that conclusion after studying 15 health-focused Twitter accounts with more than one million followers, nine professional organisations and six medical journals.
‘The study showed that, through its inherent networking, social media sites like Twitter have the potential to enhance education, awareness and overall management of cardiovascular disease,’ the university said in a statement.
The findings were published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology on Tuesday.
‘The popularity and rise of Twitter has made it a readily available, free, and user-friendly tool to disseminate information rapidly to a diverse audience, for example, to engage health professionals and heart attack survivors,’ said lead author, Associate Professor Julie Redfern.
‘In recent years, a growing number of health professionals have been using social media to share information.
‘In a survey of 485 oncologists and physicians, 24 per cent used social media at least daily to scan or explore medical information.’
Senior author Professor Chris Semsarian pointed to recent studies which suggested Twitter also spreads key information about quitting smoking and managing epileptic seizures.
MEDICAL centre owner Primary Health Care has lifted its first-half profit by 50 per cent and forecast a rise in its full-year earnings of up to eight per cent.
Primary Health Care made a net profit of $69.5 million in the six months to December 31, up from $46.3 million in the same period in the previous year. Earnings and profit margins continued to grow in the six months to December, despite GP patient numbers remaining weak due to the cautious economic mood, Primary Health Care said.
The company also operates pathology and imaging centres, where earnings and margins also improved over the six months to December 31, it said. The company’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in the six months to December 31 were $186.1 million, up 12 per cent on the previous corresponding period. It expects EBITDA for the year to June 30 to be in the range of $370 million and $380 million, which compares to the previous year’s $351.1 million.
“Strong underlying demand and a high quality, extensive infrastructure footprint should continue to provide revenue growth, while further benefits from economies of scale and operating efficiencies are expected to result in EPS (earnings per share) growth for the year to 30 June 2013 of 20 to 25 per cent,” Dr Bateman said today.
Primary Health Care declared a fully-franked interim dividend of 6.5 cents per share, up from five cents at the same time in the previous year.
Laverty pathology 