Author: Staff Writer

Facts and figures:

The Good

• Reductions in premature deaths from illnesses and injuries such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and infant and congenital conditions.
• For the first time, living with illness or injury caused more total disease burden than premature death.
• In 2015, the non-fatal share was 50.4% and the fatal share was 49.6% of the burden of disease.

The Bad

• Australian’s lost 4.8 million years of healthy life due to living with or dying prematurely from disease and injury
• Diseases of most burden, were cancer, cardiovascular diseases, musculoskeletal conditions, mental and substance use disorders and injuries.
• The 5 risk factors that caused the most total burden in 2015 were tobacco use (9.3%), overweight & obesity (8.4%), dietary risks (7.3%), high blood pressure (5.8%) and high blood plasma glucose—including diabetes (4.7%).
• 38% of the total burden of disease could have been prevented by reducing exposure to these five risk factors.

The details:

The full report can be found at www.aihw.gov.au/reports/burden-of-disease/australian-burden-disease-study-methods-2015/contents/table-of-contents

What does it mean:

For patients

A mobile and website application will give patients access to their own information and from any location. Through the portal, patients will be able to see and manage any upcoming appointments, test results, and medications that have been prescribed.

For general practitioners

With consent, will be able to access and amended patient information from anywhere,

The details

The Royal Melbourne’s Emergency Department will be the first to move to the new EMR on 30 June this year. All other areas at RMH, Peter Mac and the Women’s will start using the new EMR on 2 May 2020.

Further details on the company Epic can be found at www.epic.com

Facts and figures:

The study published in the New England Journal of Medicine ran for five years and involved 76 children and young adults at very high risk of developing type 1 diabetes.

‘Teplizumab’ delayed the onset of diabetes by two years.

The Royal Melbourne Hospital is one of 28 sites that participated in the study conducted by TrialNet, the largest clinical trial network ever assembled to discover ways to delay and prevent type 1 diabetes.

This trial is being run in conjunction with several others that will likely have major changes for diabetes worldwide.

Ask the expert:

The Royal Melbourne Hospital’s Associate Professor John Wentworth

“We have known for over 3 decades how to identify children who are destined to develop type 1 diabetes. Now, for the first time, we have something that will improve their prospects and delay the need to start insulin injections to control blood sugar levels.”

“These results are incredibly encouraging.”

The details:

For more information about current Australian clinical trials can be found at www.diabetesresearchcentre.org.au/clinical-trials

More information about TrialNet can be found at www.trialnet.org

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The list:

From New South Wales:

• Mr Warwick Plunkett
• Mrs Carlene Smith
• Ms Juliet Seifert
• Mr David North
• Mrs Dianne North

From Queensland:

• Emeritus Professor Maree Therese Smith
• Ms Catherine Reid

Ask the expert:

PSA National President Dr Chris Freeman

“I sincerely congratulate all of today’s Queen’s Birthday Honours recipients and thank them for their ongoing service to the pharmacy profession and their local communities,”

The details:

Further details of achievements and a full list of the Queen’s Birthday Honours is available on the Governor-General’s website.

https://www.gg.gov.au/queens-birthday-2019-honours-list

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