Opinions

Artificial intelligence (AI) is moving rapidly from promise to practice in Australian health care. While the potential of AI in medicine has been recognised for a number of years now, technologies such as scribes have now become ubiquitous. This transformation into AI-augmented practice extends well beyond medicine, with nursing care and allied health applications emerging on the near horizon too. 

Tracy Pickett, Mark Woodrow, Steve Robson

Over the last 30 years, there have been significant advances in our understanding of ‘complex trauma’ — repeated ongoing and often extreme interpersonal violence, abuse and neglect, occurring at any life stage or over multiple stages. People experiencing the impacts of complex trauma benefit from medical practice which is trauma-informed.

Cathy Kezelman

A recently released report by the Lancet Psychiatry Physical Health Commission highlights how prescribers and patients can make evidence-based decisions in maximising benefit and minimising side-effects from psychiatric medications.

Sean Halstead, Dan Siskind

At the Medical Deans of Australia New Zealand (MDANZ) Conference on September 4-5 in Newcastle, data from the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) and Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM) was presented, analysing the association between medical school graduation and entry into general practice and rural generalist (GP/RG) training in 2025.

Michael Wright, Rod Martin

Maintaining treatment in the community, minimising admissions  to hospital and shorter lengths of stay are common goals of community treatment orders. However, there is mounting evidence that too many people placed on these orders don’t experience these potential benefits. We found that any decreases in readmissions or the length of hospital stay mainly occur in people with non-affective psychoses such as schizophrenia, schizo-affective disorder and drug induced psychoses even though people with many other diagnoses are also placed on orders. The disparities in the use of these orders raise concerns over equity and whether untargeted application could be doing more harm than good.

Steve Kisely, Claudia Bull, Tessa Zirnsak, Lisa Brophy

New guidelines on what to eat and drink if you have chronic (long-term) constipation have been making news in recent days.

Vincent Ho

Recent legislation mandated uploading of radiology results to My Health Record. The currently implemented approach imposes a 7-day delay in the patient accessing their results. This article suggests re-examining the benefits and risks of such a delay.

Stephen Duckett, Sarah Duckett

A diverse group of health system organisations from across Australia are sharing their knowledge and expertise of what works in reducing health care emissions, and where to focus next.

Angie Bone, Jessica Fritze, Kristin Michaels, Kate O’Hara

In 2022–23, more than 84 000 Australians were hospitalised for sepsis, and over 12 000 died. This is far higher than previous estimates of 55 000 cases a year and confirms what many of us see on the frontline: sepsis is more widespread, deadly and costly than previously understood.

Carolyn Hullick