Public Health

A large retrospective study in Israel analysed almost 1.2 million singleton infants born between 2014 and 2023 and followed growth for up to 24 months. Researchers used standard measurements from publ...

At its December 2025 meeting, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee focused on vaccines. It recommended listing the Comirnaty Omicron XBB.1.5 Covid-19 vaccine on the National Immunisation Pro...

Healthdirect Australia conducted a trial of an AI driven virtual triage and care referral engine from Infermedica to act as a digital front door for care. The system assesses patient symptoms, triages...

Queensland will start offering intranasal flu vaccines to eligible children aged two to five from 1 March as part of the Nasal Spray Flu Immunisation Program. This marks Australia’s first needle-free...

From 2003 to 2022, ADHD medication use among Australian kids aged 5–17 rose dramatically. Prescriptions in the PBS system grew from about 20,100 users (0.5% of the youth population) to roughly 246,000...

UNSW Sydney’s National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre reports an accelerating rise in harm from gamma-hydroxybutyrate, or GHB, in Australia. While overall use remains low compared with drugs like MD...

The Victorian government plans to absorb VicHealth into the state health department to fix a budget gap. VicHealth is Australia’s first independent health promotion agency. It funded major campaigns l...

The Productivity Commission released the 2026 Report on Government Services, showing total government spend on general practice rose to 13.4 billion dollars in 2024 25, up from 12.7 billion in 2023 24...

A JAMA Network Open systematic review aggregates data from 19 studies published between 2000 and 2025 to show how melatonin is being used in children aged 0 to 6. The analysis finds a sharp rise in pr...

Curtin University researchers publish findings in Nutrition after surveying 317 students from five Australian universities with a median age of 20. Participants were grouped by gaming time: low 0–5 ho...

Victoria will allow virtual emergency department clinicians to issue ADHD medication scripts for patients who already have a diagnosis and a current treatment plan. The script can cover 30 days to six...

New Melbourne University research shows preventable deaths from cardiovascular disease are rising in Australia. From 2007 to 2022, premature CVD deaths increased 19% among men and 13% among women, wit...

Two Nipah virus cases have been confirmed in West Bengal, India. Nipah is carried by fruit bats and can spread to pigs and humans. In people, symptoms start like flu but can worsen to pneumonia or bra...

Researchers from the University of Copenhagen warn social media chatter about low testosterone shapes patient views. Mass screening for low testosterone is not clinically warranted. Many healthy men h...

Monash University led the DNA Screen pilot to test nationwide genomic screening in adults aged 18 to 40, run from 2022 to 2024. More than 10,000 participants joined the study, with over 30,000 registe...

Heat has become a steady part of Australia’s health picture. An RACGP expert says heatwaves place extra pressure on health services, especially general practice. Dr Nicole Sleeman, chair of RACGP clim...

The RACGP has lodged an accreditation submission with the Australian Medical Council for a Rural Generalist Fellowship training program. This follows last year’s recognition of rural generalism as a s...

Australia’s Healthdirect launched 1800Medicare at the start of the year as part of a federal pledge to improve Healthdirect services under one national system. The new branding is still led by Healthd...