June 29th, 2016Many private medical practitioners question their right to ask a patient to make an upfront payment for treatment. If a patient arrives at a busy general practitioner’s practice, can the receptionist request payment prior to the consultation? Is...
June 29th, 2016Diabetes specialists across the world are calling for a radical mind-set shift in treatment for type 2 diabetes so that doctors can recommend bariatric surgery for patients. According to Business Day, they say the surgery is close to the holy grail...
June 22nd, 2016A major pharmacist-led antimicrobial stewardship programme at 47 private hospitals in South Africa achieved an 18% cut in antibiotic use – saving medicines and money and improving healthcare – found a study that included researchers from Ampath...
June 22nd, 2016A University of Alberta meta-analysis found that while moderate vitamin D supplementation won’t harm the average healthy person, it is ‘ highly unlikely’ to benefit them either. Specifically, it has no discernible effect in the prevention of...
A major international review of suicide prevention has confirmed that some methods do work in reducing suicides, whereas others currently in use still have little proven effectiveness.
Worldwide, there are more than 800,000 suicides every year,...
June 15th, 2016The African Union is creating an African Health Volunteers Corps that will fight epidemics and other emergencies, based on the team of volunteers that helped to thwart the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. The corps is one of a raft of...
June 15th, 2016Donating one’s body to medical research is arguably the ultimate act of generosity, Medical schools, including in South Africa, ceremonially honour the donors, while students are taught to respect the mortal remains that underpin their education....
June 15th, 2016Immunotherapy doubles overall survival and improves quality of life, with fewer side effects, in recurrent or metastic form of head and neck carcinoma, reports a large, randomised international trial, which was so successful that it was stopped...
June 8th, 2016Depression is a major issue in South Africa among people living with HIV, but has received little attention. New studies have highlighted strong links between HIV-AIDS and mental illness including depression, heightened risks of violence faced by...
June 8th, 2016A large US study found that those with the highest intake of fibre had an almost 80% greater likelihood of living a long and
healthy life over a 10-year follow-up, in that they were less likely to suffer from hypertension, diabetes, dementia,...
June 8th, 2016Injecting modified, human, adult stem cells directly into the brains of chronic stroke patients proved not only safe but effective in restoring motor function, according to a small clinical trial. 'This wasn’t just, "They couldn’t move their...
June 1st, 2016The Mayo Clinic has developed a protocol to treat pancreatic cancer patients where the tumours have encompassed critical blood vessels and, in two studies, found survival stretching into years rather than months....
June 1st, 2016In a situation described by Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi as ‘madness’, junior doctors in Limpopo are performing neurosurgery, newborns are sharing incubators mothers are having to nurse on the floor because of the shortage of beds....
May 25th, 2016A University of Oxford study found that immediate treatment with aspirin after a minor stroke can substantially reduce the risk and severity of early recurrence by about 70%-80%. 'This has implications for doctors, who should give aspirin...
May 25th, 2016According to a University of Cape Town study, a worrying number of doctors are not showing up for compulsory community service, reports MedicalBrief. But more positively, the proportion of medical graduates intending to emigrate has plummeted and...
May 18th, 2016Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has incurred the wrath of the nursing union by stating on International Nurses Day that patients deserved better than the 'devils in white' of SA's public health care facilities. Although the minister also praised...
