The Association between Age, Comorbidities and Use of Radiotherapy in Women with Breast Cancer: Implications for Survival.

Radiotherapy (RT) plays an important role in the management and survival of patients with breast cancer. The aim of this study was to examine the association between age, comorbidities and use of RT in this population. Patients diagnosed with breast cancer from 2004⁻2013 were identified from the American College of Surgeons National Cancer Database (NCDB).

Systematic literature review to identify methods for treating and preventing bacterial skin infections in Indigenous children.

Background/objectives: Bacterial skin infections in Indigenous children in Australia frequently lead them to access primary health care. This systematic review aims to identify and analyse available studies describing the treatment and prevention of bacterial skin infections in Indigenous children.

Methods: Electronic databases including Scopus, MEDLINE, CINAHL, ProQuest, Informit and Google Scholar were searched.

Equitable resourcing of primary health care in remote communities in Australia's Northern Territory: a pilot study.

Background: Improved Primary Health Care (PHC) utilisation is central to reducing the unacceptable morbidity and mortality rates characterising populations living in remote communities. Despite poorer health, significant inequity characterises the funding of PHC services in Australia's most remote areas. This pilot study sought to ascertain what funding is required to ensure equitable access to sustainable, high quality primary health care irrespective of geographical remoteness of communities.

Ensuring equity of access to primary health care in rural and remote Australia - what core services should be locally available?

Introduction: Australians in rural and remote areas experience poorer health status compared with many metropolitan residents, due partly to inequitable access to primary health care (PHC) services. Building on recent research that identified PHC services which all Australians should be able to access regardless of where they live, this paper aims to define the population thresholds governing which PHC services would be best provided by a resident health worker, and to outline attendant implementation issues.

Methods: A Delphi method comprising panellists with expertise in rural, remote and/or Indigenous PHC was used.

Better health outcomes at lower costs: the benefits of primary care utilisation for chronic disease management in remote Indigenous communities in Australia's Northern Territory.

Background: Indigenous residents living in remote communities in Australia's Northern Territory experience higher rates of preventable chronic disease and have poorer access to appropriate health services compared to other Australians. This study compared health outcomes and costs at different levels of primary care utilisation to determine if primary care represents an efficient use of resources for Indigenous patients with common chronic diseases namely hypertension, diabetes, ischaemic heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and renal disease.

Methods: This was an historical cohort study involving a total of 14,184 Indigenous residents, aged 15 years and over, who lived in remote communities and used a remote clinic or public hospital from 2002 to 2011.

What core primary health care services should be available to Australians living in rural and remote communities?

Background: Australians living in rural and remote areas experience poorer access to primary health care (PHC) and poorer health outcomes compared to metropolitan populations. Current health reform in Australia aims to ensure all Australians, regardless of where they live, have access to essential PHC services. However, at a national level policy makers and health planners lack an evidence-based set of core PHC services to assist in implementing this goal.

The cost-effectiveness of primary care for Indigenous Australians with diabetes living in remote Northern Territory communities.

Objective: To evaluate the costs and health outcomes associated with primary care use by Indigenous people with diabetes in remote communities in the Northern Territory.

Design, Setting And Participants: A population-based retrospective cohort study from 1 January 2002 to 31 December 2011 among Indigenous NT residents ≥ 15 years of age with diabetes who attended one of five hospitals or 54 remote clinics in the NT.

Main Outcome Measures: Hospitalisations, potentially avoidable hospitalisations (PAH), mortality and years of life lost (YLL).

Improving participation by Aboriginal children in blood lead screening services in Broken Hill, NSW.

Unlabelled: Lead poses a health risk to young children with detrimental effects on their intellectual development. Attendance rates for Aboriginal children at routine blood lead screening and at follow-up appointments in Broken Hill, NSW, have declined in recent years. This study sought to identify strategies to improve the participation of Aboriginal children aged 1-4 years in blood lead screening services in Broken Hill.

Characteristics of fall-related injuries attended by an ambulance in Sydney, Australia: a surveillance summary.

In NSW, fall-related injury costs the health system more than any other single cause of injury. A public health surveillance database containing information routinely recorded by the Ambulance Service of NSW was used to define the epidemiology and characteristics of fall-related calls in the Sydney metropolitan area in 2008. The dataset contained 37488 fall-related calls, representing a crude rate of ambulance call-outs for falls of 843 per 100000 population.

The rise and fall of civil unions: lessons from the Connecticut legislature's abandonment of gay and lesbian citizens.

On April 20, 2005, Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell signed into law "An Act Concerning Civil Unions" (Public Act No. 05-10, 2005).

In search of a more perfect heteroarchy:Vermont, civil unions and the harm of "separate-but-equal".

This article focuses on the Vermont civil union solution to the state Supreme Court's mandate in Baker v. State (1999). Using non-subordination theory, the author argues that rather than being a legal victory for lesbians and gay men, the Vermont law integrally contributes to the maintenance of an imbalance of power between heterosexuals and lesbians and gays.