Health services administration

Australia’s transition to renewables and zero carbon remains unacceptably slow

Paul J Beggs · Ying Zhang · Alice McGushin · Stefan Trueck · Martina K Linnenluecke · Hilary Bambrick · Anthony G Capon · Sotiris Vardoulakis · Donna Green · Arunima Malik · Ollie Jay · Maddie Heenan · Ivan C Hanigan · Sharon Friel · Mark Stevenson · Fay H Johnston · Celia McMichael · Fiona Charlson · Alistair J Woodward · Marina B Romanello

Future threats require an integrated approach to the health of humans, animals and the environment

Sandra G Steele · Jenny‐Ann LML Toribio · Siobhan M Mor

Coordinated systemic change and enhanced access to care are needed to improve doctors’ wellbeing

Chanaka Wijeratne · Margaret P Kay · Mark H Arnold · Jeffrey CL Looi

The changes in the characteristics of the pandemic and in our health care responses have been anything but gradual

Theresa Jacques · Kush Deshpande

The Being Equally Well policy roadmap seeks to end the neglect of physical health for people living with serious mental illness

Rosemary V Calder · James A Dunbar · Maximilian P Courten

Eight drug treatments are currently recommended for people who do not require supplemental oxygen and six for those who do

Heath White · Steve J McDonald · Bridget Barber · Joshua Davis · Lucy Burr · Priya Nair · Sutapa Mukherjee · Britta Tendal · Julian Elliott · Steven McGloughlin · Tari Turner

By learning from Australia’s response to the pandemic and breaking down siloes, we can build a more integrated and resilient health system

Sarah L Larkins · Nicole L Allard · C Paul Burgess

A single robust and widely accepted measure for comparing outcomes between hospitals and systems would be a step forward

David I Watson · Tim Bright

Given the unique geographic, socio-economic and health care system considerations, Australasian-specific research evaluating trauma care verification is essential

for the Trauma Care Verification and Quality Improvement Writing Group †

Despite significant government expenditure on headspace, youth mental health outcomes still need improvement

Steve Kisely · Jeffrey CL Looi

Early detection remains an important strategy to reduce melanoma mortality and improve survival, and novel precision medicine technologies for melanoma diagnosis are rapidly changing this field

Rashidul A Mahumud · Monika Janda · H Peter Soyer · Pablo Fernández‐Peñas · Victoria J Mar · Rachael L Morton

The burden and costs of potentially inappropriate medications and polypharmacy are major public health challenges, but the effectiveness of deprescribing interventions in routine care remains unclear

Ian A Scott · Emily Reeve · Sarah N Hilmer

Police watch-house detainees have complex health needs that involve multiple agencies and require coordinated, interagency solutions

Julia L Crilly · Caitlin Brandenburg · Stuart A Kinner · Ed Heffernan · Joshua Byrnes · Cathy Lincoln · Paul Gardiner · Peter Davidson · Annabel Somerville · Daniel Wilson · David Green · Stuart Thomas

Despite being the largest cause of death and disability after physical trauma, national data are not currently available for Australia

Gerard M O'Reilly · Kate Curtis · Yesul Kim · Biswadev Mitra · Kate Hunter · Courtney Ryder · Delia V Hendrie · Nick Rushworth · Afsana Afroz · Shane D'Angelo · Jin Tee · Mark C Fitzgerald

The obesity epidemic has been escalating for over 30 years, but little attention has been paid to delivery of effective treatments in the public system

Ahmad Aly · Michael L Talbot · Wendy A Brown

Without data on access to, or quality of, the care for people with disability, it is impossible to determine drivers of health inequities, and to develop evidence-informed policies to improve care and track progress towards reducing health inequities

Jodie Bailie · Nicola Fortune · Julie Gordon · Richard C Madden · Gwynnyth Llewellyn

Fostering engagement among older patients and families and creating opportunities for decision making about medications are crucial for improved safety and quality across transitions of care

Elizabeth Manias · Carmel Hughes · Robyn E Woodward‐Kron · Christine M Jorm · Guncag Ozavci · Tracey K Bucknall

For too long gender-based violence has been seen as the domain of social services or justice, with policy failing to resource an integrated response by the health system

Kelsey L Hegarty · Shawana Andrews · Laura Tarzia

Evidence-based respirator selection, fit testing, fit checking, and proper use are all vital for staff and patient safety

Micah DJ Peters

To the Editor: We read with interest the article by Agarwal and colleagues1 outlining the recommendations from the Health Services Research Association of Australia and New Zealand for implementing patient‐reported outcome measures (PROMs) to guide clinical care. The article regrettably fails to acknowledge that most of the commonly used PROMs — largely developed without direct patient participation — may merely provide a patient‐rated version of a measure that nevertheless reflects the clinician’s or researcher’s, not the patient’s, perspective.2,3 Importantly, “patient‐reported” conveys only that the measurement instrument — usually a scale or questionnaire — is completed by the patient. The emphasis is placed on the source of the information (ie, the patient) rather than on its content. It does not automatically imply that the information thus obtained is necessarily of value or relevance to the patient. As an attempt to shed light on this issue, our group elaborated a classification system for PROMs according to the degree of patient involvement in their development:2 patient‐generated PROMs — a type of PROM developed entirely from the patient perspective, as at all stages of PROM development the researchers are themselves patients; patient‐centred PROMs — a kind of PROM that explicitly incorporates, to a greater or lesser extent, patient priorities, given that patients themselves codeveloped the PROM jointly with other stakeholders (eg, clinicians); patient‐valued PROMs — a variety of PROM developed without patient input but valued by most patients because it reflects, at least in part, their priorities; and patient‐irrelevant PROMs — a type of PROM developed entirely without patient participation, whose contents are evaluated as not relevant by patients themselves. Fortunately, the epistemic injustice of disregarding the patient’s perspective in PROMs development is being progressively abandoned, and there seems to be a growing consensus that patients should be significantly involved — through truly participatory methods — in developing any new PROM.2,4,5 Without genuinely incorporating the patient’s perspective in PROMs development, PROMs collection will not contribute to a true and meaningful involvement of patients in their health care.

Joan Trujols · Santiago Duran‐Sindreu · Maria J Portella

With a history of border politics and deterrence strategies underpinning the Australian Government’s refugee and immigration policies, when it comes to refugee and asylum seeker health, politics can no longer be removed from advocacy

Nilanthy Vigneswaran

The current lack of a national strategy for Indigenous adolescent health in Australia is a glaring gap

Seth Westhead · Quinton Appleby · Brittney Andrews · Tina Brodie · Alex Brown · Karla Canuto · Josh Cooke · Mahlia Garay · Thomas Harrington · Djai Hunter · Corey Kennedy · Jaeda Lenoy · Olivia Lester · Hannah McCleary · Odette Pearson · Lorraine Randall · Rachel Reilly · Hamish Rose · Daniel Rosendale · Jakirah Telfer · Peter Azzopardi

Progress has been sluggish, and social factors and access to major health service schemes need much more attention

Ian T Ring · Kalinda Griffiths

Timely and equitable access to cataract surgery can prevent fall-related injuries and support healthy ageing

Lisa Keay · Kam Chun Ho · Kris Rogers · Peter McCluskey · Andrew JR White · Nigel Morlet · Jonathon Q Ng · Ecosse Lamoureux · Konrad Pesudovs · Fiona J Stapleton · Soufiane Boufous · Jessie Huang‐Lung · Anna Palagyi