Healing Health

Images of single-use face masks have become synonymous with the COVID-19 pandemic, sparking conversations about the sustainability of our healthcare systems. In this episode, host Dr Renee Beale is joined by Dr Rebecca Patrick and Dr Mike Forrester from the Institute for Health Transformation (IHT) to explore just how sustainable our current healthcare system is, and what can be done to improve it for the health of our future generations. Rebecca is an executive member of IHT's Determinants of Health team where her research focus is climate change and health as well as sustainable healthcare, and Director of Deakin University’s Sustainable Healthcare Network. Mike is a consultant paediatrician at Barwon Health, Vic Chair of Doctors for the Environment Australia, Clinical Lead of the Deakin Sustainable Healthcare Network and Senior Research Fellow at IHT.The Institute for Health Transformation at Deakin University is making better health and wellbeing easier for everyone to achieve. Follow us on Twitter @ IHT_Deakin or visit our website iht.deakin.edu.au to stay up to date with some of Australia’s leading health researchers.

In this episode, host Dr Renee Beale is joined by Associate Professor Kathryn Backholer and Ruby Brooks from the Institute for Health Transformation’s Global Centre for Preventive Health and Nutrition (GLOBE) to delve into Kathryn and Ruby’s research on junk food advertising.A recent study led by Kathryn and Ruby demonstrated how junk food companies have turned to platforms such as TikTok to turn children into brand ambassadors for their products. Together, Renee, Kathryn and Ruby unpack the study’s findings and discuss an upcoming study that will use world-first technology to quantify exactly how much harmful advertising children see and engage with online. The Institute for Health Transformation at Deakin University is making better health and wellbeing easier for everyone to achieve. Follow us on Twitter @ IHT_Deakin or visit our website iht.deakin.edu.au to stay up to date with some of Australia’s leading health researchers.

In this episode, host Dr Renee Beale is joined by Professor Linda Sweet and Dr Sara Holton from the Institute for Health Transformation’s Centre for Quality and Patient Safety Research. Together, they discuss findings from their research on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Australia’s healthcare workers and students, the expansion of this work internationally, and how Australia can get better at monitoring its healthcare staff and sectors.Sara Holton’s recent study saw researchers from the Centre for Quality and Patient Safety Research partner with Western Health to investigate the psychosocial effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare workers. The study was the first of its kind in Australia and has since expanded to 4 other health services in Victoria, Australia and one in Denmark. Linda Sweet’s team at the Centre for Quality and Patient Safety Research partnered with researchers from across Australia to learn about peoples’ experiences receiving or providing maternity care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Learn more about the CovMat study on the Institute for Health Transformation website.The Institute for Health Transformation at Deakin University is making better health and wellbeing easier for everyone to achieve. Follow us on Twitter @IHT_Deakin visit www.iht.deakin.edu.au to stay up to date with some of Australia’s leading health researchers.

In this episode, recorded on 16 August 2022, host Dr Renee Beale is joined by Alfred Deakin Professor Catherine Bennett and Associate Professor Hassan Vally from the Institute for Health Transformation’s Determinants of Health team. Together, they unpack Australia’s recent Omicron wave, reflect on their experiences as science communicators during the pandemic and discuss the role of social media in science communication.Catherine and Hassan have spent much of the COVID-19 pandemic contributing to public discourse, media, social media and governmental reviews that have shaped the legacy of the pandemic. They have contributed to more than 20,000 media items since the beginning of the pandemic.The Institute for Health Transformation at Deakin University is making better health and wellbeing easier for everyone to achieve. Follow us on Twitter (@IHT_Deakin) or visit our website (iht.deakin.edu.au) to stay up to date with some of Australia’s leading health researchers.

Join renowned epidemiologist Professor Catherine Bennett in a conversation about what the COVID-19 pandemic revealed about our health systems – the good, the bad and the untold.

Recorded pre-COVID-19 and the shocking toll the pandemic has taken on our elderly, this conversation with one of Australia’s leading nursing professors examines how partnership-centred care could help overcome some systemic issues in aged care.

Unhealthy diets are creating a public health crisis in Australia, with our rising rates of obesity costing us billions of dollars in healthcare for preventable diseases. What role do our food companies play in this crisis and how seriously are they taking the problem?

Delivering healthcare and prevention interventions is an expensive business. How do we help decision-makers with limited budgets decide whether they’re doing the best they can with the resources they have? How do we decide what ‘doing the best you can’ looks like? And just what does philosophy have to do with economics?

One in every ten of the 11 million Australians admitted to hospital each year suffers some kind of harm – from falls to infection – that’s unrelated to their reason for being in hospital in the first place. What’s behind these incidents and how can they be prevented?

How do we get patients back on their feet more quickly after surgery? It’s an important question, because patient participation in their own recovery is an essential element of high quality care. It’s just trickier to achieve in acute care settings, but fortunately there’s an app for that.

The OECD estimates around 20% of all health care activity and expenditure in high-income countries is wasted and of little or no value. Much of this waste is driven by over-diagnosis and over-treatment – when patients receive services that could never really have helped them.

One third of Australian primary school children are now overweight or obese. Global expert in obesity prevention Professor Steve Allender explores the complex drivers behind the statistics and shares good news about successful community-led obesity prevention programs that really make a difference.

Unhealthy diets are the biggest contributor to burden of disease in Australia and internationally, but the ability to eat a healthy diet is not just about personal food choices. Internationally renowned public health researcher Professor Anna Peeters puts the case for why food environments need to change in order to make healthy options readily available and more attractive than unhealthy options.

Imagine our health systems were people. Right now, they’d probably be feeling sick, overwhelmed and stressed. It’s time to start a conversation about the health of our healthcare systems.Presented by Deakin University’s Institute for Health Transformation, ‘Healing Health’ explores some of the biggest issues facing our health systems and the best ways to deliver care.Each episode highlights the different work being done locally to transform how we deliver prevention and care globally.Join host Amber Petty and some of Australia’s leading health researchers as they explore various cures for the ills of healthcare and discover that recovery is not just possible – it's already happening.