The 'Dispatched' Podcast

This week's discussion starts with the perfect example of why pulling one lever can trigger another. The Senate's considering changes to expand the regulator's power, without any submissions from those most affected. Is...

Why pulling the same 'levers' on reform cannot work. Comparing one medicines access program and its humanitarian underpinnings to our institutional frameworks. The need for term limits on advisory committees, the...

The opportunities available in the pending negotiation of new industry agreements and the selective discrimination against some patients and patient groups by an outdated and unaccountable institution.

For more than a decade, Public Summary Documents have been presented as evidence of system transparency, but in fact, they are an affront to it. What was the discussion about transparency that ended with an impenetrable...

An important reminder about the impact of innovation and why it matters. What does it say about Australia and our life sciences policy frameworks that locally developed innovations are commercialised in other markets...

The events in the US this week surrounding a former public health leader raise some important questions in Australia about the accountability of 'independent experts'. Why we can't afford to muck up the AI opportunity...

Misleading claims about patient groups and the industry, combined with an irrational hyperventilation about a rational response to new global realities, have made for an interesting week. The price reduction mantra and...

A very busy week with mostly relief for patients accessing PBS-funded multiple sclerosis medicines, but what does it really mean, and what is the opportunity? Reports and their questionable citations. The most cynical...

The MS medicines controversy continues. Why wouldn’t the minister just deal with it and make it go away? It may not be that easy. Why any resolution will probably deal with symptoms rather than the cause. The realities...

A small player with no market share and no real prospect of gaining any agreed to an almost 50 per cent price reduction to secure reimbursement. Who would have thought the market leaders would respond negatively...

Congratulations to one of Australia's leading health journalists on a highly effective series of stories and commentaries that reveal the true extent of this country's challenge and the problems patients face in...

Powerful patient stories stand in contrast to a decision-making framework that explicitly dehumanises their lived experience. The need for 'decency and compassion'. Week one of Senate Estimates, the challenge of saying...

There are enough measures and signals in this week's Budget to suggest medicines, vaccines and other technologies were discussed extensively in the process leading up to Tuesday's announcement. It might also help...

In this week's episode, the focus is on the latest example of no progress on reform, the mindset and intransigence it reveals, the repeated pattern, and the early evidence that it would always end this way. Can it be an...

In this special episode, the focus is on the official plan to force a 'consensus' on health technology assessment reforms through a process conducted in secrecy under the guise of ethics approval. The problem with...