The Therapeutic Goods Administration is inviting medical software vendors to participate in a pilot project to facilitate reporting  adverse events by health professionals. The project is to develop a TGA web service to assist software vendors who wish include access to reporting adverse events for health professionals in medical software. Following this pilot project, which is expected to run until April 2014, a TGA web service will be available to software vendors at no cost. Any company providing software to health professionals - such as general practitioners, hospital and community pharmacists, specialists and nurses - who submit reports of adverse events to medicines is welcome to participate. The web service will be compatible with both mobile and desktop devices. Involvement in the pilot will require vendors to develop a reporting interface within their own software program and to test transmission of reports using the web service from their software to the TGA in XML format. Reports of adverse events from health professionals are essential to the TGA’s safety monitoring activities. Feedback to the TGA indicates that the time required to report is a significant barrier to reporting by health professionals.  Providing an adverse event reporting mechanism in medical software, particularly one that allows reports to be automatically populated from clinical record data, has been suggested as a way of reducing the time required to find, complete and send reporting forms. Development of the adverse event report web service is one of a number of projects that the TGA is currently undertaking to encourage adverse event reporting by health professionals and consumers by: [ + ]

University of Adelaide researchers have identified a key step for the future prevention of liver failure resulting from taking too much of the everyday painkiller paracetamol. [ + ]

Possible risks associated with medical staff using mobile digital technologies for professional purposes have been raised in a leading study at Monash University. [ + ]

A University of Queensland researcher has developed new guidelines for psychiatrists and dermatologists prescribing and treating acne with a drug linked with suicide and depression. [ + ]

Professor Peter Shergold AC will chair the Aged Care Sector Committee, tasked with building the foundation for a constructive and lasting partnership between the Australian Government and the aged care sector. [ + ]

The Australian Medical Association has released an updated Position Statement on Women’s Health, which includes the impact that domestic violence and sexual assault has on women’s health. [ + ]

A new Grattan Institute Report, Controlling Costly Care: a Billion-Dollar Hospital Opportunity reveals a better pricing  system for public hospital treatment will show where costs are too high, and free up $1 billion for better health care. [ + ]

A new study led by the University of Melbourne and Orygen Youth Health Research Centre is the first to discover that the brain develops differently in adolescents who experience depression. [ + ]

Researchers have developed a new method for rapidly measuring the level of antibiotic molecules in the blood and how they work against bacteria, paving the way for personalised treatments for bacterial diseases. [ + ]

How building design improves health and healing after injury or illness is the focus of a study by Associate Professor Heidi Muenchberger, a recently announced recipient of the 2014 Australian-American Fulbright Commission Scholarships. [ + ]

A new and emerging field in medicine – which involves the study of a group of proteins known as Interferons – could help unlock therapies for a range of diseases, according to a researcher who has recently won a grant to study the role of Interferons in childhood asthma. [ + ]

The ANMF is calling on Federal Health Minister Peter Dutton to work with stakeholders to combat Australia's nursing crisis, following the release of a new report on health issues suffered by Australia's ageing nursing workforce. [ + ]

Access to affordable and timely healthcare in both rural and urban settings will be at risk if the Government fails to invest in general practice training, according to Australia’s general practice leaders. [ + ]

 The Government has kick-started the process for developing a National Disability Insurance Scheme Workforce Strategy with a report into workforce issues being undertaken by National Disability Services (NDS). [ + ]

The Therapeutic Goods Administration has issued a warning to health professionals and consumers advising that medicines that come in the form of soft gel capsules may pose a choking risk for children, especially those aged under five years. [ + ]