Forecasting health futures and health costs (journal article)
by Philip Davies
from ATSE Focus, March 2010
"So, 50 years into the future, there are good grounds to question the need for the conventional hospital, as we know it. Remember, we are talking 50 years into the future here. The other group that I think may be vulnerable are our traditional primary care practitioners or GPs. As we move into a world where healthcare becomes more technologically dependent and multi-disciplinary, will the small business model of General Practice be viable? Paradoxically the same technologies that may call the business model of the hospital into question could also challenge the business model of general practice.Looking at the future of healthcare provision, I wonder whether the hospitals and the primary care providers will actually merge and collapse into some new sort of high-tech connected clinic that we can access remotely and that provides the hub for delivering community-based services.What we spend on healthcare is actually the result of individual choice plus societal views. We live in a democracy and we are not necessarily slaves to demography. We have the power of democracy to help us make decisions about how much we are going to spend on healthcare. Healthcare expenditure is not out of control. We control healthcare expenditure as individuals or as a society. We have to make those decisions. "

After the gold rush( journal article)
from The Economist, Vol 393 No 8661, 12.12.2009, pp.27-29
"The article focuses on Great Britain's National Health Service. The service's costs have risen significantly during the 2000s, and the country's large budget deficit means spending on it will likely not be increased. Managerial reforms creating increased internal competition within the service are examined."

The ROI on Weight Loss at Work (journal article)
By George L Blackburn
from Harvard Business Review Vol. 87 Issue 12 Dec 2009, p30-30
"Workplace weight-loss programs are a win-win tool that companies can use to boost both health and wealth. The financial payoff -- for one Texas employer, about $2.50 in return for every dollar spent -- stems from lower health care costs and reduced absenteeism."

Prolonged sitting linked to premature death (article)
by Angela Dorizas
from Government News, 27/08/2009
"Australian workers are risking their health through prolonged sitting, according to a landmark study. The Stand Up Australia study was a collaboration of Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, Medibank Private and the Cancer Prevention Research Centre at The University of Queensland. Using accelerometers and self-reporting, Stand Up Australia monitored activity levels of 131 Medibank Private and partner organisation employees in office, call centre and retail environments. The study found that on average 77 per cent of work time was spent sitting."

Do Take That Break (journal article)
By Samuel Z. Goldhaber
from Harvard Business Review Vol 87 Iss 5 May 2009, pp. 30-30
"A recent study from Wellington Hospital in New Zealand found that office workers who sat for several hours without getting up were more likely to form a deep-vein thrombosis--that is, a blood clot in a vein deep in the leg--than those who moved about more often. Together, deep-vein thromboses and pulmonary embolisms (which occur when a piece of the clot breaks away and blocks blood flow to the lungs) kill upwards of 100,000 Americans each year, or about as many as die from breast, prostate, and colon cancer combined. In this article, Goldhaber, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, explains the connection between DVTs and prolonged periods of sitting anywhere (not just on airplanes) and offers tips for prevention."

The 50 Best Inventions of the Year (journal article)
from Time, November 4, 2008
From a genetic testing service to an invisibility cloak to an ingenious public bike system to the world's first moving skyscraper — here are TIME's picks for the top innovations of 2008.

The End of food : the coming crisis in the world food industry [book]

Paul Roberts

Investigates how large-scale food production has lead to problems such as obesity in Western countries and how the farming techniques used have damaged natural food systems. It also considers what can be done about the impending shortage of global food supplies.

Fat Is Good for Business (journal article)
By Rob Moodie
from The Australian Economic Review Vol 41 No 1, Mar 2008, pp. 85 - 89
"This article discusses the costs of obesity, the causes and some intervention policies in the Australian context."

Economics and Obesity (journal article)
By Kostas Mavromaras
from The Australian Economic Review Vol 41 No 1, Mar 2008, pp. 78 – 84
"The economic consequences of obesity are very similar in principle to the general consequences that follow the development of any long-term health-reducing epidemic in that they include increased health care expenditure, productivity losses at the microeconomic
and macroeconomic levels, increased deprivation and many other associated negative economic and social outcomes. In this contribution we abstract from the economic consequences of obesity, simply accepting that these can be considerable and long lasting and that they should, therefore, be taken very seriously by policymakers. The serious consequences of obesity are the principal motivation for this contribution, but not its focus. The purpose of this contribution is to concentrate on the causes of obesity and in doing so to explain the possible contribution that the discipline of economics can make in understanding the fundamental incentives and resulting lifestyles that characterise the obesity epidemic."

A revolution in healthcare: Medicine meets the marketplace(journal article)
by Fred Hansen
from Institute of Public Affairs Review, Vol. 59 Issue 4, Jan 2008, pp. 42-45
"With competition nearly absent and with unchecked increases in demand over the last two decades, health markets in industrialised countries are undergoing intense change at tsunami-like speed, responding to levels of health expenditure that are growing twice as fast as the economy at large. This article looks at where healthcare markets are heading due to the quality and state of government run health services."

3 ways to be more creative: relax, exercise and sleep more (journal article)
By Diann Daniel
from CIO November 2007
If you're stressed and out of shape, so is your brain.