Taking out 10th place among 188 countries, Australia was just four points behind top-ranked Iceland.

Allegations that Australian surgeons are running cartels to protect their lucrative private markets will be discussed at a meeting of health ministers next month.

• EXCLUSIVE

Patrick Tansley was mingling at a party when the first warning shot was fired.

The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows, Rocky Balboa would say, though it is anybody's guess why so many people spend their leisure time watching gloomy movies about it.

A Sydney doctor who has delivered seminars on drug dependency has been struck off the register of medical practitioners for prescribing addictive painkillers to patients who were hooked on their medication.

Cuddling a kitten may always make you feel better - but it could be dangerous to your health, experts say.

The first Australian showing of a film by a disgraced former doctor who's "fraudulent" research underpinned the anti-vaccination movement has drawn a firestorm of outrage to a small film festival in country Victoria.

Cancer patients face uncertainty, as a scathing report criticises health authorities for their part in Dr John Gyrgiel's chemotherapy underdosing

Paramedics are speaking out despite fears of retribution expose ongoing bullying and harassment on the job.

There is nothing "accidental" about the 1.25 million people - 3400 a day - who die in crashes around the world each year, the World Health Organisation's injury prevention director says.

Female health professionals are at double the risk of suicide than women in other professions, according to new research.

Childhood obesity has become so entrenched that the perception of a healthy weight has shifted, with one in five NSW children qualifying as overweight or obese.

A Sydney Uni study finds evidence of bias in industry-funded research into artificial sweeteners.

Men with early prostate cancer who choose to closely monitor their disease are just as likely to survive at least 10 years as those who have surgery or radiation.

Doctor queries ethics of medical cannabis trials on children with severe epilepsy.

Sydney researchers have thrown open the notoriously secretive process of drug discovery with a world first attempt to develop a malaria medicine through crowdsourcing.

Psychological tricks used by governments to "nudge" how citizens behave may soon be applied to the domestic violence, commuter habits and end-of-life decisions.

Medicines that have been approved in the United States or Europe will be fast-tracked into the Australian market under new medicine regulations to be introduced by the federal government.

• EXCLUSIVE

Scientists are edging closer to a tablet that can mimic some of the effects of exercise. But don't start slacking off just yet - testing on humans is still at least five years away.

How well did Australians score on our national report card?

The wave of gastroenteritis outbreaks that affected hundreds of thousands of Australians over winter were caused by not one but three new highly contagious norovirus strains, UNSW researchers found.

It's a promising step into a post-antibiotic world.

One woman has died and several people are said to be unwell after what a family member said was an outbreak of gastroenteritis on a cruise ship off the coast of Queensland.

Did you know that the venom of a carnivorous sea snail can send an unsuspecting fish into a sugar coma? That's weird for a start, right? But get this: snail venom might also be behind the next generation of ultra-fast-acting insulin for diabetics.

Pharmaceutical companies have spent $12 million paying nurses for their advice and educating them in recent years despite only a few being able to prescribe drugs.

One of Australia's largest health insurers, Bupa, is examining thousands of rejected claims over the past five years due to an error in its system.

Misleading reports warning patients off taking their statins have exaggerated their harms and underestimated their benefits, say the researchers of a major review.

NSW Ambulance has hidden from public view Facebook comments by a former paramedic who responded to a woman's cry for help and criticised his old employer on an RUOK post.

Babies delivered by C-section were 64 per cent more likely to grow up to be obese than were their brothers and sisters delivered vaginally.