The head of Australia's peak medical body has branded a petition that claims changes to cervical screening will put women's lives at risk, as well intentioned but  "woefully misinformed and misguided".

Australian men have been knocked off the top spot for world life expectancy, a new report published on Wednesday in The Lancet, has shown.

It started as an embarrassing joke. Shane Barnbrook accidentally swallowed a chicken bone while eating dinner and he knew it would have to come out. 

Victorians struck by the Ross River virus outbreak - including a doctor who says he was infected by a mosquito in Melbourne's northeast - have described how debilitating symptoms are interfering with their lives. 

Drug trial studies that are sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry are more likely to favour a sponsor's product.

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Research suggest moderately overweight people with type-2 diabetes can benefit from the surgery.

When Ann Maree Mulders woke up still feeling unwell, she didn't know 11 centimetres was about to change her life.

An extra 40-minute stroll every day could mean fewer days in hospital for older Australians, new research shows.

A school breakfast program in western Sydney is not about a one-off free meal. It's about educating families that healthy eating can be easy and cheap.

The AMA says Australia's public hospitals – in every state and territory – are in a constant 'state of emergency' due to inadequate funding and over-stretched resources.

Scientists believe NSW may be coming to the end of the biggest season for Ross River Virus in living memory, after inland flooding in spring created the perfect breeding conditions for mosquitoes that carry the disease.

Here's another problem for Medibank customers.

Kathy Bell didn't want to see a sick person in the mirror. Nor did she want others to immediately view her as a cancer patient in need of sympathy.

When trauma is the new normal for parents of children with cancer, researchers are driven to search for better cures with $11.6 million in state government funding.

The number of people with dementia in Australia will cost the community more than $14 billion this year alone.

The number of people with dementia is predicted to soar. How will we afford it?

Looking for help to break the cycle of overeating and under-exercising? Scientists say we need look no further than the brain of the humble roundworm.

One in three Australian pharmacists recommend alternative medicines that have little to no scientific evidence of working.

It took her mother's cancer to help Ruby overcome her needle-phobia

This sexually transmitted infection is behaving like a superbug and researchers believe it is being carried largely undetected by as many as 400,000 Australians.

When Devanshi Seth made it to the top of her field, she knew it was time to reach down and pull up other talented female scientists.

The cost of private health insurance for Australian families will increase by as much as $200 after the federal government approved plans by funds to increase premiums by nearly 5 per cent from April.

Hospital kiosks and cafeterias would be forced to toe the line on healthy eating under a draft proposal.

Michelle died of meningitis after a middle ear infection spread to her brain. Her condition was overlooked by medical staff who couldn't see past her mild intellectual disability.

Health authorities have warned another person who has contracted the measles spent time in several public areas in Sydney suburbs while they were contagious.

Australians are paying record high premiums for private health insurance, and it's set to go even higher. Many economists think the price hikes cannot be justified.

It was landmark win for cystic fibrosis patients, however many patients in need of another drug continue to wait.

All NSW students in year 11 and 12 will be offered free meningococcal vaccination to combat the rise in W strain cases and protect them against the potentially fatal disease.

Thousands of Australians with pacemakers and defibrillators in their hearts are at risk of cybersecurity breaches that could allow somebody to kill them, doctors say.