Latest news with #JenniferMartin
Entrepreneur
10-07-2025
- Business
- Entrepreneur
This Former NFL Player Built a Brand Around Nasal Breathing
Todd Anderson had no entrepreneurial experience, but he had a nose for a good business idea. Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. As a former NFL player and lifelong high performer, Todd Anderson was obsessed with optimization. He'd tried every hack, supplement, and tool he could find. But when he began taking a closer look at sleep, he noticed a glaring gap in the wellness conversation. That shift started when he began working with Dr. Jennifer Martin, a leading sleep researcher at UCLA. After learning he had mild sleep apnea, he began taping his mouth shut at night to encourage nasal breathing. The results, he said, "were life-changing. What began as a personal breakthrough soon turned into a mission. After experiencing the effects of nasal breathing firsthand, Anderson launched Dream Performance & Recovery, which enhances sleep through products such as mouth tape and nasal strips. He joined me on the One Day with Jon Bier podcast to talk about how he built the brand from scratch. Learn on the fly Anderson had no background in business, just a personal breakthrough and a drive to build. But that was just fine. "I think if I had all the funding in the world, I probably would've done it the wrong way. Instead, we had to figure it out, build slowly, and then scale once we knew it worked," he said. With no outside funding, Anderson bootstrapped every step of the way. "We were writing checks every month, paying for all this stuff," he said. "Because of that, I think it allowed us to learn at a really rapid pace." He points to a quote from Spanx founder Sara Blakely as his guiding principle: "Start small, dream big, and scale fast." The result was Dream Mouth Tape, then Second Wind Nasal Strips. One product keeps your mouth closed for improved oxygen uptake, and the second maximizes airflow into your nose. Related: 5 Lessons I Wish I Didn't Learn the Hard Way During My 20 Years in Business Let the product speak for itself In the early days, the team leaned heavily on Anderson's own social following and podcast appearances. He accepted every opportunity he could: "I said yes to every event, every speaking thing, every podcast, and it ended up paying off." Awareness happened organically. On a 46-mile run through the Grand Canyon, Anderson brought the first prototypes of his nasal strips to the event. "Everyone tried them and they were blown away." That approach helped build a customer base that spread the word on its own. "When people do buy into it and they start sleeping better, and it does change their life… they tell everybody," Anderson said. Focus on retention A major turning point came when Anderson moved manufacturing from overseas to the U.S. The goal wasn't just faster shipping—it was better quality. "Our product got exponentially better," he said. In a low-trust category like wellness, consistency matters more than hype. "We had no choice but to get it right," Anderson said. "If people didn't come back, the business wouldn't work." Related: 5 New Tech Products Worth Showing Off to Houseguests Find the right partners Eventually, Anderson found some heavy-hitting investors who believed in the product and could offer valuable branding expertise. "We brought on Sara Blakely and Jesse Itzler as pretty substantial partners," he said. "They own a good chunk of the business." Blakely is the founder of Spanx and one of the most successful female entrepreneurs in history. Her husband, Jesse Itzler, is a serial entrepreneur, bestselling author, and part-owner of the Atlanta Hawks. "Their values are lined up exactly how I would want to have my values lined up. And so knowing that's how they operate, and then getting advice through that lens, I don't think we could ask for anything better." Anderson is starting to see the cultural shift he hoped for. What once felt like a niche message is now gaining traction. "I think people realize it's not about having the most hours in the day," he said. "It's about having the best hours in the day." Related: A Bad Business Partner Could Cost You Millions — Here's How to Avoid a Toxic Partnership
CNN
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- CNN
Is ‘Jaws' what made us all fear sharks?
We hardly see the cartilaginous villain of 'Jaws' before it tears through a skinny-dipper, a dog, a little boy and an overconfident fisherman. It takes nearly two hours to finally watch the great white shark leap out of the water to swallow the gruff veteran Quint. Until then, we only really catch its dorsal fin before victims are ripped under the waves as the water around them turns the color of ketchup. 'Jaws' is credited with inventing the summer blockbuster. It inspired decades of creature features and suspenseful flicks. It kickstarted a whole subgenre of shark-centric horror (with diminishing returns). It also inflamed our fear of sharks as man-eating monsters, said Jennifer Martin, an environmental historian who teaches at the University of California, Santa Barbara. 'I'm struggling to think of a parallel example of a film that so powerfully shaped our understanding of another creature,' she said. 'They were killing machines. They were not really creatures. They weren't playing an ecological role.' Fifty years on, 'Jaws' preys on our existing fears of the oceanic unknown. The film even briefly influenced the popularity of shark-killing tournaments after its release, Martin said. But it also enticed marine biologists and researchers to better understand the deranged shark at its center. Real white sharks are not as large as the demonic fish in 'Jaws,' nor do they hunt humans for bloodsport. But they are certainly intimidating, and they do occasionally bite the odd swimmer, sometimes fatally. 'Being bitten by a wild animal, and in particular one that lives in the ocean, was frightening for us already,' said Gregory Skomal, a marine biologist who has spent decades studying white sharks. 'That's really what I think 'Jaws' did — it put the fear in our face.' When 'Jaws' premiered to an invigorated public in June 1975, most of the research on sharks focused on preventing shark attacks, Skomal said. 'We knew it was big, it could swim fast and we knew it bit people,' he said. 'So those aspects of the film are fairly accurate, just exaggerated.' White sharks like the toothy menace of 'Jaws' already had a reputation for violence by the time the film premiered, Skomal said: There had been recorded attacks on fishermen and scuba divers in Australia and surfers in California. But sharks didn't evolve to feed on humans, Skomal said: They've existed for at least 400 million years — they predate dinosaurs by several hundred million. Sharks only encountered people in their waters in the last few thousand years, since we started exploring by sea. Though there's some disagreement, most shark researchers believe shark attacks are a case of mistaken identity: A shark may confuse a person for prey. They typically take a bite, realize their mistake and move on, Skomal said. Not so in 'Jaws.' The film's shark dispatches his victims with purpose, munching on some body parts while leaving a head or arm as a warning to any who dare swim in his waters. 'That's one of the reasons the film is so powerful,' Martin said. 'None of us want to look like food.' In the decades before 'Jaws,' white sharks weren't considered to be among the ocean's most fearsome predators. In the early 20th century, many sharks were thought of as 'garbage eaters,' Martin said: Coastal cities dumped their garbage in the ocean, and clever sharks learned to anticipate the barges' arrival. Sharks, city dwellers thought, were 'not very beautiful, not very commercially important,' Martin said. 'An animal that's in an in-between space — sort of a pest, sort of dangerous.' After some misbegotten attempts to fish sharks commercially, humans started to invade the waters where sharks hung out, and sharks graduated from pest to predator. With the popularization of maritime activities like scuba diving and surfing in the mid-20th century, people were spending more time underwater, which meant they were more likely to bump into a shark, Martin said. 'There were so many more humans in there,' said Gavin Naylor, director of the Florida Program for Shark Research at the Florida Museum of Natural History. 'It was just a matter of time before people got nobbled.' Previously, shark tales were mostly traded between fishermen who encountered them on the high seas. Now, with more people exploring 'shark-infested waters,' run-ins with sharks were getting picked up by local newspapers. A particularly scary documentary, 1971's 'Blue Water, White Death,' which featured a tense confrontation with aggressive white sharks, also helped shape our view of sharks as creatures to be feared, Skomal said — but 'Jaws' cemented it. The glee with which Amity Island's fishermen hunt would-be killer sharks wasn't totally fictional, either. Shark fishing tourneys already existed in the US prior to the success of 'Jaws,' but the film brought new publicity to the competitions and the sport of hunting 'trophy sharks,' Martin said. 'The killing of these animals became sanctioned, approved of, as a result of the film,' Martin said. Peter Benchley, who wrote the 1974 novel upon which the film was based, expressed some regret that some audiences viewed sharks as man-eating monsters because of 'Jaws,' a work of pure, pulpy fiction. ''Jaws,' the movie particularly, sparked a spurt of macho madness,' he told southwest Florida's News-Press in 2005. 'People were running around saying, 'Hey, let's slaughter sharks.'' Benchley later spent many years steeped in shark advocacy. Most contemporary audiences left 'Jaws' cheering for Chief Brody after he successfully exploded the monstrous shark (and overcame his fear of the open ocean, to boot!). But even scaredy cats couldn't deny that big old shark was fascinating. 'They are charismatic,' Martin said. 'They command our attention through their size, the way their bodies are shaped, their morphology, their behavior. But the big part of it is their ability to turn us into food. We don't like to be reminded of it, but we are food in an ecosystem.' Our morbid fascination with white sharks' ability to kill us drove the success of 'Jaws' and, eventually, decades of 'Shark Week,' Discovery's annual TV marathon that always features programs about fatal run-ins with sharks. (Discovery and CNN share a parent company.) 'We're drawn to things that could potentially hurt us,' Skomal said. 'And sharks have that unique history of being an animal, to this day, that can still harm us. The probability is extremely rare, but it's an animal that's shrouded in the ocean environment. We're land animals.' In the intervening years between the advent of shark fishing tournaments and our present, when dozens of nonprofits exist solely to serve shark conservation efforts, researchers have gotten to know the creatures beyond their enormous teeth. 'The negative perception of sharks at the time — which was tapped into and exacerbated by 'Jaws' — I think has definitely changed into fascination, respect, a desire to conserve, a desire to interact with and protect,' Skomal said. Now that we better understand their role in our underwater ecosystems — at the top of the food chain, they maintain balance by keeping the species below them in check — we can better appreciate white sharks (while maintaining a healthy dose of caution in waters they occupy), Martin said. Appreciation for sharks is especially important since several sharks species' populations have been on the decline, largely due to overfishing — sharks are often accidentally caught and killed. So it's perfectly wonderful to love sharks and want to protect them, said Naylor — just don't get too comfortable around them. 'Sharks are becoming the new cuddly whales,' he said. 'They're not. They are predaceous fishes that are efficient. They don't target people, but in certain conditions when water is murky, they make mistakes.' Need reminding of the potential dangers sharks can pose? Just watch 'Jaws.'
CNN
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- CNN
Is ‘Jaws' what made us all fear sharks?
We hardly see the cartilaginous villain of 'Jaws' before it tears through a skinny-dipper, a dog, a little boy and an overconfident fisherman. It takes nearly two hours to finally watch the great white shark leap out of the water to swallow the gruff veteran Quint. Until then, we only really catch its dorsal fin before victims are ripped under the waves as the water around them turns the color of ketchup. 'Jaws' is credited with inventing the summer blockbuster. It inspired decades of creature features and suspenseful flicks. It kickstarted a whole subgenre of shark-centric horror (with diminishing returns). It also inflamed our fear of sharks as man-eating monsters, said Jennifer Martin, an environmental historian who teaches at the University of California, Santa Barbara. 'I'm struggling to think of a parallel example of a film that so powerfully shaped our understanding of another creature,' she said. 'They were killing machines. They were not really creatures. They weren't playing an ecological role.' Fifty years on, 'Jaws' preys on our existing fears of the oceanic unknown. The film even briefly influenced the popularity of shark-killing tournaments after its release, Martin said. But it also enticed marine biologists and researchers to better understand the deranged shark at its center. Real white sharks are not as large as the demonic fish in 'Jaws,' nor do they hunt humans for bloodsport. But they are certainly intimidating, and they do occasionally bite the odd swimmer, sometimes fatally. 'Being bitten by a wild animal, and in particular one that lives in the ocean, was frightening for us already,' said Gregory Skomal, a marine biologist who has spent decades studying white sharks. 'That's really what I think 'Jaws' did — it put the fear in our face.' When 'Jaws' premiered to an invigorated public in June 1975, most of the research on sharks focused on preventing shark attacks, Skomal said. 'We knew it was big, it could swim fast and we knew it bit people,' he said. 'So those aspects of the film are fairly accurate, just exaggerated.' White sharks like the toothy menace of 'Jaws' already had a reputation for violence by the time the film premiered, Skomal said: There had been recorded attacks on fishermen and scuba divers in Australia and surfers in California. But sharks didn't evolve to feed on humans, Skomal said: They've existed for at least 400 million years — they predate dinosaurs by several hundred million. Sharks only encountered people in their waters in the last few thousand years, since we started exploring by sea. Though there's some disagreement, most shark researchers believe shark attacks are a case of mistaken identity: A shark may confuse a person for prey. They typically take a bite, realize their mistake and move on, Skomal said. Not so in 'Jaws.' The film's shark dispatches his victims with purpose, munching on some body parts while leaving a head or arm as a warning to any who dare swim in his waters. 'That's one of the reasons the film is so powerful,' Martin said. 'None of us want to look like food.' In the decades before 'Jaws,' white sharks weren't considered to be among the ocean's most fearsome predators. In the early 20th century, many sharks were thought of as 'garbage eaters,' Martin said: Coastal cities dumped their garbage in the ocean, and clever sharks learned to anticipate the barges' arrival. Sharks, city dwellers thought, were 'not very beautiful, not very commercially important,' Martin said. 'An animal that's in an in-between space — sort of a pest, sort of dangerous.' After some misbegotten attempts to fish sharks commercially, humans started to invade the waters where sharks hung out, and sharks graduated from pest to predator. With the popularization of maritime activities like scuba diving and surfing in the mid-20th century, people were spending more time underwater, which meant they were more likely to bump into a shark, Martin said. 'There were so many more humans in there,' said Gavin Naylor, director of the Florida Program for Shark Research at the Florida Museum of Natural History. 'It was just a matter of time before people got nobbled.' Previously, shark tales were mostly traded between fishermen who encountered them on the high seas. Now, with more people exploring 'shark-infested waters,' run-ins with sharks were getting picked up by local newspapers. A particularly scary documentary, 1971's 'Blue Water, White Death,' which featured a tense confrontation with aggressive white sharks, also helped shape our view of sharks as creatures to be feared, Skomal said — but 'Jaws' cemented it. The glee with which Amity Island's fishermen hunt would-be killer sharks wasn't totally fictional, either. Shark fishing tourneys already existed in the US prior to the success of 'Jaws,' but the film brought new publicity to the competitions and the sport of hunting 'trophy sharks,' Martin said. 'The killing of these animals became sanctioned, approved of, as a result of the film,' Martin said. Peter Benchley, who wrote the 1974 novel upon which the film was based, expressed some regret that some audiences viewed sharks as man-eating monsters because of 'Jaws,' a work of pure, pulpy fiction. ''Jaws,' the movie particularly, sparked a spurt of macho madness,' he told southwest Florida's News-Press in 2005. 'People were running around saying, 'Hey, let's slaughter sharks.'' Benchley later spent many years steeped in shark advocacy. Most contemporary audiences left 'Jaws' cheering for Chief Brody after he successfully exploded the monstrous shark (and overcame his fear of the open ocean, to boot!). But even scaredy cats couldn't deny that big old shark was fascinating. 'They are charismatic,' Martin said. 'They command our attention through their size, the way their bodies are shaped, their morphology, their behavior. But the big part of it is their ability to turn us into food. We don't like to be reminded of it, but we are food in an ecosystem.' Our morbid fascination with white sharks' ability to kill us drove the success of 'Jaws' and, eventually, decades of 'Shark Week,' Discovery's annual TV marathon that always features programs about fatal run-ins with sharks. (Discovery and CNN share a parent company.) 'We're drawn to things that could potentially hurt us,' Skomal said. 'And sharks have that unique history of being an animal, to this day, that can still harm us. The probability is extremely rare, but it's an animal that's shrouded in the ocean environment. We're land animals.' In the intervening years between the advent of shark fishing tournaments and our present, when dozens of nonprofits exist solely to serve shark conservation efforts, researchers have gotten to know the creatures beyond their enormous teeth. 'The negative perception of sharks at the time — which was tapped into and exacerbated by 'Jaws' — I think has definitely changed into fascination, respect, a desire to conserve, a desire to interact with and protect,' Skomal said. Now that we better understand their role in our underwater ecosystems — at the top of the food chain, they maintain balance by keeping the species below them in check — we can better appreciate white sharks (while maintaining a healthy dose of caution in waters they occupy), Martin said. Appreciation for sharks is especially important since several sharks species' populations have been on the decline, largely due to overfishing — sharks are often accidentally caught and killed. So it's perfectly wonderful to love sharks and want to protect them, said Naylor — just don't get too comfortable around them. 'Sharks are becoming the new cuddly whales,' he said. 'They're not. They are predaceous fishes that are efficient. They don't target people, but in certain conditions when water is murky, they make mistakes.' Need reminding of the potential dangers sharks can pose? Just watch 'Jaws.'
The Advertiser
18-05-2025
- Health
- The Advertiser
'Waiting too long': bulk-billing push amid high costs to see specialists
People in the Hunter health network are much less likely to attend a specialist than wealthy Sydney areas, prompting a call for "fully bulk-billed specialty clinics" in the region. The cost of seeing a specialist and long wait times to book appointments are causing widespread anger and frustration. Professor Jennifer Martin, of University of Newcastle, said "bulk-billed specialty clinics and outreach services" were needed in the Hunter. She said this was especially the case "for specialities that are under-represented and difficult to access". Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data showed specialist attendances in the Hunter network were 89.3 per 100 people in 2023-24. This means that, on average, 89.3 Medicare-subsidised specialist visits were made for every 100 people in the network, which includes New England and Central Coast. This was below areas including Northern Sydney (123), Central and Eastern Sydney (118.7), Nepean Blue Mountains (108.5) and South Western Sydney (103.4). Professor Martin, president of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP), said "people in rural and regional Australia, including in the Hunter, are waiting far too long to see medical specialists". "Many are forced to travel long distances for specialist consultations, while others are simply missing out altogether," Professor Martin said. "There aren't enough generalists who are well supported to go to regional sites and stay." In recent industrial action, doctors highlighted long waitlists for specialists in endoscopy, ENT (ear, nose and throat) and gynaecology in the Hunter. Long waits for orthopaedic and gastroenterology services have also been reported. Meanwhile, GPs have raised concerns that their fees are publicly available in Medicare reports, but specialists' fees are not. Federal Health Minister Mark Butler said recently that a re-elected Albanese government would "help Australians find the best value" among specialists. Mr Butler promised to "fix the former government's failed price disclosure tool, the Medical Costs Finder". The $7 million project would "analyse annual Medicare, hospital and insurer data for every common medical service". It would display the average fee that each specialist doctor charged, alongside the national average for that service. "Fees can vary widely across specialists, even for the same procedure in the same part of Australia," he said. Professor Martin said access to healthcare and being able to afford it were key issues. "Unfortunately, Medicare rebates over many years have not kept pace with inflation, impacting both patients and doctors," she said. "Additionally, governments control the supply of specialists through training places and scarcity impacts costs." She said the federal government "needs to expand bulk-billing incentive payments to specialists as well as GPs for key priority populations". This included those in rural and remote areas who "experience higher rates of complex and chronic diseases than people in the cities". "Publicly-funded access to specialists will have a positive flow-on effect from investing in preventive health." She said this would ease hospital pressures and "expand access to the communities who need it most". Professor Martin urged the federal and state governments to "invest more in growing and supporting the medical workforce". The Special Commission of Inquiry into Healthcare Funding found there were "insufficient financial incentives" for city-based specialists to "relocate to rural or regional areas". In the inquiry report, released last week, Dr Nicholas Spooner said the staff specialists' award was "out of date in regard to remuneration and other conditions". Dr Spooner, director of emergency medicine at Wyong Hospital, said this included "paying staff specialists less than other jurisdictions" and not paying them for "on-call work or overtime". People in the Hunter health network are much less likely to attend a specialist than wealthy Sydney areas, prompting a call for "fully bulk-billed specialty clinics" in the region. The cost of seeing a specialist and long wait times to book appointments are causing widespread anger and frustration. Professor Jennifer Martin, of University of Newcastle, said "bulk-billed specialty clinics and outreach services" were needed in the Hunter. She said this was especially the case "for specialities that are under-represented and difficult to access". Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data showed specialist attendances in the Hunter network were 89.3 per 100 people in 2023-24. This means that, on average, 89.3 Medicare-subsidised specialist visits were made for every 100 people in the network, which includes New England and Central Coast. This was below areas including Northern Sydney (123), Central and Eastern Sydney (118.7), Nepean Blue Mountains (108.5) and South Western Sydney (103.4). Professor Martin, president of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP), said "people in rural and regional Australia, including in the Hunter, are waiting far too long to see medical specialists". "Many are forced to travel long distances for specialist consultations, while others are simply missing out altogether," Professor Martin said. "There aren't enough generalists who are well supported to go to regional sites and stay." In recent industrial action, doctors highlighted long waitlists for specialists in endoscopy, ENT (ear, nose and throat) and gynaecology in the Hunter. Long waits for orthopaedic and gastroenterology services have also been reported. Meanwhile, GPs have raised concerns that their fees are publicly available in Medicare reports, but specialists' fees are not. Federal Health Minister Mark Butler said recently that a re-elected Albanese government would "help Australians find the best value" among specialists. Mr Butler promised to "fix the former government's failed price disclosure tool, the Medical Costs Finder". The $7 million project would "analyse annual Medicare, hospital and insurer data for every common medical service". It would display the average fee that each specialist doctor charged, alongside the national average for that service. "Fees can vary widely across specialists, even for the same procedure in the same part of Australia," he said. Professor Martin said access to healthcare and being able to afford it were key issues. "Unfortunately, Medicare rebates over many years have not kept pace with inflation, impacting both patients and doctors," she said. "Additionally, governments control the supply of specialists through training places and scarcity impacts costs." She said the federal government "needs to expand bulk-billing incentive payments to specialists as well as GPs for key priority populations". This included those in rural and remote areas who "experience higher rates of complex and chronic diseases than people in the cities". "Publicly-funded access to specialists will have a positive flow-on effect from investing in preventive health." She said this would ease hospital pressures and "expand access to the communities who need it most". Professor Martin urged the federal and state governments to "invest more in growing and supporting the medical workforce". The Special Commission of Inquiry into Healthcare Funding found there were "insufficient financial incentives" for city-based specialists to "relocate to rural or regional areas". In the inquiry report, released last week, Dr Nicholas Spooner said the staff specialists' award was "out of date in regard to remuneration and other conditions". Dr Spooner, director of emergency medicine at Wyong Hospital, said this included "paying staff specialists less than other jurisdictions" and not paying them for "on-call work or overtime". People in the Hunter health network are much less likely to attend a specialist than wealthy Sydney areas, prompting a call for "fully bulk-billed specialty clinics" in the region. The cost of seeing a specialist and long wait times to book appointments are causing widespread anger and frustration. Professor Jennifer Martin, of University of Newcastle, said "bulk-billed specialty clinics and outreach services" were needed in the Hunter. She said this was especially the case "for specialities that are under-represented and difficult to access". Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data showed specialist attendances in the Hunter network were 89.3 per 100 people in 2023-24. This means that, on average, 89.3 Medicare-subsidised specialist visits were made for every 100 people in the network, which includes New England and Central Coast. This was below areas including Northern Sydney (123), Central and Eastern Sydney (118.7), Nepean Blue Mountains (108.5) and South Western Sydney (103.4). Professor Martin, president of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP), said "people in rural and regional Australia, including in the Hunter, are waiting far too long to see medical specialists". "Many are forced to travel long distances for specialist consultations, while others are simply missing out altogether," Professor Martin said. "There aren't enough generalists who are well supported to go to regional sites and stay." In recent industrial action, doctors highlighted long waitlists for specialists in endoscopy, ENT (ear, nose and throat) and gynaecology in the Hunter. Long waits for orthopaedic and gastroenterology services have also been reported. Meanwhile, GPs have raised concerns that their fees are publicly available in Medicare reports, but specialists' fees are not. Federal Health Minister Mark Butler said recently that a re-elected Albanese government would "help Australians find the best value" among specialists. Mr Butler promised to "fix the former government's failed price disclosure tool, the Medical Costs Finder". The $7 million project would "analyse annual Medicare, hospital and insurer data for every common medical service". It would display the average fee that each specialist doctor charged, alongside the national average for that service. "Fees can vary widely across specialists, even for the same procedure in the same part of Australia," he said. Professor Martin said access to healthcare and being able to afford it were key issues. "Unfortunately, Medicare rebates over many years have not kept pace with inflation, impacting both patients and doctors," she said. "Additionally, governments control the supply of specialists through training places and scarcity impacts costs." She said the federal government "needs to expand bulk-billing incentive payments to specialists as well as GPs for key priority populations". This included those in rural and remote areas who "experience higher rates of complex and chronic diseases than people in the cities". "Publicly-funded access to specialists will have a positive flow-on effect from investing in preventive health." She said this would ease hospital pressures and "expand access to the communities who need it most". Professor Martin urged the federal and state governments to "invest more in growing and supporting the medical workforce". The Special Commission of Inquiry into Healthcare Funding found there were "insufficient financial incentives" for city-based specialists to "relocate to rural or regional areas". In the inquiry report, released last week, Dr Nicholas Spooner said the staff specialists' award was "out of date in regard to remuneration and other conditions". Dr Spooner, director of emergency medicine at Wyong Hospital, said this included "paying staff specialists less than other jurisdictions" and not paying them for "on-call work or overtime". People in the Hunter health network are much less likely to attend a specialist than wealthy Sydney areas, prompting a call for "fully bulk-billed specialty clinics" in the region. The cost of seeing a specialist and long wait times to book appointments are causing widespread anger and frustration. Professor Jennifer Martin, of University of Newcastle, said "bulk-billed specialty clinics and outreach services" were needed in the Hunter. She said this was especially the case "for specialities that are under-represented and difficult to access". Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data showed specialist attendances in the Hunter network were 89.3 per 100 people in 2023-24. This means that, on average, 89.3 Medicare-subsidised specialist visits were made for every 100 people in the network, which includes New England and Central Coast. This was below areas including Northern Sydney (123), Central and Eastern Sydney (118.7), Nepean Blue Mountains (108.5) and South Western Sydney (103.4). Professor Martin, president of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP), said "people in rural and regional Australia, including in the Hunter, are waiting far too long to see medical specialists". "Many are forced to travel long distances for specialist consultations, while others are simply missing out altogether," Professor Martin said. "There aren't enough generalists who are well supported to go to regional sites and stay." In recent industrial action, doctors highlighted long waitlists for specialists in endoscopy, ENT (ear, nose and throat) and gynaecology in the Hunter. Long waits for orthopaedic and gastroenterology services have also been reported. Meanwhile, GPs have raised concerns that their fees are publicly available in Medicare reports, but specialists' fees are not. Federal Health Minister Mark Butler said recently that a re-elected Albanese government would "help Australians find the best value" among specialists. Mr Butler promised to "fix the former government's failed price disclosure tool, the Medical Costs Finder". The $7 million project would "analyse annual Medicare, hospital and insurer data for every common medical service". It would display the average fee that each specialist doctor charged, alongside the national average for that service. "Fees can vary widely across specialists, even for the same procedure in the same part of Australia," he said. Professor Martin said access to healthcare and being able to afford it were key issues. "Unfortunately, Medicare rebates over many years have not kept pace with inflation, impacting both patients and doctors," she said. "Additionally, governments control the supply of specialists through training places and scarcity impacts costs." She said the federal government "needs to expand bulk-billing incentive payments to specialists as well as GPs for key priority populations". This included those in rural and remote areas who "experience higher rates of complex and chronic diseases than people in the cities". "Publicly-funded access to specialists will have a positive flow-on effect from investing in preventive health." She said this would ease hospital pressures and "expand access to the communities who need it most". Professor Martin urged the federal and state governments to "invest more in growing and supporting the medical workforce". The Special Commission of Inquiry into Healthcare Funding found there were "insufficient financial incentives" for city-based specialists to "relocate to rural or regional areas". In the inquiry report, released last week, Dr Nicholas Spooner said the staff specialists' award was "out of date in regard to remuneration and other conditions". Dr Spooner, director of emergency medicine at Wyong Hospital, said this included "paying staff specialists less than other jurisdictions" and not paying them for "on-call work or overtime".
Daily Mail
07-05-2025
- General
- Daily Mail
See your family's history in vibrant colour: MyHeritage lets you enhance and colourise old war-time photos for FREE - just in time for VE Day
Ever wanted to see how your family once reacted to the end of the war in vibrant colour? Have old, blurry photos of relatives that you'd love to see in clear detail? With VE day on the horizon, MyHeritage is helping families around the world honour and remember loved ones who lived through the momentous end of World War II in Europe with their photo enhancement and colourisation tools - and you can try them with a free trial today. MyHeritage Free Trial Ever wanted to discover your family tree? Simply enter a few names into MyHeritage's family tree programme and watch your tree come to life, gain new insights about your ancestors and explore billions of historical records. Better yet, you can experience all the unmissable perks MyHeritage has to offer without paying a penny when you sign up for a 14-day free trial today. Free for 14 days Shop Discovering new branches to your family tree is just one of the many perks to genealogy programmes, but with 33.8 billion global historical records, colourisation and enhancement of historical photos, and so much more, MyHeritage is the gold standard, you're going to want to try. The best part? You can experience all the unmissable perks MyHeritage has to offer without paying a penny when you sign up for a 14-day free trial today. Victory in Europe (V-E) Day is tomorrow, and in a moving tribute to the day and the war that prefaced it, MyHeritage users from the US, UK, Canada and beyond have contributed photos with personal narratives behind them. The unique photos offer rare, human glimpses into the joy, relief and resilience that defined May 8, 1945 – not just historical accounts but snapshots of real people celebrating peace, returning home and rebuilding. To deepen the connection to these moments, many contributors used MyHeritage's photo enhancement and colourisation tools, which work to help restore and enrich old family photographs, allowing users to see faces, uniforms and cityscapes in a new light. 'Seeing my grandfather's face in full colour, smiling with his friends in uniform, brought tears to my eyes. It made history feel personal - like I was right there with him,' said Jennifer Martin, a MyHeritage user from Ontario. This initiative is part of MyHeritage's mission to preserve and share family stories. By encouraging users to explore their personal histories, MyHeritage helps bridge generations and cultures with the power of storytelling, adding more records to the database to subsequently help others. Thus, the power of MyHeritage's genealogy tools truly come into their own. Allowing you to build your family tree, uncover your family's past and grow your tree further with automatic matches to the brand's global collection of 33.8 billion historical records, MyHeritage makes it easy to discover your genealogy from home. Better still, with MyHeritage's photo enhancing tools, you can bring focus, stunning detail and vibrant colour to once blurry, black and white images, breathing new life into your ancestry Better still, with MyHeritage's unmatched photo enhancing tools, you'll be able to bring sharp focus, stunning detail and vibrant colour to once blurry, black and white images, breathing new life into your ancestry. 'I have especially enjoyed the MyHeritage resources that bring my genealogy to life,' wrote one impressed reviewer. 'Colourising black and white photographs can make a huge difference, and DeepStory allows ancestors to tell their own life stories.' Another added: 'Since joining MyHeritage in 2010, I've gone from knowing very little of my ancestors to a much deeper understanding of who they were and the lives they lived.' Ready to discover your family tree for less? Explore MyHeritage's unmissable tools with a 14-day free trial today.
