GoodSAM

Ambulance Victoria is rolling out a lifesaving smartphone app, GoodSAM, that connects people who are medically trained or know first aid with patients experiencing cardiac arrest. Performing CPR and defibrillation in the first three to four minutes of suffering a heart attack is critical and every minute this is delayed, chances of survival are reduced…

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Rare Disease Day

It’s that time of year again when we celebrate Rare Disease Day on the last day of February. It’s a cause close to our hearts at VIVA! Communications after we’ve had the pleasure of working on a number of campaigns to raise awareness of a variety of rare diseases. Despite their name, one in 20…

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MedReleaf Australia enters local medicinal cannabis market

An Australian joint venture company associated with one of Canada’s leading licensed producers of medical cannabis (MedReleaf Corp) has entered the local Australian medicinal cannabis market after securing ‘cultivation and production’ and ‘import’ licenses from the Federal Government’s Office of Drug Control (ODC). MedReleaf Australia will import medicinal cannabis from MedReleaf Corp (which has a…

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The implications of the OTC up-scheduling of codeine-containing medicines for Australians

Less than 24 hours since low-dose OTC codeine-containing medicines have been restricted to prescription only (Schedule 4), pharmacy is already raising concerns over potential consumer backlash. Fairfax reports an estimated 153,000 Australians use low-dose codeine-containing medicines at rates indicative of dependence, which the government has also dubbed as alarmingly high. By enforcing the up-scheduling of low-dose…

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