Preschools and childcare centres in New South Wales may be given the legal right to refuse to enrol children who have not been vaccinated.

Time-lapse imaging which takes thousands of pictures of developing embryos can boost the success rate of IVF, according to British research. The method, reported in Reproductive BioMedicine Online, can be used to select embryos at low risk of defects.

The hunt for a HIV vaccine has gobbled up $US8 billion ($NZ9.87 billion) in the past decade, and the failure of the most recent efficacy trial has delivered yet another setback to 26 years of efforts.

A free iPhone game is available for those who are trying to quit smoking, hot on the heels of a successful iPad release.

New Zealand blackcurrants can help you manage your busy work day, research suggests. A study by Plant & Food Research has shown that an extract of New Zealand blackcurrants enriched in anthocyanins can help people stay more alert, reduce mental fatigue and work with greater accuracy whilst under significant mental stress.

Just over one million New Zealanders have had a flu vaccination so far this year – 250,000 more than the same time last year and 350,000 more than in 2009.

Public health officials are warning of the dangers of synthetic cannabinoids following three young adults suffering severe acute kidney injury this month after smoking the drugs.

Even though anaesthesia-related deaths have dropped by more than 90 per cent in the past 50 years, the profession is striving to make anaesthesia even safer, says the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA).

Nerves in Grant Baker's fingers and feet are still suffering from the chemotherapy he received after having surgery for bowel cancer detected more than six years ago.

New Zealand cancer patients have joined a major international trial designed to see if a shorter course of toxic chemotherapy is as effective as the standard 24 weeks of treatment and less harmful.

Australian experts are concerned about the threat of a new type of drug-resistant pandemic flu that is circulating in the population at large. The swine flu strain has learned how to dodge the antiviral Tamiflu and, though rare, is emerging outside of hospitals.

New Zealand’s largest provider of services to support the well-being of children under five is encouraging New Zealanders to take up the government’s offer of free influenza vaccinations.

The danger posed by growing resistance to antibiotics should be ranked along with terrorism on a list of threats to the nation, the government's chief medical officer for England has said.

A groundbreaking New Zealand asthma study using innovative local technology has found combination inhalers are more effective at preventing asthma attacks than the two inhalers doctors usually prescribe.

Arthritis New Zealand is concerned by recent anxiety raised by British academics surrounding the safety of diclofenac, marketed as Voltaren.

Greystone Research Associates Examines New-Generation Devices and their Impact on Patient Behavior Amherst, NH, February 11, 2013 – The inhaled respiratory market represents one of the largest categories of drug spending, with continuing growth due to the increasing diagnosis of conditions such as asthma and COPD.

A new video lets the public see first-hand what a patient experiences during an innovative heart treatment. The video, currently posted on YouTube, follows heart patient Peter Joyce through his journey of having a Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) performed at Tauranga Hospital.

There are  growing calls for women to be able to buy the contraceptive pill over the counter. Thousands of women face the costly chore of visiting their GP for a pill generally considered safe by health professionals.

PHARMAC has taken a further major step towards forming a national list of hospital medicines that will be available nationwide.

Pregnant women aged over 40 should be given the option of being induced early to reduce the risks of losing their baby, says a Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists paper.