… and one of them is a bit surprising.
You’ll never guess which prominent Aussie has made the TIME100 Health 2025 list.
There are three Australians on the list – two of them are true innovators – Professor Catriona Bradshaw from Monash University, and bioengineer Dr Daniel Timms, developer of the BiVACOR Total Artificial Heart.
The third is … *drumroll* … Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
The PM’s citation reads: “For protecting young minds”.
“To protect his nation’s most valuable resource, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in November decided to ban under 16s from platforms such as Snapchat, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and X,” wrote TIME’s editor at large Charlie Campbell.
“The world-first legislation comes into force in December 2025, and directly targets some of the world’s most influential companies run by its richest and most powerful people.
“While it has fallen to Albanese—who was returned by a landslide in federal elections on May 3—to show bold leadership on this global issue, today governments from France to Singapore are mulling similar moves.
“‘These are developing minds, and young people need the space to be able to grow up’, Mr Albanese told TIME in February.”
Professor Bradshaw’s gong comes as reward for more than 20 years researching bacterial vaginosis (BV), a condition affecting one in four women of reproductive age worldwide and causing miscarriage, premature births and increased risk of HIV.
As the principal investigator on a landmark study published in March in the New England Journal of Medicine, her work revealed that BV is in fact a sexually transmitted infection (STI), paving the way for a revolution in how it is treated.
In an accompanying editorial in the NEJM, Professor Bradshaw said the study would lead to a “major paradigm shift” in the way the condition will be treated, essentially with a simple, short and cheap course of topical and oral antibiotics given to male partners of women at the time they are treated for BV.
Professor Bradshaw said it was an enormous honour to be recognised in the List, “which belongs to my colleagues in this study as well”.
“At a time when sexual health and women’s health research is under-valued and threatened, this award has even greater significance and meaning,” she added.
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Dr Timms tinkered with water recycling systems as a kid with his father. When his father needed a heart transplant years later, he turned that technology into a simpler, more resilient machinery to circulate blood than most implants use.
“In March, an Australian man lived a record 105 days with Timms’s device, called the BiVACOR Total Artificial Heart, before receiving a heart transplant,” said the TIME citation.
“It’s a paradigm shift,” said Dr Timms, whose father passed away before he could see this progress.
“We knew we probably couldn’t finish it in time for him. We worked tirelessly, but not just for him. It was for everyone.”
See the full TIME100 Health 2025 list here.
No dribbling here
The newly elected member for Leichhardt in far north Queensland has a connection to the health sector, working for the Australian Services Union, representing Queensland health workers, prior to being elected.
Mr Smith is probably best known to Cairns locals as a former professional basketball player. He played in the NBL for the Wollongong Hawks (1999-2000), Victoria Giants (2003-04), the New Zealand Breakers (2004-05) and finally the Cairns Taipans (2005-09).
New board members at REDHS
Rochester and Elmore District Health Service in Victoria has appointed two new board directors in Jenna Matthews and Narelle Lindsay.
Ms Mathews is currently team leader for rates and revenue with the City of Greater Bendigo and is a CPA.
Ms Lindsay also has a finance background and currently works as head of service and spares for Foodmach.