This week I was interviewed by ‘Starts at 60’ to discuss the role a GP might play for older people, with particular reference to how the Choosing Wisely Australia program can improve consultations.
Starts at 60 only took off a year ago, but is already incredibly popular – 20,000 people have watched this video in the first 48 hours. The other possibility is that it’s me who’s popular. Okay, nope.
Click on the photo above to watch the video. Warning: it takes half an hour, so bring some tea and toast.
drjustincoleman 
Hmm. Kind of ironically titled considering your area of practice and our life expectancy.
Perhaps you could make a series for us ATSIs called Ends at 70.
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Ah, Cabrogal! Being non-Indigenous myself, I assiduously avoid the pitfalls of trying to get a laugh out of writing about Aboriginal health, but your comment is, in fact, a classic!
I won’t use it, but I like it.
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On a more serious note, I’d be interested in your opinion regarding the big improvement in Aboriginal life expectancy since the early 90s.
Conventional wisdom has it that it’s all thanks to a big drop in circulatory disease, but if that’s so how come that success hasn’t been replicated with, say, diabetes or renal failure?
I can’t help noticing that the improvement has paralleled an increase in the proportion of Australians identifying as Aboriginal. In the case of my family we had to wait until the generations that had spent their lives denying and trying to hide their Aboriginality had died off before we could come out. I expect there are many others in the same boat.
So I wonder. Has the life expectancy of Aborigines as individuals really improved that much or have the figures been skewed by an influx of people who were healthier all along, possibly because they have always been able to pass as non-Aboriginal (if not actually white)?
Any thoughts?
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