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Recent Posts
- Has lying become okay? (Asking for an American friend)
- Every disease has its queuer
- Australia’s best doctor comes in from the bush
- Tiwi GP – I can run, but can’t hide
- Coleman’s guide to poisoning and the dark arts
- Bad Habits
- Avoiding doctors like the plague
- Podcast 14: Alcohol-related harm in general practice
- Managing diabetes is not all about expensive medication
- My perfect medical statistics day
- GP Sceptics podcast 13: Nurses’ conflicts-of-interest
- A textbook case walked into the room
- Vitamins: mostly harmless, mostly profitable
- Post-truth therapy: alternative medicine with alternative facts
- Drug seeker basted me like a turkey
- 48-second GP consultations
- ‘Junior’ doctors: what’s in a label?
- GP Sceptics podcast 12: Doctors’ resilience
- GP Sceptics podcast 11: Medically Unexplained Symptoms
- How to measure med student empathy
- The Fed endures, and so must we
- Tamiflu: an expensive lesson in panic stockpiling
- GP Sceptics podcast 10: GPs at the Deep End
- Pain clinics: how did such a fresh idea turn sour?
- Not just a GP – I’m your specialist in uncertainty
- GP Sceptics podcast 9: The Environment
- Let’s celebrate the bolt-cutter surgeon
- Greater transparency on specialist fees: a no-brainer
- Four Corners Big Vitamins exposé: cuts both ways
- Five reasons why I’d still encourage my child to do medicine
- GP Sceptics podcast 8: Marketing
- Google Health Cards: the first test drive
- GP sceptics podcast 7: EBM Hijacked!
- Does the weather affect our joints?
- GP Sceptics podcast 6: Obesity – Christmas edition
- Anne Deveson, who destigmatised schizophrenia
- Why ‘medicine for the rich’ is sometimes inevitable
- GP Sceptics podcast 5: Lyme disease…don’t get sold a lemon
- GP Sceptics podcast 4: Addiction
- Homeopathy: US mandates ‘No evidence’ labels
Author Archives: Dr Justin Coleman
GPs Down Under
I GPDU; do U? If that sentence makes any sense, you’re probably already a member of the Facebook group GPs Down Under. And a good interpreter of poor syntax. It’s the only phrase I’ve ever written which has been turned … Continue reading
Posted in medical writing
Tagged #FOAM4GP, facebook, Flippant, GP, GPDU, Medical Observer
7 Comments
Newsflash: doctor sees patients on time
BRISBANE: At a suburban clinic yesterday, every single patient during the morning session was called into their appointment on time. Dr Justin Coleman, GP at Inala Indigenous Health, described the extraordinary circumstances to reporters camped outside his surgery today. “It … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Flippant, GP, humour, Medical Observer, on time, waiting room
3 Comments
e-vapes, e-health and e-xperts
IT’S NOT often I start a column with a direct Hansard quote, but South Australian Liberal senator Anne Ruston provided pure gold during last month’s budget estimates hearing on NEHTA’s e-health. The National e-Health Transition Authority is tasked with creating … Continue reading
When a GP goes to his GP
I went to my GP this year. Apparently patients do that sort of thing all the time, but it felt odd, giving over the swivel chair. I hadn’t realised the degree of power inferred by a collared shirt and castor … Continue reading
Winter; discontent; you know the drill.
Winter is coming As any Game of Thrones character will tell you – and most eventually do – winter is coming. In the land of general practice, a long way from the nearest fur-coated dwarf or icicled king, we instead … Continue reading
Posted in medical writing
Tagged Flippant, game of thrones, GP, humour, Medical Observer, winter
4 Comments
Weird diagnoses your doctor can select, but probably shouldn’t
Has your doctor has ever diagnosed you with Hair in the Urine or Donald Duck Speech? I’m a doctor and have no idea how to treat either condition. My wild guess might be a sieve and a good gargle—in that … Continue reading
Small things I don’t understand
Last month’s column was ‘Dealing with uncertainty’, and I haven’t got any better at it, so figured I’d stick to the theme. Might even make it a series. This month’s uncertainty involved a haematologist—I’ve never actually met one, but that … Continue reading
Posted in medical writing
Tagged blood cells, Flippant, humour, Medical Observer, uncertainty
2 Comments
Uncertain dealings
My GP registrar’s body language suggested the tute was going poorly, although I blamed the topic: ‘Dealing with uncertainty’. In retrospect, I could have stuck to medical examples, instead of opening with Gandalf’s dilemma about when best to attack Sauron. … Continue reading
Choosing Wisely – sneak preview of GP shortlist. #FOAM4GP #FOAMed
What interventions do you think GPs should do less of? Do you think we sometimes prescribe inappropriately or order too many tests? I’m not talking about individual anecdotes, but widespread trends accepted as ‘normal’ in some parts of Australian general practice. I am … Continue reading
Posted in medical education
Tagged #ChoosingWisely, #FOAM4GP, #FOAMed, EBM, evidence, overdiagnosis, overtreatment, RACGP
28 Comments
The doctor is NOT IN
I love being a doctor. I love the variety, the capacity to touch lives. But most of all, I love the holidays. The very best bit of my job is not doing it, and instead doing the crossword on the … Continue reading
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