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Recent Posts
- 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
- With Obamacare gone, how will Trumpcare affect US health?
Category Archives: medical writing
Pharma targeting nurses for ‘education’
Big Pharma shifts focus onto nurses. It’s marketing money well spent. Continue reading
Posted in medical writing, Naked Doctor
Tagged Medical Observer, nurses, pharmaceutical, transparency
2 Comments
Deprescribing: a fancy word for ceasing?
What’s old is new again. Hipster beards are so in, they’re out, and where we used to simply cease medications—we now deprescribe them. Continue reading
Posted in medical writing, Naked Doctor
Tagged #FOAM4GP, deprescribing, Medical Observer, overtreatment, pharmaceutical
6 Comments
Eat like an Italian
A new study confirms the life-saving power of a Mediterranean diet. So why have I been too lazy to prescribe it until now? Continue reading
Posted in medical writing
Tagged #FOAM4GP, cardiovascular risk, EBM, Medical Observer, Mediterranean diet
5 Comments
Diagnostic health apps: coming soon to your smart phone.
Could this week’s new phone app be the world’s smartest diagnostic tool? Or does it just want to be? Continue reading
Paracetamol and pregnancy: what’s the fuss?
Today’s health news is all about whether taking paracetamol (Panadol, Tylenol) while pregnant may cause ADHD. What did yesterday’s study actually show? Continue reading
Posted in medical writing
Tagged evidence, Medical Observer, paracetamol, pharmaceutical, pregnancy
7 Comments
Does complementary medicine equal anti-vax?
This week’s systematic review finds many alternative practitioners occupying the middle ground between vaccine and anti-vax camps. Continue reading
Posted in medical writing
Tagged CAM, complementary medicine, Medical Observer, vaccination
2 Comments
Pharmacy business model: consumers at risk
Q. “Are patients confused when non-evidence based therapies are sold alongside prescription medicines?”
A. “Yes.” Continue reading
Posted in medical writing
Tagged conflict of interest, evidence, Medical Observer, pharmaceutical, pharmacy
4 Comments
Does high antibiotic use prevent serious complications?
A BMJ article yesterday provided strong evidence that doctors who prescribe antibiotics at high rates for respiratory tract infections are not, in fact, protecting their patients from serious bacterial complications such as meningitis. This finding negates the ‘patient safety’ claim repeatedly pulled out … Continue reading
Posted in medical writing, Naked Doctor
Tagged #FOAMed, antibiotics, GP, Medical Observer, overtreatment, pharmaceutical
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My last laugh
This column marks the end of four years of my writing for the Medical Observer column Humerus. The GP magazine is undergoing a major revamp and there just ain’t no more room for the funny bits. That’s okay; publication … Continue reading