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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
Category Archives: medical writing
Health consumers
To consume (v) I have always thought negatively of the word consume. I blame the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), whose first two definitions are; destroy or expend and; spend wastefully. The OED knows both interpretations all too well – no … Continue reading
Posted in medical writing
Tagged consumer, health, humour, Medical Observer, RACGP, transparency
3 Comments
Co-payments – handy reminders of our mortality
Australian Doctor asked me today if they could publish my thoughts on the $7 co-payment. I have dark thoughts. Apologies in advance to my medical specialist friends. It’s not your fault. Imagine yourself in charge of Australia’s health budget – heaven … Continue reading
What’s not to love about skin rashes?
Luckily beauty is only skin deep, because this rash was a beauty. Classic red rings, each containing another red circle centrally—named ‘target’ lesions after the chain store logo. “Erythema multiforme!” I announced with an Ancient Greek twang. I guess the … Continue reading
Running man
I am a jogger. More specifically, I am a jogger this week. Even an actual runner, if you don’t count the uphill and flat bits. It’s been a fast-moving week. Jogging is a fundamentally boring pastime; the only ones who … Continue reading
No time for exercise? Think again!
THIS message is for adults who always seem too busy to exercise. The mum who sits at work all week, then sits in the car delivering children to events on the weekend. The middle-aged man who drives to the local shop because he’s in a hurry and the walk … Continue reading
Posted in medical writing
Tagged evidence, exercise, life expectancy, lifespan, mortality, primary care
2 Comments
La Trobe Uni climbs into bed with Swisse; Prof Harvey climbs out.
If Victoria’s La Trobe University was in any doubt that accepting $15 million from vitamin manufacturer Swisse Wellness would cause controversy, yesterday’s resignation of Ken Harvey, the University’s most prominent public health academic, clarified the issue. The $30 million Complementary Medicines … Continue reading
Posted in medical writing
Tagged evidence, Ken Harvey, overtreatment, pharmaceutical, vitamins
12 Comments
Tweeting for health professionals
This blog post is a running sheet for a workshop I’m delivering in Inala today, modified from a previous post. Feel free to ignore it if you’re not at the workshop! It aims to encourage health professionals begin using Twitter as an … Continue reading
My patients’ New Year’s wish list
I’M STARTING 2014 with a wish list and some empathy. Not my own wish list — my patients’. That’s where the empathy comes in. I’m imagining what changes they would wish upon me, by putting myself in their shoes. Actually, … Continue reading
The non-linear consultation
Most doctors treat simple medical problems similarly. The presenting problem leads to a single diagnosis, which leads to a treatment; all in an uncomplicated, linear pattern. But in primary care, things are often not so simple. For multiple problems with complex … Continue reading
Posted in medical writing
Tagged consultation, GP, non-linear, primary care, The Conversation
8 Comments
Statins and sat fats: a sceptic’s look at ABC’s Catalyst programs
My article below was published this week at both The Conversation and in Australian Doctor. I figured I’d get in third. On the past two Thursdays, the ABC’s Catalyst program set off a chain reaction of protest from sections of the medical … Continue reading
Posted in medical writing, Naked Doctor, Uncategorized
Tagged Catalyst, croakey, naked doctor, overtreatment, pharmaceutical, saturated fats, statins, The Conversation
8 Comments
drjustincoleman 