Blogging about blogging

Posted on August 24, 2013 by Dr Justin Coleman
Renee Barnes

Renee Barnes

In some sort of weird russian-doll unpacking of layers, I’m sitting in a blogging workshop and all 25 of us are analysing my blog. I figured that while we’re doing it, I’d take the opportunity to blog about the process. Then the other 24 can comment on my blog about my blog. Maybe they’ll even blog about it. Blogorama!

The good news is, I’ve never had so many hits on the one day.

The bad news is, we’ve also just looked at some much better blogs. I guess you could go to one of the others immediately, although I’m not giving you a single web address; look them up yourself, you lazy thing!

Renee Barnes is running the workshop as part of the AMWA annual conference in Melbourne, and her blog, quite frankly, is a brilliant example of what mine should look like. Continue reading →

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TGA Advertising Code needs tiger teeth

Posted on August 1, 2013 by Dr Justin Coleman

Tiger teethAt the risk of boring readers senseless, occasionally I write submissions aimed at making the world a better place, one regulatory code at a time. All humour self-edited out, although some sarcasm sneaks through:

“…it is not entirely clear why those CAM practitioners who signed the petitions feel so strongly about their right to receive advertising which is exempt from the TGA safeguards against false claims.”

The RACGP asked me to write their submission for the proposed reforms of the TGA code around advertising therapeutics. More power to the TGA–literally. The current code is more poodle than tiger.

My official submission is on the RACGP website (pdf) or on this website…

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The Big Twit

Posted on August 1, 2013 by Dr Justin Coleman
MedObs Twitter bird

Ben Sanders, Medical Observer

Let’s start by conjugating the verb.

I tweet, you twit, he twitters, we tweet, you twit, they twitter. Notice everyone is tweeting except you…you are merely a twit!

Now, don’t get narky: back in my mid-forties, I was just like you. Disconnected.

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How Archie Cochrane flipped the medical world on its head

Posted on May 28, 2013 by Dr Justin Coleman

CochraneI love the story of how Archie Cochrane, founder of
the Cochrane collaboration, first gained notoriety as a very junior staff member at the massive Department of Health in London. This was recounted to me by his friend, another great Scotsman, health economist Prof Gavin Mooney…
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Locum days

Posted on February 26, 2013 by Dr Justin Coleman

enter at own riskIn my heady days of youth, I spent 18 months avoiding a steady job and worked as a locum. This involved a serious commitment to helping out GPs in their week of need, then running away. My CV screamed like a real estate billboard: location, location, location…
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Naked Doctor strikes again

Posted on November 27, 2012 by Dr Justin Coleman

Worried doctorJustin’s column on overtesting, overtreatment and over-diagnosis sits on the new-look Croakey website. He has been proselytising around the country to anyone awake enough to listen, including the RACGP GP12 convention and the National Prescribing Service AGM. This web post has just saved you a plane fare.

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It’s all History

Posted on July 23, 2012 by Dr Justin Coleman

Boning up on tattered medical historyJustin’s writes a monthly Medical Observer column. Recently, he reckons himself a medical historian after reading one book. Well, most of the first two chapters. But the book WAS so historical it was quite tattered.

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Recalling tragedy

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Dr Justin Coleman


Justin remembers a stormy night in the Emergency Department in his first year as a doctor.

A nurse taught him the first steps towards equanimity.

One night two ambulances came back from the Queenscliff road, where a driver had swerved to avoid a dog and had hit a tree…  Read more
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The Naked Doctor is IN

Posted on January 16, 2012 by Dr Justin Coleman

OVERDOING IT!

Even useful things can be overused. Sometimes in medicine, ‘doing nothing’ is the best option.

Justin has had a career-long interest in the pitfalls of over diagnosis and over treatment. He has started a new blog hosted on the Croakey website. Titled the Naked Doctor, it contains no raunchy author photos, largely because that would be an oxymoron. The blog probes those areas of medical practice which would be better stripped bare.

The modern doctor seems to have an intervention for every occasion. He or she wears a magician’s coat of surprises, each more incredible than the last…  Read more
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Life in the ordinary lane

Posted on November 17, 2011 by Dr Justin Coleman

Justin featured in the Courier Mail’s Ordinary People column on 28 May 2011 and he’s not quite sure why. There’s an audio and a few pics on their website: story by Amanda Watts.

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