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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?
Tag Archives: Medical Observer
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
I could have been a logician
With medical jobs so commonplace, I sometimes fantasise about alternative career choices. Three logicians walk into a bar. Says the bartender, “Would all three of you like a cider?” The first logician replies “I don’t know,” the second also says … Continue reading
GP’s pocket guide to the partialists
As a career generalist, it’s easy to forget that many friends from med school – even some of the smarter ones – chose to limit themselves to just one organ. Medicine is a broad church, and every church needs an … Continue reading
Posted in medical writing
Tagged Flippant, GP, humour, Medical Observer, partialists, specialists
4 Comments
How Melbourne Uni survived 20 years without me
As I walked through the grounds of Melbourne University last week—my first time for twenty years—I decided to dedicate this column to medical students. I felt poignantly nostalgic about my own experiences, and also judged it an opportunity for a … Continue reading
Posted in medical writing
Tagged Flippant, humour, Medical Observer, medical student, University of Melbourne
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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
drjustincoleman 