freelance science journalist and author
From Australian Doctor, 6 July 2007:SHARING personal information with a patient during a consultation might seem like a nice way to build a good doctor-patient relationship, but a study has found such disclosure has the opposite effect.Bringing up personal tidbits interrupted the flow of information between the doctor and patient and used up valuable patient … Continue reading Patients peeved by sharing, caring GPs
From Australian Doctor, 28 June 2007:A SYSTEM-wide failure is leaving the vast majority of overweight and obese children without any form of treatment, an expert says.As new data show one in four Australian children is overweight or obese, Professor Louise Baur, professor of paediatrics and child health at the University of Sydney, called for regular … Continue reading Help thin on the ground for obese kids
From Australian Doctor, 1 June 2006:Recording patient encounters can be a practical and useful teaching tool. THE camera can reveal some unconscious habits. When Dr Rachel Sutherland was filmed during a consultation with a patient, she discovered to her surprise that she talked far more than she thought. Read more.
From Solve, May 07:In some industries, office chat is an important part of the creative process, particularly in collaborative situations such as film post-production. But what happens when, as is becoming more common, work colleagues are separated by vast distances – one in Sydney, for example, and the other in Los Angeles – and both … Continue reading Services break through the bandwidth frontier
From Australian Doctor, April 26, 2007:Questions over the ownership of the H5N1 influenza strain raise wider issues about medical research, individual rights and company profits. WHEN CSL proudly announced in January that it was applying to register its pandemic influenza vaccine, the company could not have foreseen that its supporting dossier would spark a global … Continue reading A question of ownership
A huge pat on the back to the Niall Byrne and his team for putting on a brilliant 5th World Conference of Science Journalists. The debates were thought-provoking, the attendee list impressive and the entertainment (and wine) of excellent quality. The presentations included the ins-and-outs of reporting on public health issues, bias in science journals, … Continue reading 5th World Conference of Science Journalists
From Australian Doctor, 6 April 2007:THE howling, freezing wind scours my chapped face and sucks the air from my lungs as I stagger over the rocky terrain and wonder what the heck I’m doing here. Mount Everest Base Camp in Tibet is as close to hell on Earth as I’ve ever experienced. Read more.
From Australian Doctor, 24 August 2006:More carbs, fewer carbs, hypnotherapy, counselling … obese patients have tried them all. Is bariatric surgery the magic bullet for a growing problem? WHEN it comes to losing weight, surgery beats all other strategies hands down. What other method allows even the most intractably obese patients to shed 30-50% of … Continue reading Putting the squeeze on fat
From Australian Doctor, 28 November 2006:YOU can smell it in the intermingled aromas of steamed dumplings and Chanel No 5, hear it in the voices speaking Cantonese, English, Hindi and myriad other tongues and accents, and see it in the dusty noodle shop jostling for customers alongside Hugo Boss, Cartier and Versace stores. Hong Kong … Continue reading Bubbling with life
I’m currently on 6.5 months leave travelling around the world, so I’m unavailable for freelance work. My partner and I are travelling through China, Tibet, Nepal, India, Europe and South America – our travel blog is at http://hairymountainfolk.blogspot.com.I’ll be back in March 2007.BN
Bianca Nogrady 