Hi folks!
This blog and podcast is for Australian General practitioners, training to be one or already working as one. We cover the whole range of our medical specialty and give you what you need to pass your exams and keep learning in your clinical practice. Its free and open . We welcome contributions and comments/feedback.
The authors are all Australian doctors working in city and/or rural settings, doing office as well as procedural GP medicine.
This blog site does not represent the opinions or policies of the authors’ employers and as certified registered medical specialists under the Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency governance we adhere to the professional code of conduct for medical practitioners for our information and advice presented on this blog
NEW PREPUBLICATION PEER REVIEW POLICY ( 22ND APRIL 2014)
The posts and content within will be subject to a pre-publication peer review process. Each new post from this date onwards will be subject to peer review by 2 of the editorial/writing team and the reviewers names and date of review performed will be clearly included with the final article published on this site.
All medical and health advice presented on this blog and podcast is offered strictly as personal opinion and should in no way be taken by listeners/readers to be professional medical advice.
WHAT IS FOAM ?
It’s well explained here in this this article on Life in the Fast Lane
FOUNDATION AUTHORS ARE :
DR MINH LE CONG – RFDS DOCTOR, RURAL AND REMOTE GP, QUEENSLAND
DR CASEY PARKER – REMOTE HOSPITAL DOCTOR AND GP, WESTERN AUSTRALIA
DR TIM LEEUWENBURG – RURAL GP ANAESTHETIST, SOUTH AUSTRALIA
DR JONATHON RAMACHENDERAN – RURAL GP REGISTRAR, WESTERN AUSTRALIA
DR ROBIN PARK – REGIONAL GP SUNSHINE COAST, QLD
Dr Robin Park (PS. He’s the one on the Left)
Plays Squash, guitar, and loves dark chocolate!
Always ready to teach and always learning!
DR MELANIE CLOTHIER, RURAL GP, SOUTH AUSTRALIA
DR GERRY CONSIDINE, RURAL GP, SOUTH AUSTRALIA
FOAM4GP 
Hi,
I was wondering if it is possible to have ACRRM links posted on your website. I’m the ACRRM Assessment Coordinator and the Chair of our Registrar Committee has suggested your website would be great avenue for registrars to be able to access ACRRM Assessment information and resources. The link would be directly to our public assessment webpage https://www.acrrm.org.au/assessment
Kind Regards
Theresa Waye
ok will sort it out ,
Hi Guys, you have mentioned my YouTube channel for Clinical Exam resources (RACGP Registrar fellowship exam videos) – thanks! Here’s the link for easy access –
https://www.youtube.com/user/travellingvan
Love your work!
Vanessa Moran
Hi Mel and Gerry….Just wondering if this post that I have written might be of interest to some GPs and Registrars…..
A “Health Coaching” approach to dealing with an atypical and vague problem in General Practice
My tips on how to approach an “atypical and vague” presenting complaint in General Practice
Have you ever seen a patient presenting with a set of multiple vague symptoms and “it just doesn’t make sense”. Furthermore, after multiple referrals and multiple investigations, there are still more questions than answers?
Now, I would like to share with you my simple “health coaching” approach to help manage these types of presentations.
I usually say to my patient the following…
“How I would describe your set of symptoms is that it is an atypical problem. It is quite confusing and I am not certain as to what the problem is exactly at this point. With these sort of problems, I often think of 3 possible explanations.
1 It is a typical problem but we do not have our thinking hat on.
2 It is a rare problem and it will take a longer time to work it out.
3 There is a underlying emotional content and hence, making it a bit confusing.
What do you think it is?”
The patient’s answer will help you explore whether there is a psychosomatic component to the presentation without a lot of defensiveness.
Note: It is often dangerous to say that something is stress related without thoroughly excluding physical causes and at the same time, if psychosocial factors are not explored, patients may end up seeing multiple Doctors and exposing to multiple investigations unnecessarily. Balance is the key here.
Would love to receive your comments and input on this subject matter.
will the O in FOAM need review as you now edit/screen your user created content-had to happen-how can Drs talk on a public forum? I know about open tech blogs but that si about machines and computers not real people.
UN/PW – its still free
It’s still Free here whether you think it is open or not
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Hi Admin for foam4gp.
I was checking out your links for COPD resources on behalf of Lung Foundation (i chair their gp advisory group) & the links don’t seem to be working properly (lung foundation recently reconfigured their websites so might be something to do w that) . All of our gp resources are on copdx website eg COPDX Concise guide for GP, mx stable copd , additional therapies table, medicines pictures, copd action plan , mx AECOPD algorithm etc. Cheers, Kerry Hancock
Hi, there doesn’t seem to be a ‘contact’ us section anywhere obvious? Can you provide an email contact address? Thanks Evangelie
It’s on the front page but you can email mlecong@gmail.com
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Hey not sure if this site is still up and running. I know some of you from GPDU and was just wondering if there would be any interest in linking to my blog or my new youtube channel? https://dr-suresh.com/blog