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BeamOn

I'm a radiation oncologist and clinical academic, undertaking informatics research. My journey has been long and varied, starting with secondary science teacher training and 7 years in the country, followed by mature-aged medical training, marriage and children (n=6!). I completed radiation oncology training in NSW before banishment for 6 years to the wilds of the East Islands. On returning home there were locums and a consultancy business before returning to clinical medicine. My hobby is computing and as a lover of Open Source software, it is unwise to discuss Windows in my presence. [apologies to Ted Lawrence for using his number plate as a nickname]

You live, you learn!

By BeamOn on 1/25/2010 5:52 PM

Sometimes life gives you insights, moments of experience that can give an unexpected empathy. When it comes to emotions, I'm a bit of a Forrest Gump, you know "I'm not a smart man... but I know what love is." But I can learn .... when the lessons are delivered with a short sharp blow.

Another year ...

By BeamOn on 1/12/2010 3:15 PM

Here we are in 2010. What has 2009 taught us in oncology in our little corner of the world? Read on...

What are we teaching our medical students?

By BeamOn on 7/15/2009 4:00 PM

The training of the young doctor has been subject to much change in recent decades. Flexner's day is done - although if you set up a medical course now and promised to excel in Basic Sciences, then you would be very very revolutionary, if a little reactionary! Still, we try to stuff the knowledge in, as much as we had to, but thankfully we are a little more aware of the patient journey and experience. We particularly like to get out students to see the other side. The following blog is just that - a student's experience of a cancer patient. I was moved by the freshness and 'first time-ness' of the experience.

Early Treatment Does Not Improve Survival in Relapsed Ovarian Cancer

By BeamOn on 6/5/2009 10:36 PM

National identity plays a large part in the shape, capability and cost of the nation'shealth service. Whether settled by children of convicts, children of rebels, or some other historical bend in the road, the health system will reflect the heritage.

The Surgeon became The Patient

By BeamOn on 6/5/2009 9:51 PM

There is a poignancy for us oncologists when we see that one of our own has succumbed to the disease that we battle every day. Initially as young doctors we treat people much older than us, and then before much time passes, they suddenly are aged about the same. And then some of us get it, and the experience becomes different. Less knowledge might actually be of more help. New perspectives arise. So itseems to have been for our colleague.

GIGO

By BeamOn on 4/17/2009 9:28 PM

.... it means "Garbage IN, Garbage OUT". One of my 20-40 daily RSS feeds pulled up this gem of an article about a cancerous IT guy who decided to embrace the information superhighway, only to discover that it is inhabited by feral creatures eating his data and regurgitation a mess. How surprising!

Feelings

By BeamOn on 4/17/2009 8:23 PM

Every so often your previous unpleasant experiences revisit - presuming you have had some! I have and the other night they were active, bubbling to the surface and making it difficult to concentrate. So I took some time to throw together a very garbled blog entry to get it 'off my chest'. This of course will work temporarily and be back again later. Such is the nature of the unpleasant experience.

Consent forms

By BeamOn on 4/8/2009 7:34 PM

Having dealt with the ability of consent to curtail good medicine, let's look at that infuriating Consent Form. It even affects our language ... "I have to consent the patient" ... what? Well, that view of the world is addressed in this blog. And then I promise you, no more consent issues ... for a couple of months anyway!

Consent for ....

By BeamOn on 3/24/2009 7:33 PM

I find it very hard working out how to stay out of the way of individual ethicists and committees of ethicists who are telling us what's right and wrong (which is actually a moral dilemma, not an ethical dilemma!). Do you? Sorry, is it ethical to ask you that question?

Competence

By BeamOn on 3/7/2009 9:55 AM

Competence concerns me - one day I will be a patient! But modern medicine is too big for any of us individually, we are drowning in data. 20 years ago we decided that doctors had to be "life long learners". Now we know this is insufficient, we need to be "life long learning collaborators" always realizing that we will only ever know part of a field. We need to learn to hunt as a pack! Here's one story showing a new mindset.