This Medical Life

One in 10 Australians over the age of 18 years are living with signs of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) with the number of patients needing treatment for kidney failure has doubled in the last 20 years.…

The statistics of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) and Domestic Violence prevalence are staggering. 1 in 6 adult women and 1 in 16 adult men have experience physical or sexual abuse at the hands of th…

Oral cancer was a fatal disease even into the twentieth century. Patients required extensive surgery and often had a painful recovery or went into palliative care but the result was the same. Modern …

The first medical description of pernicious anaemia is from 1821. It is written by Dr James Combe and describes a previously well 47 year old corn-merchant who presented with pallor, weakness, and ne…

One of the most difficult cancers to detect early has been lung cancer. Patients often present with advanced disease that and can often be fatal.

In April 2025, a new National Lung Cancer Screening p…

In 1966, the Chief of Urology asked the Chief of Pathology at the Minneapolis VA Hospital to develop a system to communicate the results of prostate cancer to researchers. The Chief of Pathology was …

Over the last 100 years, numerous types of implants (i.e. ivory, glass, wool) and injections (i.e. epoxy resin, beeswax, paraffin) have been used in an attempt for breast augmentation but the results…

The interplay between genetics and medications is important but complex. Pharmacogenomic testing provides doctors with information about how individual patients may respond to certain medications (ie…

In 1924, a surgeon and a pathologist had a conversation about some patients with multiple bowel polyps. The pathologist, Dr Cuthbert Dukes, and the surgeon, Mr JP Lockhart-Mummery, noted that patient…

We have come a long way in our understanding of epilepsy and seizures.

Historically, epilepsy was associated with possession and demonic forces.

Modern medicine has helped us to understand that epile…

It is evident from paintings that Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo suffered some form of underlying hand pathologies. These have been the focus of discussions and journal articles amongst many acad…

Hyponatraemia, the most common electrolyte disturbance in clinical medicine, is often subtle but can be serious.

In this episode, we trace the surprising history of fluid replacement back to the 1832…

In 1958, Dr Denis Burkitt was working in Uganda when he saw multiple children with large and aggressive jaw tumours. He had never seen anything like this before and he investigated further. Over the …

Osteoporosis is a disease that takes years and even decades to develop. Up to 40% of post-menopausal women are affected who have a lifetime risk of fracture of ~40%. Men aged 60 have a 25% lifetime r…

Recent genetics studies have shown that ancient Humans and Neanderthals coexisted around 50,000 years ago for approximately 7,000 years. There is evidence of these different human species mixing and…

And we’re back for 2025. We thought we’d ease into this season with some medical stories. From the Manhattan project and the demon core to the inspirational stories of Dr Elizabeth Blackwell, Dr Eliz…

Patients with colorectal cancer often have their diagnosis, treatment, and care discussed at a regular multidisciplinary team meeting. This includes: gastroenterologists, surgeons, oncology, radiatio…

The lifetime risk for colorectal cancer is 1 in 23 men and 1 in 25 women. Detecting and diagnosing cancer is a critical step in managing a patient’s health as well as the multidisciplinary team where…

Colorectal cancer accounts for ~10% of all new cancer diagnoses. Fortunately, over the last three decades, the 5 year patient survival has increased from 56% to 71%. As with most cancers, the key to …

Troponin is a protein found in heart muscle that was a game changer when it came to diagnosing heart attacks and myocardial injury in the late 1990s. Three decades later, it is an invaluable test wit…