Prof Marie Bismark

It takes courage for a board to get out of the inertia and out of the minutia. It takes courage to ask the hard questions and have the bold discussions. - Naomi Edwards #AGS25

A board needs an ability to sense signals in the ether. This requires spending more time outside of boardrooms and outside of board papers. Foresight is an amalgam of our social, professional, and community experiences. We need to get out of our bubbles. - Naomi Edwards #AGS25

The theme of the conference is Beyond the Horizon. The near term horizon is startling and fast-moving with geopolitical tensions, societal polarisation, and new trade tariffs. - Naomi Edwards #AGS25

Governance is more than stopping bad things from happening. Governance can make good things happen. #AGS25

Good morning all. For the next two days I’ll be sharing updates from the Australian Governanxe Summit in Sydney. #AGS25

I'm also 5'1", although slightly heavier than Laura, at 40kg. I, a surgeon, have had to argue with health professionals to give me 500mg paracetamol, like a child the same weight. 'But you have adult liver *function*' they'll say.

PLEASE individualise patient care. It matters.
#PatientCentredCare 🙏

Psychiatrist shortages putting compulsory patients at risk, doctor warns Gaps in care mean vulnerable patients may be "at increased risk of harming themselves or harming others".

People receiving compulsory care under the Mental Health Act are unwell & at risk of harming self or others. They have a legal right to a Responsible Clinician overseeing their care. Yet across NZ, >100 compulsory patients have no Responsible Clinician. This is not OK. www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

Denver gave people experiencing homelessness $1,000 a month. A year later, nearly half of participants said they had housing. Participants in Denver's basic-income program reported having more-secure housing, though results were similar in the trial and control groups.

Denver gave people experiencing homelessness $1k/month. A year later, nearly half had housing.

They also had fewer ER visits, nights spent in a hospital, and jail stays.

The report estimates that this reduction in public service use SAVED the city $589k.
www.businessinsider.com/denver-basic...

a little girl in a white dress is dancing and says i said what i said Alt: a little girl in a white dress is dancing and says i said what i said

If you’re a company that advertises your service by saying how crap GPs are and promise patients instant access:

DON’T tell those same people to then see us for all the things you can’t be bothered doing

Don’t erode trust in GPs while simultaneously expecting us to be your safety net

My dad and his 90-year-old best friend doing wheelies in the car park with dad’s new walker.

My mum’s garden in Rotorua, New Zealand

Count me in too. I like to do Bircher muesli with fresh berries and/or rhubarb and apple compote and a good vanilla yoghurt. Easy to prepare ahead of time and usually goes down well.

I drove from Wellington to Rotorua (a 5 hour drive) for a surprise visit with my mum & dad this weekend. My daughter - who lives 10min from me - spontaneously did the same thing arriving at Ouma and Oupa’s house less than an hour before I did. So now we have 3 generations together for the weekend!

ChatGPT outperforms docs who *using* GPT: NYTimes. (Small study.) Doctors *overruled* the AI if they disagreed with it. Will they overrule *patients* who use it?

ChatGPT alone did better (LOTS better) than doctors USING ChatGPT. What does this mean for PATIENTS who use AI and bring the results TO the doctor??

It was a tiny study (n=50) but a bigger follow-up is underway. #PatientsUseAI

open.substack.com/pub/patients...

Learning CPR on manikins without breasts puts women’s lives at risk, study finds Analysis of training models on global market found all had flat torsos with just one having a breast overlay

“CPR mannequins with no breasts are emblematic of healthcare practices being optimised for the white male body; with detrimental and sometimes deadly implications for anyone who doesn’t fit this mould.”

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Please don't call what RFK Jr. and Jay Bhattacharya are going to do medieval. It's not medieval. It's nothing like the Middle Ages. People in the Middle Ages were happy to try all kinds of things to not die of the plague and if you'd given them antibiotics and vaccines they would have loved it.

“I will not rescue you,
For you are not powerless.
I will not fix you
For you are not broken.
I will not heal you
For I see your wholeness.
I will walk with you through the darkness,
While you remember your light.”

Nine-day hīkoi to uphold the Treaty of Waitangi and Māori rights – in pictures A protest march has travelled for nine days across New Zealand, culminating at Wellington and parliament on Tuesday Continue reading...

Nine-day hīkoi to uphold the Treaty of Waitangi and Māori rights – in pictures

The migration of MedTwitter, along with a large cohort of science journalists, to BlueSky is striking in its scale and rapidity. In a short time, this shift has effectively transformed BlueSky into the essential hub for breaking medical news and vibrant scientific discourse.

Come work with me in Sydney at @childlightgcsi.bsky.social! Three year research fellowship on child sexual abuse and exploitation - applications close 20 Nov external-careers.jobs.unsw.edu.au/cw/en/job/52...

Thank you! Come and visit any time.

Project “rip up all the lawn and replace with boardwalks and NZ native plants” is going well!

That looks so good!

For anyone in Melbourne this is a fun (and free) thing to do. And having a wardrobe of clothes - in colours that make you happy - and where everything goes with everything, leaves more time for the important stuff in life.

Good morning from Kapiti Island, New Zealand

Hopefully my 9 vaccines (so far) will stand me in good stead then!

Good morning.

Word of the Day is as beautiful as it is underused. ‘Confelicity’ is finding joy in the happiness and success of others.

Another long clinic day, another reminder that what my patients need most is access to mental health care and some semblance of a social safety net. Things I can’t give them. 💔

Chairing panels of smart, interesting people is one of my favourite things to do - and this morning’s panel on “Psychosocial Hazards in the Workplace” was no exception.

I quoted Dr Louise Stone on the resilience myth: “Even the bounciest ball can’t bounce in a swamp”.

Good morning from New Zealand. Thank you for inviting me to join you here.