This is something I have strong feelings about. — There is a right way to do this. And there’s a clumsy, unethical, and ugly way. I want to show you the right way. (For the love of God, please do it the right way.) A bit of background I come at this from two perspectives. Firstly, from a Communications journalism perspective. At uni…

Jordan Smith crested down the ski slopes, in mode. He didn’t have a care in the world. Final school exams were in the past. He had aced them. Now he was on holiday. Athletic and talented, Jordan could do anything he wanted. The sun shone gold on the white powder…

These fundamentals help set your business on the right path — Mission and Vision Statements When it comes to Vision and Mission, many get these two confused, but there is a difference. The Mission statement defines the business’s purpose and objectives. It should have a single objective and an active verb. Although not every company does, the best ones define a business and its purpose…

Turn information into meaningful encounters For the last few nights, my 5-year old has asked for the same story. Rumpelstiltskin. If you don’t know it, a young lady is offered to the king for marriage under the pretense that she can weave straw into gold. Given a pile of straw and a deadline of the…

Understanding one of the world’s oldest conditions — Sam was a quiet, hardworking, 35-year-old cabinetmaker from Narara who loved crafting beautiful furniture. Life seemed ordinary for Sam, but something peculiar had been happening to him for as long as he could remember. Sam would occasionally experience moments of ‘spacing out.’ …

Tips to turn ‘diabolical’ into ‘delightful’ — When you arrive at the clinic for a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan, there’s a checklist you have to sign. Aside from skydiving, you’ll never see such a comprehensive waiver. There is a full two pages with checkboxes. Do you have a pacemaker? Shrapnel in your body? Bullet wounds? Metal…

The best use I’ve found of ChatGPT is combining it with PubMed — When they told me who I’d be writing for, I gulped. Doctors, professors, epidemiologists, pharmacists. The membership included some of the most esteemed people in the world. My job was with an international medical society. When the first urgent brief came through, the whole office was buzzing. …

A dilemma in the treatment room — She had blanked out the word diet when I said how I’d been treating my disease. I may as well have said I was treating myself with the rare purple ink of an octopus. The neurologist’s grey hair was wavy. Thick glasses shielded her brown, incredulous eyes. She had the…

Most prescription drugs compete in choppy waters. Except the rare few that offer a cure. — Ask anyone in pharmaceutical marketing. Diseases are markets. For decades, hepatitis C was a sleeping dragon. There were no obvious symptoms. Many people carrying the virus don’t know they have it. There are no obvious symptoms. Most people had been infected by contact with infected blood. The virus could lie…