Oral therapy in type 2 diabetes – navigating the PBS maze

14th November 2019, Dr Chee L Khoo

Oral therapy for T2D – navigating the PBS maze

During our recent GP Diabetes Injectable Masterclass Workshop, I noted that there was a lot of uncertainty and confusion in relation to what oral agents can be combined under the PBS. This uncertainty and confusion can only lead to hesitation to escalate treatment in patients whose glycaemic control is suboptimal.…

Psst! Wanna fly for free?

28th August 2019, Dr Chee L Khoo

Now, most of us travel overseas a lot. We have already seen how to get lounge access in a previous article. It would be nice if you could also use your frequent flyer points during peak season and fly for free as well. What if you don’t have enough points? Well, what if I can get you more points for free so that you can use those points to fly for free.…

Implementing a successful low calorie diet in general practice – Part 2

23rd May, 2019. Dr Chee L Khoo

How to implement a low calorie diet for weight loss in general practice

In the last issue, we described our retrospective audit of all the patients at my practice who has a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes and who was offered a low calorie, low carbohydrate diet program between January and May 2018. In general, all patients with type 2 diabetes were offered a partial meal replacement (two sachets plus a meal) and regular follow up over the subsequent 12 months.…

Pavements and Medicare – what do they share in common?

13th February 2019, Dr Chee L Khoo

One of the great advantage of being a runner is that wherever you go, all you have to do is pack a pair of running shoes and the world is your oyster. During a recent visit to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, I went out running on the local streets. It was 6am and still pitch dark.…

Is there a doctor on the plane?

9th January 2019, Dr John Goswell

According to a recent article in JAMA, in flight emergencies occur in about 1:600 flights. This comforting statistic should allow doctors to relax and enjoy their holidays. Not so for me. I have answered the call “Is there a doctor on the plane” twice now, even though I am not a “frequent flier”. …

Another successful injectable workshop – DOMTRU at your service!

13th December 2018, Dr Chee L Khoo

Three weeks ago, 25 of our GP and allied health professional (AHP) colleagues sacrificed their valuable Saturday and became engaged in a highly interactive session exploring the use of injectables in the management of our patients with type 2 diabetes. Evaluation, comments and suggestions from the participants have just been collated and here at the Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism Translational Research Unit (DOMTRU) we are just absolutely delighted about the results.…

Sitting on a pot of gold in general practice

26th November 2018, Dr Chee L Khoo

We sit on a large repository of data in general practice. A small subset of the data that can be useful is the individual patient data that can facilitate patient care. This subset (in the right set up) is what the myhealthrecord is hoping to host in the cloud but that is another story for another day.…

Diabetes Management – GPs as good as Diabetes Centres!

13th November 2018, Dr Chee L Khoo

70-80% of patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) are managed in primary care in Australia. Patients managed in hospital based outpatients have the advantage of multi-disciplinary team care. They have dietitians, credentialled diabetes educator (CDE), physiotherapists and of course, the endocrinologist in the team. On the other hand, we, as GPs, have the advantage of knowing our patients and their families’ social environment.…

“Trust me, I am a doctor” – don’t take that for granted!

15th August, 2018, Dr Chee L Khoo

Opinion article 

“Trust me, I’m a doctor” is so universally accepted that we don’t even have to say it. Patients know that they can trust us implicitly. What are we asking patients to trust us with though? The current debate or argument about the pros and cons of opt-in or opt-out with MyHealthRecord may endanger the trust patients have in their doctors.…

Acute knee injuries – importance of history taking and simple examination

June 15, 2018 Dr Chee L Khoo

Someone once said “If at the end of taking the history, you do not have the diagnosis, take the history again”. This is particularly relevant when we come to knee injuries. In 90% of the time, when I see someone with a knee injury, I have a fair idea what I am looking for in the examination before I even touch the patient.…