🔺 Pathophysiology of Hyperthyroidism

 What happens when there’s too much thyroid hormone in the body?

When thyroid hormone levels are elevated, the body doesn’t just “speed up”, it becomes overstimulated across multiple systems. This isn’t a random collection of symptoms; it’s a predictable physiological response to excess T3 and T4.

The Thyroid Axis

 The thyroid axis is one of the most common clinically encountered endocrine systems. It regulates metabolism, temperature, energy, and mood. Understanding how it works helps you reason through symptoms like fatigue, weight change, palpitations, constipation, and menstrual irregularities.

The Hypothalamic–Pituitary Axis: Physiology, Reasoning, and Clinical Relevance

 Welcome to endocrine! This post is designed to help you reason through the hypothalamic–pituitary axis (HPA), not just memorise it. You don’t need to know everything yet. What matters is understanding how the system works, how it regulates itself, and how that explains common clinical presentations.

Preparing for exams - how to make the next two months work best for you

 Exams are just under eight weeks away - close enough to feel real, but still enough time to prepare steadily without panic. The key now is consistency. Small, regular efforts will carry you much further than bursts of late-night cramming. 

This post pulls together some evidence-based strategies, links back to resources you already have, and sets out how you can use the coming weeks to your advantage.

Surgeons Outside of Cities: New Research from UOW GSM

 We’re proud to celebrate Dr Tracey Edwards, UOW Medicine Class of 2023, whose latest article has just been published in the Australian Journal of Rural Health.

📖 Read the full open-access article here: Surgeons Outside of Cities – AJRH 2025

The study, co-authored with colleagues Dr David Garne, Prof Rowena Ivers, Prof Judy Mullan, Prof Kylie Mansfield, Prof Andrew Bonney, Dr Colin Cortie, and myself, examined ten years of workforce data on surgeons across Australia (2013–2022).

Key findings from the research include:

• The total number of surgeons in Australia rose from 4,568 to 5,724 across the decade.

• Only 15.5% of surgeons now practise in rural areas (down from 16.9% in 2013), despite 29% of Australians living outside metropolitan centres.

• Female surgeons remain under-represented, particularly in rural settings (12.4%), with the paper noting barriers such as long hours, lack of mentoring, and family/partner considerations.

• Surgical sub-specialties other than general surgery are rare in regional and rural Australia.

This work highlights both progress and persistent challenges in ensuring equitable surgical care for all Australians. It underscores the importance of initiatives to attract and retain surgeons in regional and rural practice, including targeted training, mentoring, and support for women in surgery.

Why “High Yield” Thinking is Harmful in Medicine

 You may hear medical students talk about “high yield” and “low yield” topics, the idea that some things are worth learning because they’ll score marks, while others can safely be ignored. I, like many others, find this discussion at best irritating and at worst exasperating or even offensive. Why?

This mindset is short-sighted and demeaning to patients and their experiences. Labelling parts of the curriculum as “low yield” suggests they are less valuable, when in reality, every condition, system, and clinical story matters to the people living it. The “rare” syndrome, the “niche” complication, or the “uncommon” presentation may be the defining moment in one patient’s life - and the patient in front of you deserves your full attention, not a calculation of yield.

There is also a degree of arrogance in the “high yield” mindset. As students, you do not yet have the experience to judge what will or won’t be important in your future practice. What feels irrelevant today may be critical tomorrow. Senior medical educators have designed the curriculum with decades of accumulated wisdom. To dismiss parts of it as “low yield” is to assume you know better than those who have seen the consequences when knowledge gaps harm patients.

Focusing only on what might appear in exams encourages skipping over knowledge simply because it’s uncommon, uninteresting to you, or because you don't yet have the experience to understand its value. That erodes your future readiness as a doctor and risks patient safety. Medicine is built on breadth as well as depth - on curiosity, humility, and a willingness to take every presentation seriously. You don’t get to choose which patient walks through your door. When it’s their story, it will always be high yield.

Instead of chasing the most marks for the least effort, or trying to be “strategic,” aim higher: focus on becoming the best doctor you can be. That means:

• Building strong foundational concepts that you can apply across conditions.
• Seeking integration: understanding how systems connect, not just isolated facts.
• Practising clinical reasoning: applying knowledge in scenarios, not memorising lists.
• Reflecting on the kind of doctor you want to be - one who values marks, or one who values patients.

Exams will come and go, but your patients will live with the consequences of how seriously you approached your learning. Choose to respect the curriculum, respect your educators, and above all respect your patients - because in real medicine, everything is high yield.

Understanding common fracture types 🦴

 Fractures are important—not just because they’re common, but because they reveal how bones respond to force, age, and physiology. One way to think about them is as patterns left behind by trauma: each shape tells you something about the mechanism, the anatomy involved, and what might go wrong next.

In this post, we’ll walk through common fracture types and explore how to reason through them. Not just what they look like, but why they happen, how they present, and what they mean for your patient.  

Osteoporosis: The Silent Thief of Bone 🦴

Hey students! 👋 Let’s take a deep dive into osteoporosis—a condition that’s far more than just “brittle bones.” In Australia, 1 in 3 women and 1 in 5 men over 50 will experience an osteoporotic fracture. 

But what’s really happening at the cellular level, and how do we tackle it? Let’s break it down (pun intended 😉).

Understanding, investigating and managing pericarditis

You’ll hear it described as “sharp chest pain,” “worse when lying flat,” or “relieved by sitting forward.” But what’s actually happening when someone has pericarditis—and how do we reason through it clinically?

Let’s explore the pathophysiology first, then walk through how to spot it, investigate it, and manage it.

🧠 Psychosis or delirium : a complex interplay

Acute physical illness doesn’t just affect the body - it can destabilize the mind. For patients with schizophrenia, dementia or other psychotic or neurodegenerative disorders, infections like pneumonia or urinary tract infections can trigger agitation, paranoia, or hallucinations. 

Understanding this interplay is essential for safe, compassionate care in hospital settings.

Lower Limb Anatomy in Motion: Structure Meets Function

 Every time you take a step, shift your weight, or rise from a chair, your body performs a complex, coordinated dance. The lower limb and pelvis aren’t just anatomical regions—they’re the foundation of mobility, balance, and independence. For older adults, even subtle disruptions in this system can lead to instability, falls, and fractures. Understanding how these structures work together—and what happens when they fail—is essential for building clinical reasoning from day one.

Let’s explore how bones, joints, muscles, and connective tissues work together to keep you upright—and what happens when they don’t.

Falls in the Elderly: A Preventable Problem

Falls are a major cause of injury and loss of independence in older adults. In Australia, 1 in 3 people over 65 will experience a fall each year—and for many, it’s a life-changing event.

But here’s the good news: most falls are preventable. This post explores the why, how, and what you can do about it.

Hip Fractures: A Major Challenge in Ageing Populations 🦴

Let’s talk about hip fractures—a serious and often life-altering injury, especially for our elderly patients. In Australia, hip fractures are one of the leading causes of hospital admissions in people over 65. They’re not just painful—they’re a sentinel event, often marking a turning point in a patient’s independence, mobility, and overall health.

But what exactly is a “hip fracture”? And why does it carry such weight in clinical practice?

The Normal Physiology of Bone: Remodelling, Healing & Influencing Factors 🦴

Bone physiology might seem like a dry topic at first glance, but it’s anything but. It’s the key to understanding how fractures heal, why osteoporosis develops, and what goes wrong in metabolic bone diseases. For future clinicians, this knowledge isn’t just theoretical—it’s the basis for diagnosing, managing, and preventing some of the most common and impactful conditions you’ll encounter.

Let’s start with the basics: bones are living, dynamic tissues. They’re constantly being broken down and rebuilt in a process called remodelling. This isn’t just maintenance—it’s adaptation. Bones respond to mechanical stress, repair microscopic damage, and help regulate calcium levels in the blood. But how does this happen? And what affects the bone’s ability to heal after injury?

Structure and Function of CNS Motor and Sensory Tracts 🧠

 👋 Ready to dive into the highways of the nervous system? Buckle up, because today we’re exploring the Structure and Function of CNS Motor and Sensory Tracts! 💨

Your brain and spinal cord are like a highly-organized city, and these tracts are the express lanes that carry critical information to and from your body. Let’s break it down in detail:

Stroke: Risk Factors, Epidemiology 🧠

Let’s dive deeper into stroke — a major global health burden and one of the leading causes of death and disability. Its impact spans acute care, rehabilitation, and long-term health outcomes, making it a cornerstone topic in medical education and public health.

Understanding the epidemiology, risk factors, and pathophysiology of stroke is essential not only for diagnosis and treatment but also for effective prevention strategies. Stroke is not a single disease but a spectrum of vascular events with diverse presentations, underlying mechanisms, and prognoses.

Here’s a structured breakdown to guide your understanding:

• Stroke affects over 15 million people annually worldwide, with rising incidence in low- and middle-income countries.

• In Australia, stroke is a leading cause of adult disability, with over 400,000 people living with its effects.

• Ischaemic strokes account for ~85% of cases, while haemorrhagic strokes (intracerebral and subarachnoid) make up the remainder.

• Age is the strongest predictor: risk doubles with each decade after 55.

• Rural and remote populations often face delayed access to acute stroke care and rehabilitation services, contributing to worse outcomes.

Read on for risk factors and more !

Part 2: Brain Blood Supply – Clinical Correlations & Stroke Syndromes!

Now that you’ve explored the intricate anatomy of the brain’s blood supply — from the Circle of Willis to the branching cerebral arteries — it’s time to connect that knowledge to clinical practice. Understanding which regions are perfused by each artery allows you to localise neurological deficits with precision, especially in acute stroke presentations.

Each arterial territory corresponds to distinct functional areas of the brain, so when blood flow is disrupted, the resulting symptoms offer vital clues. Whether it’s a sudden onset of aphasia, hemianopia, or ataxia, recognising the vascular pattern behind these signs helps clinicians rapidly identify the affected region, initiate appropriate imaging, and guide timely intervention.

Let’s walk through the major cerebral arteries and examine how their territories shape the clinical picture in stroke and other vascular syndromes.

Clinical Presentation of Stroke: Pathophysiology & Key Differences 🧠💥

Stroke is one of the leading causes of death and disability worldwide — a true medical emergency where every minute counts. Whether due to vascular occlusion or haemorrhage, the resulting neurological injury demands timely intervention and a solid understanding of underlying mechanisms. 

We'll explore the key concepts behind stroke presentation and mechanisms — from FAST signs to cellular cascades — to illuminate what’s happening beneath the surface. 🧠⚡

Part 1: Brain Blood Supply – The Anatomy Behind the Magic! 🧠

Today we’re exploring the vascular anatomy of the brain—because the brain may run the show, but without blood, it’s lights out! 💡 

Here’s some basics

🧠 Seeing the Brain in Action: A Beginner’s Guide to Neuroimaging

You’ve learned to listen to the brain’s electrical activity with EEG — now it’s time to see it. Neuroimaging gives us a window into the brain’s structure, guiding diagnosis, understanding, and treatment. 

But no single scan tells the full story. Each modality sees the brain differently — some reveal anatomy, others show activity — and choosing the right one means knowing what you’re asking, and what the scan can answer. This is just a primer to get you started - imaging is a long journey of learning to come !

Grant success: future AI symposium

 I am very pleased to be part of the cross-institutional team that will be delivering a symposium

"Harnessing AI and technology for equitable and ethical medical education" 

thanks to our successful GEMPASS Professional Development Education Grant. 

Congratulations to the whole grant team - my collaborators from Macquarie University,  Melbourne University, Deakin University and the University of Notre Dame - on our grant success. Looking forward to getting this work underway !!

📦 Want to learn more?

• 📝 All posts about research and data →
• 📝 Identifying ideal applicants for medicine (2022) →
• 📝 Should we extend the currency of cognitive ability testing scores? (2023) →
• 📝 Automated protocol for assessing career rurality outcomes (2023) →
• 📝 Comparing rural and specialty choices of UOW graduates (2023) →
• 📝 Australian health workforce insights (2024) →
• 📝 Medical school admissions processes to target rural applicants (2025) →

🧠 How Do We Listen to the Brain? A Beginner’s Guide to EEG

 Electroencephalography (EEG) is like eavesdropping on a conversation happening in your cerebral cortex. But instead of words, it uses electrical signals—and the patterns those signals make can tell us a lot about how the brain is functioning… or misfiring.

This post will outline the major important features of the EEG and how it can help us to understand the function, and dysfunction, of the brain. 

💊 Neurotransmitters on drugs: How alcohol, medications & other substances affect the CNS

Every action in the brain - whether catching a ball, calming a panic attack, or waking from anaesthesia - starts at the synapse. In physiology, you’ve already met the major neurotransmitters: GABA, glutamate, dopamine, serotonin, acetylcholine, and noradrenaline.

Now it’s time to see these in clinical action. If you haven't already read it, go back and check out the Neurotransmitters 101 post, it will help it all make sense. 

Many drugs and substances - from prescription medications to recreational drugs - alter the brain’s electrochemical balance. They dial neurotransmitter signalling up or down, leading to effects that are therapeutic, recreational, harmful, or all three. Understanding how they work builds your clinical intuition - and helps you spot mechanisms behind both therapeutic effects and side effects.

 We’ll explore how each class works, what effects they trigger, and where they act in the neural circuit. Consider this your pharmacological map of the CNS - designed for clarity, clinical context, and curiosity.

🧠 Principles of Seizure Management

 Seizures are a common clinical presentation—but behind each episode lies a nuanced web of causes, classifications, and considerations. Effective care begins with pattern recognition, cause exploration, and clinical prioritisation. 

This guide walks through how clinicians approach seizure care—from the first event to long-term planning—by connecting symptoms to anatomy, treatment, and safety.

Clinical Cases in Seizure Localisation

 Recognising seizure types isn't just about memorising lists — it's about observing patterns, interpreting subtle clues, and linking symptoms to functional neuroanatomy. The ability to reason clinically, even from brief descriptions, is one of the most important skills you’ll develop as a future doctor. 

In this post, we’ll walk through a series of realistic case vignettes that should be a challenge for not just first years, but clinical second and third years as well. 

Take your time with each one — some may seem straightforward, others more ambiguous. That’s okay. Clinical reasoning is a skill, not an instinct — and every case you puzzle through builds it.

To Anki or not to Anki: Why flashcards aren’t the whole story in medical education

You’ve probably heard it already today—someone swearing by their Anki deck, proudly announcing they’re “only 600 cards behind.”

Flashcards have become the unofficial religion of medical study.

 🧠 Anki isn’t evil - but it’s also not enough

Anki’s not a villain. But it’s also not a miracle and definitely not a short cut.

And sometimes, it might be the very thing slowing you down.

🌐 Navigating the blog: A guide to getting the most out of it

 Welcome! Whether you’ve stumbled in while revising neuroanatomy or you're deep in a diagnostic reasoning rabbit hole, this blog was designed to help you connect clinical concepts, and spark questions that actually matter. 

It's a scaffolded learning tool designed to provoke thinking, support understanding, and build clinical intuition. Here’s how to dive deeper and make the most of it.

🧠 CONSCIOUSNESS (and how we can lose it)

 Consciousness might seem like something “obvious”—you know when you’re awake, alert, and aware. But understanding what consciousness is (from a medical perspective), and why it can be disrupted, is fundamental to learning clinical neurology and emergency medicine. Let’s build the foundation.

🧠 NEUROTRANSMITTERS 101: The Basics of Neurotransmission

 Ready to dive into the fascinating world of neurotransmitters? These tiny molecules are the chemical messengers that keep your nervous system humming—coordinating thoughts, movements, moods, and memories.

 Let’s explore how these molecules work and why they’re clinically meaningful. 🩺

Localisation of seizures 🧠

 When someone has a seizure, the symptoms can tell us more than just what happened — they give clues about where in the brain it happened. Seizure localisation is the art and science of mapping signs and behaviours to specific cortical regions. From staring spells to sudden muscle jerks, each presentation points to a unique neural epicentre. 

Understanding where seizures begin helps us decode the circuitry behind them, guides diagnosis, and even shapes treatment decisions. Let’s explore how brain geography becomes clinical insight.

Understanding Seizure Classification 🧠

Hey future doctors! 👋 Let's dive into the fascinating world of seizure classification. 🩺✨

Seizures reflect abnormal electrical activity in the brain, but they don't all look alike. Some involve convulsions, others just subtle lapses in awareness. Classification matters—not just for tidy documentation, but for tailoring treatment and understanding prognosis.

🔬 Pathophysiology of Seizures: What’s Going Wrong?

 Seizures are caused by abnormal, excessive, synchronous electrical activity in groups of neurons. Seizures are like a power surge in the brain. Instead of orderly, purposeful neural signals, you get a storm of chaotic, excessive firing across neuron groups. 

This hyperactivity disrupts normal function — from movement and sensation to awareness and behaviour.

🧠 From Cortex to Brainstem: Mapping the Machinery of Thought and Function

 The central nervous system (CNS) isn’t just a bundle of grey and white matter—it’s the command centre for sensation, movement, cognition, and survival. Understanding its architecture sets the stage for recognising how neurological damage unfolds in real patients.

Let’s take a tour through the cortex, subcortex, and brainstem—with just enough anatomical and functional depth to make it stick.

Friday's Big Fat Kidney Quiz

 

This 35 question renal quiz is designed for medical students and covers key concepts in kidney structure, function, and pathophysiology. As always, you can answer anonymously, with immediate feedback, and can try again as often as you like.

🩺 When the Filters Fail: A review of reduced renal function

Your kidneys filter over 180 litres of blood a day, removing waste, balancing electrolytes, and regulating blood pressure. But what happens when renal function starts to decline?

👩‍⚕️ Meet Karen, a 54-year-old woman with Type 2 Diabetes and longstanding hypertension. She’s noticed some ankle swelling, increasing fatigue, and mild nausea. Her GP runs bloods— her eGFR is 38 mL/min/1.73m², her creatinine is up, and there’s proteinuria.

Beneath those swelling ankles lies a story of pressure, filtration failure, and systemic fallout. This is where physiology meets clinical reality, and small changes start to snowball.

🧠 Interpreting Renal Function Tests:

Renal function tests aren’t just numbers — they’re clues. When interpreted thoughtfully, they can help us distinguish between dehydration, intrinsic renal disease, and post-renal obstruction.  In this post, you’ll meet patients like Tom, who presents with dehydration and rising creatinine; Aisha, whose frothy urine holds a glomerular secret; and Leo, whose “normal” labs conceal a chronic decline — all to help you decode renal results with clinical confidence. 

We’ll explore how to interpret renal function tests and urinalysis through a clinical reasoning lens — breaking down key blood and urine markers, comparing patterns across different types of kidney injury, and working through real-world cases to bring the concepts to life.

Understanding Glomerulonephritis: ( Part 2- Clinical Patterns and Cases)

Glomerulonephritis (GN) can be a quiet intruder or a dramatic disruptor. It may first present as an incidental finding on urinalysis — microscopic haematuria or mild proteinuria — or arrive with oedema, dark-coloured urine, rising blood pressure, or even renal failure. For clinicians, GN is a diagnostic challenge and a physiologic puzzle. What unites its many forms is a common battleground: the glomerulus. In this post, we explore how glomerular injury arises, how it disturbs the kidney’s delicate filtration barrier, and how two classic clinical patterns — nephritic and nephrotic syndromes — help us make sense of the chaos.

In this post, we’ll walk through what glomerulonephritis is, how it disrupts the kidney’s filtration barrier, and why understanding its immune mechanisms matters for recognising—and reasoning through—renal disease.

Understanding Glomerulonephritis: (Part 1 – Pathophysiology and mechanisms)

 The kidney is not merely a blood-cleaning organ — it’s a precisely engineered filtration system, packed into a space smaller than your fist. At the heart of this system lies the glomerulus, a tight ball of capillaries ensconced within Bowman’s capsule, where blood meets filter.

When this filter becomes inflamed — a condition called glomerulonephritis (GN) — its normally selective barrier becomes leaky, irritable, and dysfunctional. Blood cells and proteins that should stay in the bloodstream escape into the urine. Waste products that should be cleared begin to build up.

 

In this post, we’ll explore what glomerulonephritis actually is, how it disrupts the kidney’s filtration barrier, and why understanding its immune mechanisms matters — especially before diving into clinical patterns.

🧭 Coming Up after this in Part 2, we’ll explore how these injuries translate into clinical syndromes — particularly the classic nephritic vs nephrotic divide — and walk through real-world cases to bring the concepts to life.

QUIZ : Urinary tract infections

A 12-question quiz on urinary tract infections and pyelonephritis, focusing on microbiology, pathophysiology, antibiotic choice, and host defences.

🦠 Common Renal Infections: Pathophysiology Meets Practice

 Infections in the renal system are among the most common reasons patients present to GPs and emergency departments — yet their underlying mechanisms are often oversimplified. These aren't just “bladder bugs” causing discomfort: they are dynamic, evolving conditions that reflect an interplay between microbial virulence, host defence, and anatomical vulnerabilities.

From the relatively straightforward presentation of cystitis to the more serious implications of pyelonephritis, renal infections provide a perfect lens through which to explore the clinical relevance of physiology and pathophysiology. How does a bacterium from the gut end up damaging a kidney? What determines whether a simple UTI becomes a systemic illness? And how do we decide when antibiotics, imaging, or hospital admission are truly necessary?

In this post, we’ll explore how renal infections arise, what differentiates upper from lower tract involvement, and how pathophysiological principles guide investigation and treatment decisions.

QUIZ : Renal physiology and blood pressure regulation

A 10-question quiz on renal physiology and blood pressure regulation, focusing on RAAS, nephron function, sympathetic tone, and antihypertensive drug mechanisms.

 

The Kidney and Blood Pressure Control

 The kidneys are best known for filtering waste and producing urine — but they are also key regulators of long-term blood pressure. Far from passive filters, they act as fluid managers and hormonal sensors, constantly monitoring blood flow, volume, and salt levels, then adjusting the body's internal settings to stabilise the circulation.

The cardiovascular system doesn’t operate in isolation — it relies on input from other organs, and the kidneys are among the most influential. Through a combination of neural and hormonal feedback, they help maintain vascular tone and circulating volume. This role becomes especially apparent in chronic conditions such as hypertension and chronic kidney disease, where blood pressure control and renal function often deteriorate together.

Many commonly used antihypertensives — including diuretics, ACE inhibitors, and angiotensin receptor blockers — work by targeting renal processes or the hormones the kidney influences. Understanding how the kidneys detect and respond to systemic signals forms the foundation not only for renal physiology, but for clinical reasoning in cardiovascular disease and pharmacological management.

In this post, we’ll explore how the kidneys sense and respond to changes in blood pressure — and how this underpins both disease processes like hypertension and the mechanism of action for many antihypertensive drugs.

 

Revision MEGA QUIZ

First-Year Medical Mega Quiz: Physiology, Pathophysiology, and Pharmacology

Test your understanding of core medical concepts across systems! This 40-question quiz is packed with clinical vignettes and applied physiology from topics like asthma, digestion, gas exchange, renal handling, antibiotics, ECGs, liver disease, pharmacology and more. Can you get through the full set?

QUIZ: Kidney structure and function

Test your understanding of nephron structure and kidney physiology with these five quiz questions.

Welcome to the Kidney: Structure and Function Explained

🩺 What the Kidneys Might Be Telling Us

A 56-year-old woman visits her GP with two common but vague symptoms: fatigue and ankle swelling. Her vitals and labs show:

• Blood pressure: 152/88 mmHg 
• Creatinine: 145 µmol/L
• eGFR: 42 mL/min/1.73m²
• Haemoglobin: Mild normocytic anaemia
• Urine dipstick: 1+ protein, no blood

As a GP, I'd be asking: are these early signs of chronic kidney disease (CKD), or part of a broader hypertensive picture? These results might seem only mildly abnormal, but even “moderate” kidney dysfunction can signal serious shifts in physiology. So—what’s failing? And why do those failures affect more than just the urine?

This post walks through how each part of the nephron contributes to health, and what happens when that function begins to slip.

QUIZ : Alcohol-related liver disease and Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver disease

A 5-question quiz exploring the pathophysiology of alcohol-related and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (ARLD vs NAFLD). Read each clinical scenario and choose the best explanation.

Steatosis to Cirrhosis: Exploring the Mechanisms Behind ARLD and NAFLD

In this post, we explore the similarities and differences between alcohol-related liver disease (ARLD) and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)—two of the most common causes of liver dysfunction worldwide. 

Both progress through similar pathological stages but have distinct triggers, mechanisms, and associated conditions. Let’s dive into how each affects liver structure and function.

QUIZ: Interpreting Hepatitis B Serology

 

🧪 Quiz: Interpreting Hepatitis B Serology

Test your understanding of Hepatitis B serology with these five clinical scenarios. Can you apply serological markers to real-world cases?

Viral hepatitis Part 3: Making Sense of Hepatitis B Serology 🧬

Hepatitis B serology can feel like a maze of antigens, antibodies, and confusing lab results, but each marker tells a distinct story about the virus’s interaction with the immune system. Instead of memorizing isolated test results, understanding HBV’s pathophysiology makes interpretation logical, predictive, and clinically useful. 

This post breaks down the HBV lifecycle, key serological markers, and infection phases—helping clinicians differentiate acute, chronic, resolved, and vaccinated states with confidence. This guide will transform HBV serology from memorization into true understanding.

Research update: Medical school admission processes to target rural applicants

 I'm very pleased to share our latest publication in BMC Medical Education: "Medical school admission processes to target rural applicants: an international scoping review and mapping of Australian practices."

https://bmcmededuc.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12909-025-07234-3 

Alongside esteemed colleagues from Deakin University, Charles Sturt University, University of Queensland, University of Melbourne, University of Adelaide, Western Sydney University, and the University of South Australia, we explored how Australian medical schools select rural applicants.

Our findings reinforce the importance of recruiting rural-origin students to address workforce shortages, revealing significant variations in how academic performance metrics and standardised tests are weighted across institutions. While many medical schools adapt entry criteria for rural candidates, greater consistency and evidence-based approaches could improve fairness and long-term healthcare sustainability.

This research aligns with international studies supporting tailored admission processes to strengthen rural health outcomes. We advocate for modified pathways that ensure equitable access to medical education and a stronger rural medical workforce.

📦 Want to learn more?

• 📝 All posts about research and data →
• 📝 Identifying ideal applicants for medicine (2022) →
• 📝 Should we extend the currency of cognitive ability testing scores? (2023) →
• 📝 Automated protocol for assessing career rurality outcomes (2023) →
• 📝 Comparing rural and specialty choices of UOW graduates (2023) →
• 📝 Australian health workforce insights (2024) →
• 📝 Medical school admissions processes to target rural applicants (2025) →