Episode 92: Acute Otitis Media, Plus Glue Ear, Plus Sleep | Kids ENT

Episode 91: Sleep Apnoea | Pickwickian Syndrome

Charles Dicken’s first novel has an adolescent boy named Joe who was overweight and always sleepy. He could fall asleep at any time, even during meals. The novel is known as the Pickwick Papers. Decades later, doctors began to recognise patients with the same symptoms. They called it Pickwickian sy…

Episode 90: Chronic Kidney Disease (Part 2) | Diabetes, Hypertension & Avoiding The Rotating Drum Kidney

Willem J Kolff was an intern when he saw a 22 year old man die of kidney failure. He realised that the patient’s life could have been saved if his blood could have been detoxified. Willem set to work and developed the first ever dialysis machine (initially the ‘rotating drum kidney’). While dialys…

Episode 89: Chronic Kidney Disease (Part 1) | The Bright Side Of Urine

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. Early detection and intervention can slow the progression of CKD by up to 15 years or longer. Our …

Episode 88: Intimate Partner Violence | Permission To Ask And Listen

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 their partner. Approximately 2.5 million Australians (13%) experienced abuse during their childhood. H…

Episode 87: Oral Cancer | Smokes For Nothin’ And HPV For Free

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 medicine has thankfully provided much to our understanding, the treatment and management of patients…

Episode 86: Vitamin B12 | Solving The Pernicious Anaemia Mystery

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 neurological symptoms. It would take over a hundred years before we would know how to treat this condi…

Episode 85: Lung Cancer Screening | Search For The 30 Pack-Years

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 program has been rolled out in Australia to detect asymptomatic patients with a significant smoking …

Episode 84: Prostate Cancer | Donald Gleason’s Legacy

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 Donald Gleason and he developed a system that would revolutionise our understanding of prostate canc…

Episode 83: Breast Augmentation | Risks and Myths

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 were poor. In 1962, the first operation using silicone implants was performed and it revolutionised…