The ones we wish you’d read – now’s your chance ...
As you may know, The Medical Republic is taking a little break over the holidays and will crank the news machine up again in mid-January.
To tide you over, here is a best-of – but this year we’ve thrown data to the winds. Instead of peeking into the analytics box for our most-read stories, I asked the hard-working clinical reporting team for their favourites: the ones they most enjoyed reporting and writing or learned the most from.
They may not be the ones you clicked on the most, which tend to be practical things like guidelines and shortages – we get it, you don’t have all day – but in this break from our regular scheduling, you have time to catch up. No excuses!
Amanda Sheppeard, clinical writer who doubles as TMR managing editor and triples as non-GP specialist editor (i.e. takes care of rheumatology, dermatology, allergy and respiratory, oncology and gastroenterology publications), wrote about the alarming rise in damaging skincare obsessions among children, dermatology for gender-diverse patients and an unexpected case of scurvy.
Mariella Attard, deputy clinical editor, welcomed news of an imminent UTI vaccine and a long-overdue update from the Women’s Health Initiative study confirming MHT’s safety, and wrote this feature about the simple-but-difficult idea of shared care for cancer patients.
Lincoln Tracy, deputy specialist editor, had this feature on a boxing and writing workshop for adult survivors of child sexual abuse, another on surprise gifts from organ donors and got to write the closest thing to a cricket story we would allow.
Clinical writer Helen Tobler covered the horribly persistent stigma around lung cancer, the ever-increasing incidence of cancer, especially in men, and how women miss out on care in between their pregnancies.
Clinical writer Laura Andronicos, who welcomed a baby in September, covered some good news about dementia prevention, potential bad news about stomach aches and the fun idea of deploying viruses to kill cancer.
Finally I, your clinical editor, could easily fill my favourites with Back Pages, but wrote a few more serious ones too, like one on the growth of risky prescribing in type 1 diabetes, this feature on distressing experiences with mpox and what’s changed since 2022, and this on the usefulness of pharmacogenomic testing for a whole range of medications.
Have a safe and happy holiday period, and see you with more in 2025.
