Image: Pixabay.com

What is it like to be a General Practitioner in Australia? What are Australian Family Doctors passionate about? What do they struggle with? The Amazing Australian GP Bloggers 2014 give readers a rare look behind the scene.

Bloggers like Justin Coleman, Jacquie Garton-Smith, Genevieve Yates and Penny Wilson are great storytellers with an impressive writing talent. Penny’s post Sorry… But are you really a doctor, reached number 7 in the most popular WordPress blog posts worldwide.

Then there are the GP bloggers who focus on teaching and sharing skills and knowledge, like Michael Tam, Casey Parker, Tim Leeuwenburg, Minh Le Cong and Robin Park. They are responsible for a vast amount of freely accessible medical information. Much of their work can be found via the excellent foam4gp blog.

It is good to see that some GP bloggers post valuable information for patients, such as Jo Kosterich, Brad McKay and Nick Tellis. Duncan Jefferson is creating a nice podcast collection on his blog.

Examples of posts I enjoyed:

• How to live to 150 in 10 easy steps, by Brad McKay
• The art of uncertainty in general practice, by Marlene Pearce
• When Terry Barnes and I bumped into each other on Twitter, by Tim Senior

The stream of stories, confessions, opinions, experiences, tutorials, interviews and podcasts just goes on. It is impossible to mention everyone here, so I refer to the list below.

I would like to finish with acknowledging the hard work these doctors are putting into their blogs. From experience I know it can be a challenge to keep the momentum of writing going. Even though it is a passion, it is not always easy.

All these creative GP bloggers have inspired me, and I’m sure you will (continue to) enjoy their posts!

Click on the WordPress/Blogger logo to go to a blog.

Dr Melanie Clothier

Rural GP | Always learning from my patients | Love music, good company, good food/wine/coffee. Views my own. Rural South Australia. Blogs at: WordPress.

Dr Justin Coleman

President, Australasian Medical Writers Assoc. GP, Inala Indigenous Health. Medical editor. Snr lecturer UQ & GU. Blogger; The Naked Doctor. Blogs at: WordPress.

Dr Gerry Considine

Pilot | Rural GP | drmelclothier = better half | Tweets/thoughts my own. Eyre Peninsula, SA. Blogs at: WordPress.

Dr George Forgan-Smith

Melbourne, Australia. Blogs at: WordPress.

Dr Jacquie Garton-Smith

GP, Clinical Lead, health communications advisor, fiction writer, wife, mum, gardener & doglover, keeps a paper diary & writes lots of lists. Blogs at: WordPress.

Dr Sam Heard

NT Specialist General Practitioner. Making health compute with openEHR, Australia. Blogs at: WordPress.

Dr Duncan Jefferson

Focus on Health. Medical Doctor: Writer: Podcaster. Founder of The Pilgrim Trail and Camino Salvado; can be a tad impish on occasion! Perth, Western Australia. Blogs at: Blogspot.

Dr Joe Kosterich

An independent doctor actually talking about health. Perth, Australia. Blogs at: WordPress.

Dr Edwin Kruys

Husband, father, GP. I blog about healthcare, social media & eHealth. Sunshine Coast, Queensland. Blogs at: WordPress.

Dr Minh Le Cong

Flying Doctor, rural GP, I work in the sky, live in the tropics, love my family and dream of how to make things better. Supporter of FOAMed. Cairns, Queensland, Australia. Blogs at: WordPress.

Dr Tim Leeuwenburg

Resuscitate-Differentiate-Prognosticate: Roadkill, Diff Awy & Checklist Fan – ATLS-EMST Director – Quality Care. Out There via FOAMed & ruraldoctors.net. Kangaroo Island, Australia. Blogs at: WordPress.

Dr Brad Mckay

Doctor & TV Presenter of Embarrassing Bodies Down Under. Skeptically Optimistic. Gadget Geek. Passionate about Health. Blogs at: own website.

Dr Robin Park

GP on the Sunshine Coast QLD. Doing masters med ed through Flinders. Teaching at Deakin University Medical School. Writer for foam4GP.com. Blogs at: WordPress.

Dr Casey Parker

Rural doc, author of the Broome Docs blog. Generalist, FOAMed supporter and contributor foam4gp.com blog. Broome, NW Australia. Blogs at: WordPress.

Dr Marlene Pearce

General Practitioner. Writer, Blogger. Blogs at: WordPress.

Dr Francois Pretorius

Procedural Obstetric GP; Ruralist; Passionate GP educator; Christian; Husband to 1; father to 4; wine lover and chef. Buderim, Qld, Australia. Blogs at: WordPress.

Dr Karen Price

GP, and Chair of Women in General Practice Committee Vic. RACGP. Interested in Most things. Melbourne. Blogs at: WordPress.

Dr Mark Raines

GP, photographer, kayaker, Dad…. and face painting victim…. Kangaroo Island. Blogs at: WordPress.

Dr Thinus van Rensburg

GP & skin cancer doctor. Fiddles with IT on the side. Canberra. Blogs at: WordPress.

Dr Joe Romeo

Fulltime country GP, aspiring songwriter/ worship songwriter, father of 6, follower of Jesus Christ. Narrandera, Australia. Blogs at: Blogspot.

Dr Tim Senior

GP in Aboriginal health & medical education. Writer of WonkyHealth for a crowd at croakeyblog & other stuff. Tharawal Nation, Australia. Blogs at: Blogspot.

Also blogs at AMS Doctor

Dr Michael Tam

Michael Tam is a Staff Specialist in General Practice at the GP Unit in Fairfield Hospital, and Conjoint Senior Lecturer at UNSW Medicine. Sydney. Blogs at: WordPress.

Dr Nick Tellis

Passionate about quality in General Practice. Glenelg, SA. Blogs at: WordPress.

Dr Arron Veltre

Palliative care trainee (QLD). Locum GP. Loud shoe wearer. Triathlete wannabe. Scribbler. 80’s skateboard collector. Part time longboard rider. Blogs at: Blogspot.

Dr Penny Wilson

GP obstetrician, rural locum doctor and blogger. Interested in teaching, leadership, advocacy, quality care. Local, national, global. SoMeGP and FOAMed. Blogs at: WordPress.

Dr Genevieve Yates

Doctor, medical educator, writer and musician, who believes that you can do it all, just not all at once. Supports FOAMed, FOAM4GP & meded. Blogs at: WordPress.