Purple Pen Podcast

In a special International Women's Day episode Kristin spoke to A/Prof Monique Watts, a cardiologist with special interest in women and heart health. Heart disease kills more than two times as many Australian women than breast cancer. 

Listen in as Kristin speaks to Dr Melanie Bissessor from the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre with an update on HSV.

Join Kristin as she speaks to Dr Colin Tuft, Advanced Trainee in Respiratory and Sleep Medicine at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital about all things sleep apnoea.

Kristin is joined by Dr Emma Goeman and Dr Jean Li-Kim-Moy to discuss the ins and outs of herpes zoster (more commonly known as shingles). 

Kristin is joined by Dr Jerry Abraham Alex - a medical registrar from Western Australia. They take an indepth look at Rheumatic Fever and Rheumatic Heart Disease.

Kristin is joined by Thuy Bui, Lead Pharmacist - Analgesic Stewardship (AGS) & Perioperative Services at Alfred Health in Victoria to discuss the role of analgesic stewardship. In their discussion they address the importance of appropriate acute pain management, some of the clinical considerations for analgesic choice and the role of the perioperative pharmacist. Note: this episode discusses the u...

Kristin catches up with Ivette Aguirre and Dr Melanie Bissessor from the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre, Alfred Health, to discuss monkeypox. We talk about vaccination, treatment as well as symptoms, screening and diagnosis.

Kristin is joined by Dr Priya Sumithran, Endocrinologist and Clinician Researcher, to talk about treatment options for the management of type II diabetes.  Priya leads the Obesity Research Group at the University of Melbourne, Department of Medicine (St Vincent's) and is Head of Obesity Medicine at Austin Health.   *Note Wegovy (semaglutide) was not registered in Australia at the time of recording...

We are joined by anaesthetist A/Prof Christine Ball to discuss her book, The Chloroformist, and more...

Kristin speaks to Bronwyn Clark and A/Prof Faye McMillan about how to practice pharmacy in a culturally safe way. We also hear about the Australian Pharmacy Council's Leaders in Indigenous Pharmacy Profession Education (LIPPE) Network. 

Kristin is joined by Prof Jason Roberts and Dr Carolyn Hullick to discuss the release of the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care's new Clinical Care Standard in sepsis - which launches today! Jason will be well known to listeners as a pharmacist from University of Queensland and Metro North. Carolyn is a Clinical Director at the Commission and the Chair of the Sepsis Clinica...

Kristin and Dan are joined by Associate Professor Naren Gunja - a clinical and forensic toxicologist from Sydney Medical School at the University of Sydney.   We discuss Naren's "top 5 issues" in toxicology - covering a wide range of topics including paracetamol, methylene blue, benzodiazepines and more.

Kristin is joined by Associate Professor Nicole Goh to talk Interstitial Lung Disease. Nicole is a respiratory and sleep physician at the Alfred and Austin Hospitals in Melbourne.

We are joined by Professor Ian Hickie, a Professor of Psychiatry and Co-Director of Health and Policy at the Brain Mind Centre. He last spoke to the podcast on treatment resistance depression. This time we discuss the challenges of bipolar disorder diagnosis, risk factors and the therapeutics used in treatment, especially the Australian wonder drug Lithium.  

We are joined by Professor Ian Hickie, a Professor of Psychiatry and Co-Director of Health and Policy at the Brain Mind Centre. He last spoke to the podcast on treatment resistance depression. This time we discuss the challenges of bipolar disorder diagnosis, risk factors and the therapeutics used in treatment, especially the Australian wonder drug Lithium.  

Kristin chats to Dr Emma Gray, consultant respiratory physician and visiting medical officer at Royal Prince Alfred. She is also a PhD candidate at the University of Sydney. There have been some big changes in asthma management in recent years, and Emma talks us through the key points.

Kristin caught up with Leanne Teoh, a pharmacist, dentist and research fellow from the University of Melbourne and Sophie Beaumont, head of Dental Oncology at the Peter Mac to discuss all things oral cancer. We learn about diagnosis, presentation, vaccination and red flags - as well as the critical value of saliva! Sophie recommends the Oral cancer hub as a great learning resource: https://www.ora...

We're back for 2022 and now that's school is in session we spoke to Prof Brendan McMullan about COVID19 in children. We discussed what COVID19 is like for kids, vaccination, current treatments and transmission.  

In our last episode for 2021, Kristin chats with Professor Ian Hickie, co-Director of the Brain and Mind Centre at the University of Sydney. We chat about treatment-resistant depression and learn all about the "happy accident'" of esketamine.

Dan is joined by Professor Robyn Guymer AM from the Centre for Eye Research in Australia to discuss Age-related macular degeneration (AMD). 

We're back! And Dan is joined by Professor Dave Coghill, a Child Psychiatrist and  Chair of Developmental Mental Health at the University of Melbourne. We discuss ADHD - an overview of its epidemiology and diagnosis, as well as existing and emerging treatments.

Kristin caught up with Conjoint Professor Michael Bennett AM ( Academic Head, Wales Anaesthesia and Dept. Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine Prince of Wales Clinical School) to discuss Hyperbaric Medicine. It is used to treat decompression illness, carbon monoxide poisoning, necrotising infections, soft tissue & bony radiation injury and chronic non healing wounds.

Dan and Jane caught up with our friend Dr Nisha Khot, who is the Clinical Director of Obstetrics at Djerriwarrh Health Service in Victoria. We discuss the screening, management and impact of a wide variety of infections in pregnancy, including CMV, syphilis, COVID-19 and GBA. We briefly discuss listeria, to Nisha's chagrin. You should definitely follow Nisha on twitter

In a bumper episode, Kristin talks with ID physician and clinical microbiologist with Westmead Hospital and the Institute Of Clinical Pathology And Medical Research (ICPMR) Dr Indy Sandaradura. They discuss all things clinical microbiology, from how tests are run to how microbiologists decide what to report, in terms of sensitivities and positive results. Indy helps us understand why we still do G...

Kristin caught up with Dr David Woo, an Ophthalmic and Oculoplastics surgeon from the Sight Foundation at the Sydney Eye Hospital and the Sydney CBD eye clinic. We chat about orbital and periorbital cellulitis and other serious eye infections - including the red flags that differentiate these from common eye infections. To find out more about Dr David, visit his website