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Karen Farrar

@karenfarrar.bsky.social

Health professional/physiologist with PhD turned word, comms & content nerd. Owner 'Content In Practice' - editing, content strategy/design, consulting re: healthcare content. Thoughts about structure, function, systems - words, web, healthcare. Melb AU.

103 Followers  |  213 Following  |  28 Posts  |  Joined: 29.02.2024  |  1.9212

Latest posts by karenfarrar.bsky.social on Bluesky

Most don't share these thoughts b/c they're hard to articulate.

15.09.2025 06:11 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Also appreciate your content despite working on different things to you. I enjoy hearing how people apply systems thinking, critical thinking, research skills and cross-functional insights to solve problems where others don't necessarily recognise there is one.

15.09.2025 06:10 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Would be great to hear how that goes and how you capture your internal process & intuitive / experiential connections to show others.

08.05.2025 21:37 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Same. Sometimes the spark happens spontaneously or is triggered by something completely unrelated. And sometimes there's a lot of moving pieces around to try to find the pattern or opening to the pathway.

29.04.2025 04:26 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

"AI is not a silver bullet. A savvy leader...might pause and consider how AI is actually going to fit into their overall strategy"
πŸ’―

10.04.2025 23:20 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

A lot of Covid hubs/pages just stopped being managed. Not updated but also not removed. Still so much info out there about Covid protocols that are now years old. Even for healthcare settings.

04.04.2025 10:52 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Covid hubs were maintained as long as it was seen as a crisis. Covid is still around but perceptions have changed. It will be interesting to see how long cost-of-living-crisis hubs last (how long until the situation is normalised).

04.04.2025 10:47 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

We also got to learn/do diff tasks in physical contexts before having 1 device that conveniently does them all digitally. We can differentiate these mentally but it must be so much harder to develop mental models if you've never known them. And harder to use the device instead of it using you.

03.04.2025 20:37 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Impact as a verb still gets me. And for some reason I can't cope with "went extinct". It's as if they somehow chose to go there.

03.04.2025 08:59 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Currently bouncing b/n different admin systems for two specialists, insurance provider and hospital - for 1 procedure for 1 dependent. All using diff software, processes, billing structures & modes of correspondence.

29.03.2025 06:43 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

So much of 'engaging in your own healthcare' as a patient is actually admin.

29.03.2025 06:39 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Yes to all of this.

11.03.2025 22:23 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

"Redesigns are emotional, too."
πŸ’―

26.02.2025 13:04 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

I've found the gardening analogy very useful when describing the need for content maintenance. But deciding who the content gnome will be is often the stumbling block.

22.11.2024 01:46 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Thanks. Great data & breakdowns but only for AHPRA-registered professions. Still so much missing / invisible health workforce data for other allied health professions. Would be good to somehow capture that centrally too.

21.11.2024 22:15 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Late reply & no resources sorry, but totally agree with you on this. It's so common to see sales/marketing content beyond the sale. Once I've purchased/signed up I don't need to be convinced, just be able to use the product + access support if needed.

20.11.2024 23:01 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Looking fwd to your list. I'm not currently in a content-specific role but still trying to influence thinking, approaches & processes in content for health professionals.

20.11.2024 04:01 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Great article and concept. "The emphasis shift[ed] from just diagnostics and treatment prescription to education and sharing a treatment plan and navigating patients through this." So powerful.

17.11.2024 00:28 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Rory is totally correct on this: letters following a consultation should be written to the patient and cc'd to the GP, not the other way around. It's such a simple switch that massively changes the power dynamics and helps to put the patient back in control.

16.11.2024 23:34 β€” πŸ‘ 7    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0

Great article and concept. "The emphasis shift[ed] from just diagnostics and treatment prescription to education and sharing a treatment plan and navigating patients through this." So powerful.

17.11.2024 00:28 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Would love to see this.

15.11.2024 09:15 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

I've raised poor onboarding experiences with orgs (some done thru 3rd parties). Their response was "yes it's bad isn't it but you only have to do it once".

15.11.2024 09:14 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Tech services/platforms seem intent on delighting customers or making their experience joyful. People aren't using the platform for joy or delight. They're using it to get something done. Functional, reliable, easy would provide a better user experience & let them get back to the joy in their life.

06.07.2024 00:50 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Sign up button from national publication with COVID hyphen 19 split across two lines.

Sign up button from national publication with COVID hyphen 19 split across two lines.

Have to say I thought the pandemic would be the non-breaking hyphen's big moment. But apparently not.

12.04.2024 12:56 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Thx for sharing. Enjoyed your earlier post too (7 mths as NHS HoP). How you describe your role as product leader with no individ products + sitting in the service layer b/n policy, commissioning & delivery. So much work needed in this space at all levels in health (I'm in AUS). Look after yourself

01.03.2024 21:05 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Agree. Even with PREMS (pt-reported exp measures) so much of medicine is measured in outcomes rather than experiences.

01.03.2024 20:34 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

So much of this in online medical forms & patient registration processes. Create a login & profile for a hospital you hope not to need again. Tell us everything about you incl stuff unrelated to your medical details or insurance status. Upload admission forms already submitted via your doctor πŸ€¦β€β™€οΈ

01.03.2024 10:18 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

There are people who specialise in medical writing, med comms, health comms, technical writing, web writing, content strategy, content design, UX, knowledge management, copyediting, structural editing, info architecture... And somewhere in there is me. #writing #editing #content

01.03.2024 01:09 β€” πŸ‘ 10    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

With experience in healthcare, oprational comms in a medical setting, as a patient, and with an interest in content design/user centred design, this is something I really think could be improved. I'm surprised it hasn't been already. What am I missing?

29.02.2024 21:22 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0

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