Dr Anne

Dr Anne She also co-hosts The Medical Minute podcast. www.dranneconnell.com.au

Dr Anne Connell is a Melbourne-based GP with special interest in skin cancer and women's health (menopause; vulval conditions; Mirena and Implanon devices; shared maternity care).

15/11/2025

A repeatedly bleeding skin spot anywhere on the body is always concerning for basal cell cancer.

The old fashioned name for basal cell cancer is ‘rodent ulcer’. Left untreated, a basal cell cancer will slowly destroy the local tissue, eating away at it as if gnawed by a rat. You can see a degree of destruction and distortion of the tissue with this one.

A full thickness defect including sacrifice of the free margin of the nostril had to be created to remove this cancer, and a composite graft was required to repair that hole. Our preference is to see these a whole lot earlier in the piece, when less heroic reconstruction is required. Fortunately a local plastic surgeon did an amazing repair for her.

Don’t delay getting a bleeding skin spot checked out.




11/11/2025

Blue nevi are a type of benign mole with a striking deep blue colour.
They are commonly seen on the scalp or toward the end of the limbs and (once noticed) are generally very stable.

The ‘4-week rule’ applies to these as any other skin lesion.
Any skin lesion that shows continued growth or change for 4 weeks or more needs assessed by a Dr skilled in skin cancer diagnosis. Even if you have previously been told (before it started to change) that the lesion was a benign mole. Because 1 melanoma in 7 or 8 arises in association with an existing mole (nevus).

Melanoma arising in a blue nevus is incredibly rare, but this proved to be exactly that, unfortunately.

Make sure your scalp gets checked when you have a skin check.
And make sure to get any changing lesion checked.




31/10/2025

This fleshy spot is a benign mole type called an intradermal nevus. It was easy to be sure what this one was, but very occasionally they are hard to distinguish from basal cell cancers.
Our trusty dermatoscope can help us with this, though we need to use it unconventionally.

If we fix the dermatoscope on top of this mole and then move the dermatoscope around, the mole wobbles and dances!

This so-called ‘wobble sign’ (yes really - Drs are simple creatures 😆) helps confirm that a spot is a benign mole and not a cancer.



28/10/2025

Skin checks are a high stakes game of ‘Where’s Wally?’ Made extra interesting because you never know for sure if he (Wally) actually features in this particular scene...

We gain shameless advantage in the game by using our dermatoscope. In trained hands it really is a game-changer.

I don’t think anyone would have predicted with the naked eye that today’s spot of interest would look as it does under the dermatoscope. Which means it wouldn’t have been picked as concerning.

Make sure whoever does your skin checks has a dermatoscope, has been trained how to use it and looks at every single one of your spots with it. Otherwise you haven’t actually had a skin check 🤷🏻‍♀️.



26/10/2025

Some people are prolific creators of non melanoma skin cancers. This poor chap needs 6-monthly skin checks because he grows new skin cancers so frequently. At this most recent check (6 months after his last one) he had 3 new cancers. I have him taking vitamin B3 twice a day to try and reduce the rate at which he is growing new ones. Talk to your SkinDoc to see if vitamin B3 is right for you.




21/10/2025

The life of a skin cancer doctor is never dull. You just never know what’s going to walk in your door.

We always check scalps because we know that
1 in 4 scalp melanomas hides under hair.

Fortunately, for this particular alarming dark spot there was a quick and easy solution. It’s not always cancer 😎.

Love my dermatoscope. ❤️

You can see me at Sherbourne Road Medical Clinic, Montmorency VIC 3094.


Super excited to share details of my new appointment as a women’s health specialist GP at the legendary Jean Hailes Melb...
19/10/2025

Super excited to share details of my new appointment as a women’s health specialist GP at the legendary Jean Hailes Melbourne CBD clinic. I’ll be working at the dedicated Thursday vulval clinic, where my twin professional passions of skin cancer and women’s health intersect.

I will continue to provide skin cancer and women’s health services from Sherbourne Road Medical Clinic, Montmorency Vic 3094 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

18/10/2025

Today is world menopause day.
The post menopausal years now number 20 to 30 for many of us.
Let’s live them the best we can.
MHT won’t be right for everyone, but we all should be having have a conversation about it in the early post menopausal years.

See me at Sherbourne Road Medical Clinic, Montmorency VIC 3094
or at Jean Hailes Melbourne CBD Clinic (Thursdays).


17/10/2025

Basal cell cancers create their own special ‘jelly’ to grow in. This jelly adds ‘translucency’ to the skin and also makes it abnormally soft so that it ulcerates and bleeds easily.

These features make BCCs the easiest of the skin cancers to spot. But you have to know what to look for.

See me at Sherbourne Road Medical Clinic, Montmorency VIC 3094.



12/10/2025

Have you hit your extended Medicare Safety Net (EMSN) yet this calendar year?
If so, it’s a great time to get any episodic healthcare needs attended to.

Because you’ll get 80% of your out-of-pocket costs back from Medicare.
So, if you’re due a skin check or other interval review, now is the financially savvy time to do it.

Don’t know what I’m talking about ? Dr Moz and I did a whole podcast on the EMSN. DM ‘safety net’ and I’ll send you a link to that episode.

You can see me at Sherbourne Road Medical Clinic, Montmorency VIC 3094 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for either skin cancer or women’s health concerns.

And (from 6 November 2025), I’ll be consulting at the Jean Hailes Melbourne CBD clinic on Thursdays (women’s health concerns only at this site).

10/10/2025

What a sneaky little cancer this one was!
Hiding right in her hairline.
If we don’t look, we don’t find…
Make sure whoever does YOUR skincheck checks your scalp.

You can see me at Sherbourne Road Medical Clinic, Montmorency VIC 3094



07/10/2025

Seems the season for squamous cell cancers!
Fortunately this lady was on the ball. It’s her first skin cancer but she knew to be concerned when it appeared out of nowhere and just kept growing. Without knowing it, she applied the ‘4 week rule’. Which says that any skin thing that is continually growing or changing for 4 weeks or more needs to be checked out by a skin doctor.

You can see me at Sherbourne Road Medical Clinic, Montmorency VIC 3094



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Dr Anne

Dr Anne Connell is an Australian GP with special interests both in skin cancer and in women’s health.

Originally from Scotland, she relocated to Melbourne in 2008 and holds Fellowship of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. Whilst enjoying the breadth of family medicine practice, her areas of particular expertise are skin cancer and women’s health.

She has trained for several years in skin cancer diagnosis and management, culminating in a Masters Degree in Skin Cancer Medicine from the University of Queensland. She holds additional certification in dermatoscopy (surface microscopy of the skin), primary care skin cancer management and skin cancer surgery. She holds the coveted ‘Accredited Skin Cancer Doctor’ status with Skin Cancer College Australasia (SCCA) and now spends about 50% of her time providing skin cancer services. Skin cancer services are provided both in partnership with Dr Mostafa Khalafalla (Dr Moz) as Aussie SkinDocs (a predominantly mobile skin cancer service to Melbourne’s Eastern suburbs) and at her fixed general practice locations in Diamond Creek and Mt Evelyn.

She is a shared maternity care affiliate at The Mercy Hospital for Women in Heidelberg, Victoria, providing shared maternity care predominantly at her Diamond Creek location. This service also is provided in conjunction with Dr Moz.