Research What are the long term effects of multidisciplinary biopsychosocial rehabilitation for patients with chronic low back pain? News • Chicago born Frances Glessner Lee (pictured), the “mother of CSI” and dollhouse-style dioramas, features in “Forensics: the anatomy of crime” exhibition at the Wellcome Collection, London. • The 2015 version of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans […]
Category: David Payne
The BMJ Today: Rabies, stroke, and screening
Rabies is a neglected tropical disease that predominantly affects the most vulnerable humans—children living in the most disadvantaged areas of the poorest countries. Many countries have successfully reduced the impact of the disease by tackling the gap between public and animal health through a concerted “one health” approach. […]
The BMJ Today: Polling day
Tuesday is the day we change our weekly UK poll, which enables us to promote the new topic in the weekly print issue (Tuesday is also press day). Our current one asks if doctors should encourage patients to record consultations, linked to a head to head article published last week. At the time of writing, […]
The BMJ Today: My mum and Richard Smith
Yesterday my mum, who died of cancer in February 2007, would have been 91. I’m not an expert on death and so do not know whether hers was “good” or not, but I’ll never forget the last six months of her life, when we knew she was dying and had to make the most of […]
David Payne: Digital dilemmas—a day in my life at The BMJ
Wednesday December 10. 8.30am: I’m on the bus into work and checking Twitter when I see an exchange between @garyschwitzer and @bengoldacre about some embargoed papers we press released last night, (including Ben’s editorial and a linked research paper about the association between exaggeration in health related science news and academic press releases), not showing on […]
The BMJ Today: Male circumcision and medical suicides
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending that doctors start telling uncircumcised sexually active teenage boys they can reduce their risk of contracting HIV and other sexually transmitted disease if they have the surgery. The draft proposal also applies to adult heterosexual men and for expectant parents as they decide about newborn circumcision. […]
The BMJ Today: What’s in a name?
Next time you sneak a peek at an author’s affiliations, ask yourself if they mattered to you. Do you pay more attention to a study from Harvard University in the United States or one from the University of Abuja in Nigeria? Matthew Harris asks this question in a personal view, arguing that omitting the provenance of […]
The BMJ Today: Managers need to get ‘aht the flippin’ way
Many thanks to consultant psychiatrist Geoff Searle for providing the headline for today’s BMJ Today, shamelessly stolen from his weekend rapid response to the essay about “flipping healthcare,” published last week by US authors Maureen Bisognano and Dan Schummers. Flipping, the authors argue, is the key to providing better care and lowering costs, shifting the power […]
Readers’ editor: Inserts in the print issue
If you shake the current print issue of The BMJ, a cluster of inserts fall to the ground, among them a wine club promotion, an online menswear retailer, and a charity appeal from the Refugee Council. Sometimes readers do challenge the accuracy of information in these inserts, or question our decision to accept money from […]
David Payne: A London lullaby factory, and other open buildings
A hospital “lullaby factory” and a children’s hospice extension in the style of a garden shed are among 15 health related buildings to welcome visitors as part of Open House London this weekend. Haven House Children’s Hospice has leased The White House, an Edwardian Arts and Crafts building, since 2002. Earlier this year the charity, based […]