“While you’re here, Doc,” said Pat, “would you mind looking at Pat Junior?” It turned out to be a simple upper respiratory tract infection. I recommended something for symptomatic relief. Pat Junior, unimpressed, sniffed snottily. Inevitable really, what with that nasal drip. Perhaps he was disappointed that I wasn’t one of those “famous physicians” who […]
Category: Columnists
Des O’Neill: Flights of Imagination—Birdman and Still Alice
Birdman, one of the most riotously entertaining yet serious movies of the last decade, deservedly won a clutch of Oscars. Dealing with ageing, the fear of irrelevance, and the nature of art, it wore these themes lightly, bearing us aloft through the imaginative direction of Alejandro González Iñárritu, skilled camera work, humour, and a superb […]
Neal Maskrey: Words matter
Me and mine all like Claire. She’s talented, works hard, and recently took a big chance going self-employed. It seems to be paying off. We chatted about her imminent holiday, and I was more interested in the plane she was going on than the exotic destination. The latest Boeing 787 is “The Dreamliner.” Carbon fibre […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Pah! Disgusting!
Emily Colas’s Just Checking is a riveting, often unsettling, account of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Reading it got my stream of consciousness ruminating about the link between disgust and stereotypy. Neasden is a byword for ordinariness; Wigan for northernness; and East Cheam, at least since Tony Hancock, for supposed rundown provinciality. […]
Richard Smith: Why the faithless need to work with faith based organisations
Perhaps because Britain is a land of atheists, the British don’t understand the importance of faith based organisations as well as they should. Stephanie Ferguson, director of the International Council of Nurses’ Leadership for Change Programme and a member of the board of directors of the Catholic Medical Mission Board, urged the audience at the […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Cough drops
Conversations with my patients can be very revealing. “I know you say they’re ace, Doc, but I can’t take these tablets.” “Why not, Pat?” “They give me a terrible cough. I can’t go to the movies or a gig. Anywhere public, actually.” At this, Pat coughed loudly, concatenating two phonemes without realising it—technically the glottal […]
William Cayley: What are the (hidden) costs?
“The economics of education are changed dramatically by delivering online courses to large numbers, making expensive education much cheaper.” That line in Richard Smith’s blog post describing a proposed “global university” for healthcare workers caught my attention—especially since my own local statewide university system, of which I am an employee as a medical school faculty […]
Sandra Lako: The challenges of identifying and isolating Ebola cases in Sierra Leone
Although the situation in Sierra Leone with respect to Ebola has improved considerably since November, there are still cases in Freetown every day. With Ebola still present, it is important to stay vigilant and have a high index of suspicion. Every single person that enters the hospital compound needs to be screened according to the […]
Richard Smith: A global university for healthcare workers
WHO estimates that the world is short of 12.9 million healthcare workers, and Devi Shetty, the cardiac surgeon and chairman and founder of Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospitals, thinks that radical steps are needed to provide these workers. Money for healthcare for all will come, he believes, but it cannot be achieved unless healthcare workers are available […]
Richard Smith: Surgeons spend their time putting a price tag on human life
Physicians and surgeons across Asia, Africa, and Latin America spend their time putting a price tag on human life, said Devi Shetty, cardiac surgeon and chairman and founder of Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospitals, at the World Summit on Innovation in Heath in Doha last week. His mission is to reduce the costs of health to make […]