Recently the big four titans of technology (Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, and Google) have, almost simultaneously, thrown their hats into the wearable sensor ring. Apparently, consumers now want to wear devices to record personal physiological data, which can then be synchronized with their smartphones. Through cloud computing, this can then be shared with their doctors and […]
Category: Columnists
Neal Maskrey: The importance of kindness
We seem to have a little hit on our hands. The BMJ published our Analysis article “Evidence based medicine: a movement in crisis?” and within a few days, the social media channels were humming. Returning to the original concept of EBM, which was all about the holistic care of individual patients, seems to have struck a […]
Desmond O’Neill: Blinded by science
The newest architectural gem in Trinity College Dublin is the award winning Long Room Hub, a slim and elegant presence inserted among classical, neoclassical, and modern buildings. Just as its many windows offer unexpected vistas on to this beautiful campus, the activities of the Hub have injected fresh energy into interdisciplinary research and public engagement […]
Richard Smith: The best doctors and their errors
I’m listening to Sandy Ruddles (not her real name), an ordinary general physician who does some rheumatology, present a case, and I’m feeling some regret at having given up the sacred calling of being a clinician. Oddly, the case Sandy is presenting was disastrous, a catalogue of errors. What impressed me was not Sandy’s knowledge […]
Julian Sheather: Torture, medicine, and the need for an independent eye
In August 2012, Claudia was woken at 3:00 in the morning when soldiers burst into her home in Veracruz City, Mexico. They tied her hands and blindfolded her. They took her to the local naval base where they tortured her: they subjected her to repeated electric shocks, then they wrapped her in plastic, and beat […]
Richard Smith: A book of poems for medical graduates
What should you give doctors when they graduate? An expensive stethoscope, a Ferrari, a lifetime subscription to The BMJ, a ticket to India, or a pet canary? The answer of “the medical community” in Scotland is a book of poems called Tools of the Trade. A copy will be given to every doctor graduating in […]
William Cayley: EBM—curing and comforting
A recent article in The BMJ on the crisis in evidence based medicine (EBM) did a great job of both summarizing challenges that have developed over the past 20 years, and proposing some ways forward in delivering better evidence based care to our patients. Unfortunately, I think one piece of the evidence based puzzle is still […]
Julian Sheather: The man whose mind exploded
Drako Oho Zarhazar has anterograde amnesia, a rare brain disorder that has left him unable to form new memories. The distant past—episodes from before the traumas that disabled his mind: a motorcycle accident; his car crushed beneath the wheels of a monster truck—remains to some degree with him, but he can hold almost no memory […]
Tiago Villanueva: The global burden of physical inactivity on health
The World Cup is now here, but for many of us that just means we will be watching the matches from our couch at home, or, if you’re one of the lucky ones, from the stands in Brazil’s stadiums. Ironically, such a high profile sporting event will foster sedentary behaviour in a lot of us, by […]
Liz Wager: Why aren’t researchers told about reporting guidelines?
I recently gave a talk about guidelines to a group of postgraduate students at a well known, well resourced, and ancient university. The purpose of my talk was to explain the guidelines governing professional medical writers, as this was a careers day for biomedical researchers, who were considering a move into the world of medical […]