In a country where over half the population is called Kim, Park, or Lee, it probably shouldn’t have come as such a surprise to find myself talking about research misconduct with Dr Hwang in South Korea. Although he shares a name with a researcher notorious for fraud, this Dr Hwang is busy running courses on […]
Category: Columnists
Desmond O’Neill: Graphic insights into Alzheimer’s disease
In my practice as a geriatrician, no syndrome is as interesting, intellectually stimulating, and simultaneously frustrating and rewarding as dementia. Ethical sensitivity, integrative neurology, a critical approach to neurobiology, and a kind but dogged inquisitiveness underpin the knife-edge act of supporting the patient within the complex web of family and insufficient social and societal supports. […]
Tracey Koehlmoos: Systematic reviews in international development
This week I am in rural Savar, Bangladesh, attending the Dhaka Colloquium on Systematic Reviews in International Development. It is always a pleasure to be in Bangladesh, but it is particularly enjoyable to be with so many of my colleagues from ICDDR,B, collaborative partners from systematic review work at 3ie, and the Campbell Collaboration, but […]
Julian Sheather: On doughnuts, moral desert, and paying for our health
I am writing this on an early train to Manchester. Not a bad time to see what people enjoy for breakfast. The woman opposite is eating one of those lovely looking pastry ropes wound full of chocolate chips and dusted with icing sugar. Although it is not a doughnut, inevitably I am reminded of the […]
Richard Smith: Database of cases launched
Every 36 hours the NHS treats a million people. Across the world there are billions of interactions between patients and health systems every year. Each of those patients is a “case,” and the potential learning from those cases is huge. Unfortunately most of the learning is lost, unrecorded and unshared. But now the launching of […]
Pritpal S Tamber: It’s time for a few good punch-ups in the NHS
The National Health Service in England needs a goal, and a plan on how to get there. Its local leaders should be appreciated more, not constantly pilloried. Primary care is on the brink of failure and needs to truly understand its role within integrated care. And we all need a few good punch-ups to get […]
Tracey Koehlmoos: To screen or not to screen—mixed messages on mammography
You might not know this, but I am over 40 and I am a woman. In the US having breasts and being over 40 means something to doctors and patients. It is a healthcare trigger to start having annual mammograms. If you are reading this in the UK, Canada, or Europe, you might be surprised […]
Douglas Noble: US healthcare and the Harkness fellowship
Having decided to write a blog during this academic year living in the US, I hadn’t anticipated my tardiness would be because moving the family overseas was vastly more effort than I anticipated. A stroke in a family member at home came suddenly and unexpectedly, and a hurricane hit the city I’m currently calling home. […]
Julian Sheather: Taxing the fat
To the evident frustration of the Danish Medical Association, Denmark has repealed the world’s first tax on saturated fats. The climb-down came after just over a year, the government citing strong public hostility. According to the Economist, “retailers and shoppers whooped with joy” at the announcement. Given that so much of the world is struggling […]
Kieran Walsh: Revalidation starts today
A running joke about revalidation is that its roll out is and always will be 12 to 18 months away. What will mandarins in Whitehall and the colleges chuckle about now that revalidation has finally started? Almost as important, will revalidation work and what impact will it have on the working lives of doctors, standards […]