The Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) of WHO has some of the highest rates of non-communicable disease (NCD) in the world. Six of the countries with the highest rates of diabetes are in the region, half of the women are overweight or obese, and physical activity rates are the lowest in the world. Yet the region […]
The question of whether biotechnology should be deployed to improve human beings morally is starting to climb out of the pages of recondite publications and dip a quizzical toe in mainstream media. A recent article in the Telegraph quotes Professor Julian Savulescu from the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics saying that, should it ever […]
Population control in the developing world is a major public health issue, as large families and overcrowding perpetuate cycles of poverty. The dire situation in the Philippines is considerably overlooked, even though it is extremely serious and the country has one of the highest birth rates outside Africa. The Philippines is the 12th most populated […]
An important aspect of my job as a clinical director was acting as a buffer between the ever increasing number of new policy initiatives gathering in the system at large and the clinical staff I managed. I took the view that front line staff do work that is demanding—intellectually and emotionally—and need to be distracted […]
There are more and more mobile phone apps for wellness and health, so many in fact that it’s already impossible to stay abreast of them. However, I recently came across one for the iPhone that I think all doctors simply must have. It’s called GP Ratings and it presents data from the 2010/11 GP patient […]
“We live in a world of competing sorrows,” said Daniel Moynihan, the American senator. How can policy makers choose among sorrows? One way is with the help of the Copenhagen Consensus, which asks four Nobel laureates in economics and one other distinguished economist to decide how to spend $75 billion in overseas aid over four […]
I’m generally a big fan of guidelines—in fact, I’ve written a few myself, but a recent conversation with a wise Indian researcher made me ponder their darker side. We were talking about research integrity and he explained how he endeavours to embed this into every stage of the research process at his institution, from the […]
St Gallen is a fascinating small city in the north-eastern corner of Switzerland. Famed for its fabulous rococo monastic library (including the earliest extant manuscript of the Nibelung legend), the manufacture of sophisticated textiles, and one of the leading business schools in Europe, it is also the home to an intriguing initiative on ageing. For […]
Financial history is full of bubbles, driven by “our innate inclination to veer from euphoria to despondency.” As I read an account of how bubbles happen in Niall Ferguson’s excellent book The Ascent of Money, I was reminded of how medicines are also prone to bubbles. Indeed, I thought of other human bubbles and decided […]
In the US there has been a spate of high profile plagiarism incidents. In some cases, the writers have been penalized and in others the adage that the stars are different from us has rung true. However, the most interesting case to me—as a researcher and writer—involved a reporter for the New Yorker who was […]