Does being a doctor mean that you’re obliged to believe in progress? Richard Smith discusses […]
Richard Smith: Must doctors believe in progress?
Category: Richard Smith
Richard Smith was the editor of The BMJ until 2004.
Richard Smith: What have I achieved in six years of teaching?
Yesterday as I flew home from teaching in Amsterdam for the last time, I wondered what I might have achieved in six (or perhaps it’s seven) years of teaching. Twice a year at the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT: Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen) I have taught about non-communicable disease (NCD) on the “tropical doctors’ course,” […]
Richard Smith: Tales of sustainability II—a way forward from Brighton
The NHS is legally committed to reducing its carbon consumption by 80% by 2050, but the route to that destination is far from clear. The leaders in trying to find a practical route are Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust, and I went to visit them in Brighton. The trust covers Brighton and Hove, West Sussex, and […]
Richard Smith: A day of wisdom, song, dance, and bonding in Bangladesh
Bangladeshis love to sing, dance, make music, recite poetry, talk, eat, and let off steam. So icddr,b day, the day of what may be the largest health research institution in a low income country, centres on performance—on a stage erected in the car park. And the two highlights of the day were performances of two […]
Richard Smith: A call for action to treat the untreated million children a year with heart disease
The Indian state of Kerala is aiming to reduce infant mortality from 12 for every 1000 live births to 8 by 2020 and 6 by 2030, and in order to achieve the target it will have to develop services to diagnose and manage children with heart disease. That is because infant deaths from infection and […]
Richard Smith: Quality in the NHS in 2017
Britons invented the first antibiotic, the MRI scanner, in vitro fertilisation, and much more, and Britain punches way above its weight in science, said Sir Bruce Keogh, NHS England’s medical director, at the HCA Healthcare UK conference this week. It also has a “semi-integrated” health and social care system. Link it all together and, Keogh […]
Richard Smith: How would medicine be altered by aunt Léonie’s machine?
“My aunt Léonie,” writes Marcel Proust in In Search of Lost Time, “wished to see invented a machine that would enable the doctor to undergo all the sufferings of his patient in order to understand better.” How, I wonder, would medicine be altered by aunt Léonie’s machine? It’s easy to understand why aunt Léonie wanted […]
Richard Smith: Doctors—the case for professional citizenship
Do doctors have extra duties as professional citizens? What are they and do they ever conflict with self-interest? Richard Smith explores […]
Richard Smith: Can we look forward to a healthier future?
I’m preparing for a BBC Radio 4 debate on whether we can look forward to a healthier future, and I’m cast as the pessimist who must argue that the future will be less healthy. Here is my case. The whole debate could centre on how we define health. WHO may define it unrealistically and ambitiously […]
Richard Smith: Why has Bangladesh done so well?
How has Bangladesh been so successful in achieving MDGs and good health outcomes? Richard Smith discusses. […]