Lance Armstrong in the news again. The world is divided. Those who read his book are struck by his bravery coping with illness and the incredible drama of his surgery for metastatic testicular cancer and return to fitness. Unbelievable. But, unfortunately, the same word is sometimes used to describe his cycling career. To win the […]
Category: Domhnall MacAuley
Domhnall MacAuley: Memories of the RCGP at Princes Gate
The floors creaked and groaned, the doors wheezed closed and the windows didn’t shut properly. The rooms wore the tired look of times past and few were en suite. Hidden behind a curved door in the hallway was a very small and ancient lift that struggled with every ascent. But, staying on the top floor […]
Domhnall MacAuley: Don’t mention climate change
Don’t talk about climate change. Don’t even use the words. It is liable to make people stick their heads in the sand. David Pencheon, Director of the NHS Sustainable Development Unit (England), in his address at the Society for Academic Primary Care, thinks we should talk about sustainable living and emphasise the importance of sustainability, […]
Domhnall MacAuley: Society of academic primary care meeting July 7th-9th
When a surgeon praises the achievements of primary care, you sit up and listen. Admittedly, Professor Sam Leinster was welcoming delegates to the Society of Primary Care meeting at the University of East Anglia where he is Dean. And he did say he was fed the script by Amanda Howe, Professor of Primary Care. But, […]
Domhnall MacAuley on IVF
Death and the quest for new life seem unlikely companions. Last week’s headline read “Inquest told woman who died in car fire was ‘devastated’ over failed IVF.” The other side of the bonny baby glossy media success story is the suffering of fate. Infertility pushes couples to extremes. It can become an obsession, a single […]
Domhnall MacAuley: Elite performance in endurance sports
To meet with the president of the American College of Sports Medicine…you arrange to go for a jog. A family doctor, team doctor, researcher, departmental chair and now a major leader in American health, Tom Best (Ohio State University), has achieved a lot but he took a difficult road and, he and his family, have […]
Domhnall Macauley on Regina Benjamin, the Surgeon General of the US
One of her ambitions is to climb Kilimanjaro. It’s a tough climb even for a determined and committed woman like Regina Benjamin, Surgeon General of the United States. And, if the Surgeon General sets a target, people will remember. We met, appropriately, at the American College of Sports Medicine meeting in Baltimore after she had […]
Domhnall MacAuley on tackling sedentary lifestyles
Twenty five percent of children age 2 have a television in their bedroom, as do 65% of all children. Is it any wonder that physical activity is a concern. In his opening address to the American College of Sports Medicine annual meeting in Baltimore, Jeffrey Koplan (Emory University, Atlanta) pointed out that being sedentary was the […]
Domhnall MacAuley on WONCA Part II
The picture screamed at me. It was of a ragged traveller child playing by a caravan at a halting site strewn with rubbish. It could have been from our practice. To travel half way around the world and be confronted by the failures of our local health care was humbling and embarrassing. Millennium Development Goals, […]
Domhnall MacAuley on WONCA
“When you look in their mouth you can tell their social class.” Jan de Maeseneer used this stark example of dental caries to highlight continuing health inequality in the developing world in his opening address on the UN 2015 Millennium Development Goals. He listed the many areas where primary care can make a difference but […]