What a great day, what a success story. Having worked with Richard Hobbs, director of the School of Primary Care Research, on the original primary care research capacity building initiative many years ago, it was wonderful to see the downstream results of this initiative. The progression has been incremental so it may be difficult for […]
Category: Domhnall MacAuley
Domhnall MacAuley: How to be a great researcher
What do you say when giving a talk at a university where you once worked? To speak about publishing, research, and the BMJ would be quite straightforward. It was a privilege to be invited and great to catch up with old friends but, did I have any additional messages for those setting out on a […]
Domhnall MacAuley: Death and youth
Doctors took a long time to recognise that people die. We are no longer afraid to talk about “end of life care.” And, a large number turned up to an 8am fringe meeting run by the RCGP Scotland end of life care subgroup at the RCGP-SAPC Primary Care conference. Lots of ideas are introduced with […]
Domhnall MacAuley: Susan Greenfield forecasts the future at the RCGP-SAPC conference
Forecasting the future is a tricky task. It’s not brain surgery—just more difficult. Baroness Susan Greenfield, brain physiologist, writer, and broadcaster shared her four challenges for the future in the context of science and humanity at the RCGP-SAPC Annual Primary Care conference. 1) Nanotechnology. Describing how nanotechnology might change the world would be like trying […]
Domhnall MacAuley: The UMT generation reaches middle age
Remember the UMT* and a one in three. Holiday rotas to cover each other. Going to theatre to hold the retractor. Endless lists on scraps of loose paper. Morning toast in the ward on a night on call. Drips that tissued, catheters blocked, and phone calls at midnight to write up sedation. Going to work […]
Domhnall MacAuley: Top ten sports medicine publications in the last year
The top ten publications of the last year in sport and exercise medicine? It is inevitably, a personal choice and I selected these papers because they challenge, educate, and question current practice. Some papers—great papers—that didn’t quite make my top ten: Sudden deaths among competitors in big city marathons always prompt media soul searching. It […]
Domhnall MacAuley: Mental rehearsal in medicine
Let’s try a few mental exercises. Can you tell me how many windows you would see if you stood at the front of your house, do the first three notes of three blind mice go up or down, or can you throw a tennis ball up in the air and catch it—in your mind? Not […]
Domhnall MacAuley: Santa Claus and Lance Armstrong
Santa Claus and Lance Armstrong. From the moment you stop believing—it’s never quite the same. After ten years of outrunning his accusers, Armstrong says he is not going to fight a United States Anti Doping Agency case that claims he used performance enhancing drugs and implicated him in systematic doping of his tour winning teams. […]
Domhnall MacAuley: Some Olympic reflections
It’s the smile that gives it away. The Olympic smile. Couch potatoes, academic nerds, fashionistas, computer geeks, and sporty types united. All bewitched. With life on hold for the last two weeks, its now back to the real world, but almost everyone one seems touched by a little bit of Olympic magic. So, what about […]
Domhnall MacAuley: Olympic fatigue syndrome
Square eyes and pressure sores. Emotional exhaustion. Sensory overload. These Olympics are overwhelming. I need a rest. But, expecting symptoms of withdrawal in a few days. Thank goodness we haven’t had much input from doctors. Steve Peters, a psychiatrist who has been involved with international cycling for many years, did appear to tell us about […]