Tuesday is the day we change our weekly UK poll, which enables us to promote the new topic in the weekly print issue (Tuesday is also press day). Our current one asks if doctors should encourage patients to record consultations, linked to a head to head article published last week. At the time of writing, […]
Category: Editors at large
The BMJ Today: My mum and Richard Smith
Yesterday my mum, who died of cancer in February 2007, would have been 91. I’m not an expert on death and so do not know whether hers was “good” or not, but I’ll never forget the last six months of her life, when we knew she was dying and had to make the most of […]
The BMJ Today: Evacuation of children in World War II
The evacuation of civilians has been performed in many countries in times of war. The evacuation of civilians in Britain immediately after the outbreak of the Second World War was designed to save children from the risks associated with aerial bombing of cities by moving them to areas thought to be less at risk. Operation Pied […]
David Payne: Digital dilemmas—a day in my life at The BMJ
Wednesday December 10. 8.30am: I’m on the bus into work and checking Twitter when I see an exchange between @garyschwitzer and @bengoldacre about some embargoed papers we press released last night, (including Ben’s editorial and a linked research paper about the association between exaggeration in health related science news and academic press releases), not showing on […]
The BMJ Today: Editor’s delights
Self prescribing among doctors is legal and commonplace, but its potential problems have been recognised for many years, and regulators are increasingly taking a dim view, writes BMJ Careers editor Tom Moberly in a feature. He reviews the concerns of self prescribing as reflected in guidance from medical authorities around the world, advising doctors against […]
The BMJ Today: Male circumcision and medical suicides
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending that doctors start telling uncircumcised sexually active teenage boys they can reduce their risk of contracting HIV and other sexually transmitted disease if they have the surgery. The draft proposal also applies to adult heterosexual men and for expectant parents as they decide about newborn circumcision. […]
Zosia Kmietowicz: Why don’t hospitals share test results?
My sister nearly died of pneumonia earlier this year. Exceptional NHS care saved her life. But I have been left flummoxed by the lack of communication during her illness and in the subsequent months of her recovery between the hospitals involved in her treatment and rehabilitation. My sister has diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis, and doctors […]
The BMJ Today: Mediterranean diets and infant mortality
The Nurses ’Health Studies are long term epidemiological studies conducted on women’s health. They are among the largest investigations into risk factors for major chronic diseases in women ever conducted. Marta Crous-Bou and co-workers have published a new and interesting finding from it. Greater adherence to Mediterranean diet was significantly associated with longer leukocyte telomere length, […]
Will Stahl-Timmins: Data visualisation is beautiful
David McCandless’s talk at the Royal Statistical Society David McCandless is perhaps the best known information graphic designer of our time. He exploded onto the design stage a few years ago with the coffee table book Information is Beautiful, based on the corresponding blog website of the same name. The website now also hosts the […]
The BMJ Today: More GPs needed
“Why are medical schools attracting so few would-be GPs?” asks Richard Wakeford in a personal view, concluding that the Medical Schools Council is at least partly responsible: “Of 33 members representing undergraduate medical schools just two are GPs, the rest mostly clinician scientists.” His conclusion: “Medical schools must act, and the Medical Schools Council’s membership […]