“Medical knowledge usually relegates history to an incidental and anecdotal role but always outside the boundary of development of pure scientific knowledge.” […]
Category: Editors at large
Anita Jain: Training science communicators in India
“Acupuncture boosts libido,” blared the headline of a leading Indian daily. “Acupuncture effective treatment for breast cancer,” proclaimed another. These are in effect reporting a study which examined if acupuncture is any better than drugs in treating hot flashes in breast cancer patients on anti-estrogen therapy, and found no difference. The study participants included 50 […]
Trish Groves: Is Twitter any use for two handed debates?
“Jeez, this is a bit like having a serious conversation on top of a mountain fifteen yards apart in 90mph winds,” tweeted doctor and journalist Ben Goldacre (@bengoldacre). “Yes, and I’m a lousy typist to boot!” hollered back Randy Schekman, Nobel laureate and editor of open access journal eLife (@elife). They were attempting a debate […]
Tessa Richards: The rise and reach of expert patients
In the Victorian era the patients who acquired public profiles tended to be doubly disadvantaged. Think Joseph Merrick. His fame as the “Elephant Man” stemmed from others exploiting his disfiguring disorder (Proteus syndrome?) for financial gain. Now patients are becoming well known less for shouldering disease burdens so much as using their experience to help […]
Anita Jain: Ensuring no woman dies during childbirth in India
In conversation with my grandmother recently, I travelled nearly 60 years back in time to a village in Rajasthan as she recounted her near death experience during childbirth. Though lately prone to forgetting minor details, she surprised me with a vivid description of the events as they unfurled when she experienced excessive bleeding around the […]
Anita Jain: Predatory publishing and open access fees
At the meeting of the Indian Association of Medical Journal Editors [IAMJE] in Delhi recently, a session on predatory or non-legitimate journals stimulated considerable discussion. A sting operation where 157 open access journals accepted a spoof research paper with obvious flaws for publication has brought the problem to the fore again. Some allege that the […]
Zosia Kmietowicz: A funny play about anorexia
“I’m going to be spontaneous on Tuesday,” declares Josephine, a recovering anorexic in the play Mess. She’s a 20 year old drama student who’s been admitted to hospital after her weight falls below what’s safe. The line about planning spontaneity is just one that has the audience laughing. But to anyone who has known an […]
Edward Davies: Keep religion in the consulting room
Faith and healthcare do not comfortable bedfellows make. The majority of coverage of their convergence is around the tensions and conflict they can cause. Here in the US, the battleground of contraception coverage is being publicly and aggressively fought between the government and Catholic Church. The BMJ last week published a personal view from an […]
Kelly Brendel: Experiences of antidepressants—everyone has a story to tell
“After that life changed dramatically.” “I felt completely flattened, like I’d been hit by a truck.” “It was a kind of cushion from all the horrible feelings.” “I felt like a zombie. I felt like almost stoned.” These are just some of the snatches of experience that provide a glimpse into what life on antidepressants […]
Navjoyt Ladher on the success of the #hellomynameis campaign
“I’m going to start a ‘Hello. My name is…’ campaign. Sent Chris home to design the logo… #hellomynameis” Kate Granger sent that tweet on the 31 August 2013 during a hospital admission when she found that only a minority of the doctors and nurses she encountered during her stay would properly introduce themselves. It started […]