The 29th annual TED Conference in Long Beach, California, started as I remember several previous TEDs began: with two men with newly published books to sell proposing a future that was going to be either terrible or terrific. (The Economist ran this debate with the same protagonists on 12 January.) Since this was futurology, based […]
Category: Editors at large
Elizabeth Loder: How medical journals can help stop disease mongering
It would be hard to collect a more fascinating bunch of topics or people in a hotel conference room. The 2013 Selling Sickness conference recently held in Washington, DC was among the most thought provoking and just plain interesting conferences I’ve been to in a long while, and I go to a lot of conferences. […]
Readers’ editor blog: Comments, comments everywhere
Yesterday morning the BMJ’s press officer needed to locate a rapid response about Tamiflu from Peter Doshi, a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. Doshi’s response accuses the drug’s manufacturer Roche of “all talk and no action” following its promise to share full clinical study reports (CSRs) for 10 treatment trials. Our Tamiflu open […]
Isobel Weinberg: The Foundation Programme Office giveth and it taketh away
On Monday, a friend posted a picture of an enormous, triple layered chocolate cake on Facebook. It was, she wrote, a present for her boyfriend—a final year medical student—to celebrate his being awarded his top choice of location for his first job next year. Getting the first choice has meaning beyond simple preference: it enables […]
Domhnall MacAuley: A Harley Street at every crossroads
Harley Street. Even the name creates a picture. Executive medicine for the elite, cosmetic surgery for the glitterati, healthcare excellence and no expense spared. It’s more than just a street—it’s a brand with international recognition that would be the envy of any marketing campaign. A worldwide reputation that attracts patients from across the globe. As […]
Readers’ editor blog: A BMJ poll about Sir David Nicholson
Sir David Nicholson, head of the NHS in England and chief executive of the NHS Commissioning Board, has faced repeated calls for his resignation after publication of the Francis Report inquiry into failing at Mid Staffordshire Foundation NHS Trust. Nicholson was chief executive of the strategic health authority overseeing the trust for a period when […]
Anita Jain: A roundtable on primary healthcare in India
Coinciding with the visit of the British prime minister, David Cameron, to India last week, a business seminar was held in Mumbai to identify opportunities for health sector partnerships. Meeta Lochan, secretary of the public health department of Maharashtra, offered insights on the intricacies of healthcare provisioning in Maharashtra. For instance, over the years the […]
Deborah Cohen: Update on antibiotic susceptibility test discs investigation
Last week a BMJ investigation reported that one of the world’s leading producers of diagnostic tests has been falsely marketing one of their products. Oxoid, owned by US diagnostics giant Thermo Fisher, has been selling antimicrobial susceptibility test (AST) discs that do not always contain the advertised amount of antibiotic. The $10bn a year company’s […]
Domhnall MacAuley: Politics, health checks, and well meant good intentions
When a politician speaks with passion and commitment about social inequality, I listen. When it is the chairperson of the Committee for Health, Social Services, and Public Safety, I listen carefully. Our practice is in an area internationally recognised as socially deprived, and, if politicians took a genuine interest and were prepared to invest resources, […]
David Payne: Horsemeat and the Food Standards Agency
The horsemeat scandal has triggered calls for the UK’s food safety watchdog to have stronger regulatory powers. The Food Standards Agency was stripped of its nutrition and labelling roles in a cull of quangoes shortly after the coalition government entered office in 2010. Isn’t it time they were returned, to restore public confidence in the […]