Although the term “genomics” was coined in 1986 by geneticist Tom Roderick, I didn’t learn about genomics at medical school in the early 1990s. We studied “genetics” and a bit of molecular biology, but the genetic medicine we were taught was, as far as I remember, mostly about patterns of heredity and the few diseases […]
Category: Editors at large
Domhnall MacAuley: Matching doctors’ roles to skills and personality
“The thing that makes someone get up at 5am and run—we want it.” Besides the text was a picture of a running shoe. It was a recruitment advertisement for managers of Aldi, the low price supermarket store. The message was clear—they knew the type of person they wanted, and the reader knew immediately if it […]
Krishna Chinthapalli on the questions around gun control in the US
It is the 13th leading cause of death, between liver cirrhosis and renal failure. There are more and more frequent outbreaks—a record seven in 2012 with over 140 deaths. The agent responsible is known, and has largely been eradicated in many other developed countries. But in the USA, federal money is not used to investigate […]
Anita Jain: Delhi rape—how doctors can help heal a survivor
As a brutal rape attack in Delhi has outraged masses and spurred the demand for urgent action, my thoughts turn to to the thousands of cases every year that suffer in silence. I do hope this spirit of intolerance for violence sustains. While calls for the death penalty, chemical castration, faster court trials, and heightened […]
Domhnall MacAuley on being a GP on Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve. Its a Monday. It will be dark leaving home but, with no morning traffic, the drive to the surgery should take just a few minutes. Few people around—a few early shoppers collecting their turkeys or in a last minute panic to pick up a late gift. With businesses closed and no schoolchildren, it […]
Trish Groves: Get the gun out of the house
About 15 years ago I sat in on the superb Doctoring programme at UCLA that taught medical students the art of medicine through role play with actors. One scenario featured a teenage boy whose behaviour was causing concern at home and school. I don’t remember all the details of the case, but the gist was […]
Domhnall MacAuley: “Seven Deadly Sins” and Lance Armstrong
The sports medicine book of the year? No, not some worthy academic text or edited works of the great and the good (and, yes, I did one of these this year myself), but, David Walsh’s new book—Seven Deadly Sins—charting the evolution of his doubts and subsequent investigations into Lance Armstrong and doping. David spoke last […]
Richard Hurley: A film that brings drug decriminalisation into the mainstream
This new film is narrated by Morgan Freeman. Video teasers feature the likes of Kate Winslet, Richard Branson, and Dizzee Rascal, declaring, “I’m breaking the taboo.” They’re calling for drugs such as cannabis, cocaine, and heroin to be decriminalised because they say that the current, unworkable policy of prohibition causes avoidable harm to users and […]
Sophie Cook: NAPCRG in “The Big Easy”
I returned from my first North American Primary Care Research Group (NAPCRG) meeting yesterday after a busy five days in New Orleans. As an NAPCRG novice, I was keen to see for myself why this conference continues to expand and draw in new members as well as loyal returners, some of whom have been attending […]
Domhnall MacAuley: Jonathan Miller, Maeve Binchy, and the neurophysiology of general practice
Jonathan Miller is in the news again. His biography pushed him back into the limelight, and although the media focused on his ongoing spat with Sir Peter Hall, it reminded us again that while he was a gifted author, actor, artist, and theatre and opera director, he was first a doctor. He never quite escaped […]