The major UK sport and exercise medicine conference (UKSEM) took place this week in Excel. It was huge event that attracted most of the world figures in sport and exercise medicine. We at the BMJ are also keen to address the important issues that link health, sport, and exercise. While the sports media focus on […]
Category: Editors at large
David Payne: bmj.com redesign feedback – week three
We are now three weeks into our new design and this is my third blog to update you on what feedback we have had and how we are responding to it. Within minutes of the new bmj.com launching on 8 November someone tweeted that it didn’t look great on mobile phones. How right they were. […]
Helen Macdonald: Dangerous weekends – more complicated than just a lack of consultants
Why are patients in English hospitals more likely to die at the weekend? A good question, put to Dr Mark Porter, head of the BMA’s consultants’ committee by John Humphrys on the Today programme on Radio 4 yesterday morning. It was a difficult question for him to answer in a couple of sound bites. The […]
Edward Davies: Something fishy at the GMC…
Do you ever feel like somebody is softening you up for some bad news? When I was 18, I was caught speeding in my dad’s car. I’m not proud of it but there was a 19 year old girl in the passenger seat so I hope you understand. Wondering how to broach the subject of needing […]
Edward Davies: The health service that cried wolf
Too much hysteria is clouding reasonable criticism If you watched Channel 4 news last night, you could only come away with the impression that the government is waging a secret war to privatise the entire NHS. You see, Channel 4 were “exclusively” “leaked” “proof” that “the government is planning to privatise the NHS.” The proof […]
David Payne: More feedback about the bmj.com redesign
Our new site is now ten days old and we’re continuing to get feedback from readers. My first blog listed some of the comments we’d had to date, and our response to them. I’ll keep blogging to update readers on the latest feedback. We did our first post-launch release on Tuesday to mop up some […]
Domhnall MacAuley: NAPCRG and the relevance of evidence based medicine
Trisha Greenhalgh (London) was always going to challenge the current paradigm. And, she didn’t disappoint. Her keynote at NAPCRG was elegant, persuasive, and beautifully crafted. Drawing from literature and philosophy she explored aspects of care beyond medicine and, in particular, the limitations of evidence based medicine (EBM). Her first assertion was that we get so […]
David Payne: Your feedback about the bmj.com redesign
We’ve redesigned the BMJ website. It went live late on Tuesday evening (UK time), with a prominent feedback button on the homepage asking for comments. We’ve produced a video guide to the new site, and an editorial explaining some of the changes, as well as some FAQs that we will update on an ongoing basis. This […]
Domhnall MacAuley: Seduction, hubris and medical editing
At the annual course for new medical editors there were visitors from 25 medical journals around the world. When delegates fly in from Australia, New Zealand, and Chile, it seems like those from Sudan and Saudi Arabia are our next door neighbours. The common interest is their job – newly minted editors of specialist medical […]
Domhnall MacAuley: Ghosts in the consulting room
My consulting room is full of ghosts. Shadowy figures whose tears or trauma hover over the patient’s chair. The room has a memory and sometimes shares its thoughts. A word on the computer screen or a half remembered name brings back images, voices, fragments of forgotten conversations. I can see the faces of old friends […]