Does your research really matter? Most VIP introductions are bland and unchallenging. Not this time. When (Professor Sir) Peter Gregson, vice chancellor at Queen’s University Belfast, introduced the joint summer school of the UK Clinical Research Collaboration’s centres of public health and Health Research Board (Ireland), he pointed out how universities often fail to show the […]
Category: Editors at large
Domhnall MacAuley: 11th Brazilian congress of family and community medicine
Quaternary prevention – ever heard of it? We know about primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention, but this is different. It means protecting healthy patients from unnecessary investigations, tests, or treatments. Marc Jamoulle (Belgium) introduced the concept in1995 but it gained traction mostly in non English speaking countries. Patients without recognised illnesses are increasingly vulnerable through […]
Oliver Ellis: Health records in the cloud
On my first ever hospital placement the thing that most struck me was just how antiquated the records system was. Junior staff were writing with pen and paper; the grander ones used a tape (an actual magnetic tape!) to dictate letters to a secretary. To find something in a patient record you couldn’t type a […]
Kirsten Patrick on the European Network of Centres for Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacovigilance (ENCePP)
On 29 June 2011 the European Medicines Agency (EMA) collected a group of journal editors to introduce to us to, and get our views on, their fairly recently launched European Network of Centres for Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacovigilance (ENCePP). ENCePP, and its e-register of studies, has been developed in collaboration with leading European researchers in the […]
Tessa Richards: Prioritising patient’s views reaps rich rewards
What will it take to persuade monolithic health systems to put patient’s priorities at the heart of what they do? As researchers, health professionals, and patients debated this question at the sixth international “shared decision making” meeting in Maastricht last week, the frustration was tangible. A survey to inform the meeting *reveals that while many countries […]
Domhnall MacAuley: Awardholders responsibility
Daffodils, ribbons, sponsored runs, and elegant balls. Peer pressure appeals to a higher nature and a little tugging at the heartstrings. But, its not all innocent fun, youth, and glamour. When people give to medical charities, they believe money is going to relieve the suffering of others. That little old lady who puts a few […]
Richard Hurley: The two cultures collide – medicine meets the arts in Dublin
Last week I met artists, musicians, poets, doctors, academics, therapists, nurses, and others with an interest in how the arts can help doctors hone their practice and improve patients’ experiences of healthcare. Coinciding with the 300th anniversary of Trinity College Dublin’s medical school, we were at a conference about “narratives of health and illness across […]
David Payne: Nostalgia for closed hospitals
We have too many metropolitan acute hospitals and failing ones should be closed, said UK nursing leader Peter Carter in a front page story in Friday’s Times newspaper. He is right, says the newspaper in a leader article, and should be joined by other powerful voices, perhaps to silence the nostalgia junkies who mount campaigns […]
Domhnall MacAuley: Wayne Rooney’s hair transplant
Not anterior cruciate ligaments, metatarsals, or dodgy ankles – the sports medicine story of the week is Wayne Rooney’s hair transplant. Brave guy. Can you imagine the potential for abuse. Not just a few snide comments from behind the office photocopier, tongue wagging neighbours, or knowing smiles. He stands in front of 40,000 plus supporters every […]
Edward Davies: NHS Reforms – be careful what you wish for
David Cameron’s speech on NHS reform this week should have marked a substantial victory for doctors’ leaders. In recent months they have been even more outspoken than usual in their opposition to whatever it is the government’s saying this week and David Cameron let them know he was all ears. “I’ve heard the passion of […]