Very few BMJ original research articles are cited by 1600 other publications, so it’s dispiriting to discover that the message of one of our citation classics may have been wrong. A meta-analysis by Neils Skakkebaek and colleagues reported in 1992 that sperm counts had halved over the preceding 50 years. It became big news, no doubt […]
Category: Editors at large
Domhnall MacAuley: Barefoot runners, Western habits, and GP records – more from ACSM
Should we abandon running shoes? Running shoes are a relatively new phenomenon – primitive man did not wear shoes when hunting in the savannah and would look in wonder at modern running shoes with their huge wedges, motion support, and cushioned soles. They have changed the way we run and, in spite of all the […]
Domhnall MacAuley: From the American College of Sports Medicine annual meeting (Denver)
The next big thing in physical activity research: sitting doing nothing. Steve Blair (University of South Carolina), a major player in the physical activity research world, suggests that the pattern of inactivity is important. Sedentary behaviour, irrespective of the overall level of activity is itself a risk factor- sitting doing nothing may be harmful, even […]
Domhnall MacAuley: Northern Ireland general practice
Last night Clare Gerada, chair of the RCGP, spoke in Northern Ireland about the Future of General Practice. This morning she meets our new Minister of Health. She described her vision and what she would like to achieve. She was, perhaps, trying to encourage the wrong audience – those present already believe in her values. But, […]
Edward Davies: Abstain from emotive rhetoric, please
When I read yesterday that “anti-abortion group” Life had been asked to join a government advisory panel on sexual health, my heart sank a bit. Not because they have been asked to join – it strikes me that in a group of a dozen or so organisations to have one representing this view is probably […]
Birte Twisselmann: Medical history in film and literature at the Royal Society of Medicine
The day’s event on 4 May 2011 was organised by the RSM’s History of Medicine Section, whose president, Bloomsbury general practitioner Claire Elliott, made the opening address: “Does the history of medicine make us better doctors?” Elliott is also a clinical teaching fellow in primary care at UCL, and she would certainly respond in the […]
Juliet Dobson: How to pay for quality journalism in a digital world?
It is almost a year since News International decided to put Times Online and the Sunday Times websites behind a paywall. It was a watershed moment for journalism, and on Monday 9 May City University organised a talk about how to pay for quality journalism in a digital age. The debate started with Geordie Grieg, […]
Annabel Ferriman: What a way to decide the future of the NHS
Suddenly Health Secretary Andrew Lansley’s proposals to “reform” the NHS look safe. For more than nine months, since the publication of Liberating the NHS last July, doctors, nurses, think tanks, and academics have been begging Lansley to re-think his ideas. By the start of the “pause” in April, it looked as though the government would […]
David Payne: Competition and the NHS reforms
With the pause button still firmly pressed on the NHS reforms in England, one former Tory health secretary claims this week that the debate is losing touch with reality. Stephen Dorrell, who now chairs the Commons health select committee, says the row about competition is nonsensical and could harm patients because it’s already happening in […]
Domhnall MacAuley: Madeleine McCann
Had you forgotten? Of course you had, admit it. A drama lost in the blur of television history. But, on Friday night brain-dead talk show television, the horror story flashback. Kate and Gerry McCann told again the story of Madeleine’s disappearance. And, while we get on with our lives, and they do too in a […]