Love it or hate it—we must all consume evidence. Now is your chance to have your say on what its future should be like. Yesterday the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine at Oxford University launched a new manifesto calling for better evidence for better healthcare. The BMJ team is partnering with them. Writing to launch the manifesto The BMJ says: […]
Category: Editors at large
Tessa Richards: WHO and the politics of health
Gaining cross country consensus on joint European strategies to tackle politically and culturally sensitive public health issues is not easy. So it was not surprising perhaps that a decision to adopt an action plan on sexual and reproductive health at the World Health Organization’s 66th Regional Committee meeting in Copenhagen went to the wire. It […]
Elizabeth Loder: Should orange be the new black for price-gouging pharma execs?
One thing’s for sure: Heather Bresch, the CEO of Mylan Pharmaceuticals, looks good in orange. She’s the subject of a recent New York Times article that opens by declaring “America has a new pharmaceutical villain.” (Martin Shkreli, former CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals who raised the price of an essential toxoplasmosis drug by 5000%, is the old […]
David Payne: Medical stuff at Edinburgh’s festivals 2016
For the first time in more than a decade I’m skipping Edinburgh in August with its international, fringe, and book festivals. It seemed like a good idea at the time. The fringe grows ever more unwieldy, accommodation is scarce and expensive, and I’ve gained a week to explore more destinations in the UK or overseas. […]
Tessa Richards: “Therapeutic relationships”—prized but hard to deliver
I hate to think of what I’ve cost the NHS since I was diagnosed with cancer in 2004. This year alone I’d need to factor in 12 outpatient appointments, seven MRI scans, and a course of radiotherapy. And “the worst is yet to come,” as one consultant I saw wryly reminded me. But sufficient unto […]
Deborah Kirkham: Mind the technology gap—how can the NHS bridge it?
I find the exhibition halls at conferences fascinating. They provide an interface between private and public sector which many clinicians are not exposed to in their day to day work. There’s the private companies with their baristas and artisan coffee beans; a stand that’s bigger than the square footage of an average UK home, and […]
Rosamund Snow: What makes a real patient?
A few years ago I applied for a grant to study my own long term condition. I started out as Ms Snow, ashamed of saying the name of my disease, and ended up Dr Snow, the type 1 diabetic, knowing a lot more about research and academia than I ever thought I would. I realised […]
Fiona Godlee: My biggest career failure
Like most of us, I have known failure. I tried to get into Cambridge to do preclinical medicine from sixth form—twice: once in my fourth term and again in my seventh. Both attempts were unsuccessful. Instead I went to University College London and got to know London (my favourite city), and had the added benefit […]
Tessa Richards: N-of-1 research
Wimbledon is over (well done Andy Murray), but London still has a wealth of other treats to offer. A trip to the Science Museum, for example, where the Beyond the Lab exhibition is well worth a visit. It showcases nine “citizen science innovators,” selected to illustrate how people working alone in their own homes, can […]
David Payne: Time to pause Scotland’s “Named Person” policy
“They fuck you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do.” Was Philip Larkin right, and if so, are state-funded parenting classes the answer? Or should we be offering all children, regardless of their background, access to a state guardian from birth to 18 to help safeguard their wellbeing? One […]