Last week I attended an event on the state of science journalism called “Science in the media: rude or ailing health?” Rather than a discussion on how science is being reported in the media, the debate thrashed out the role of mainstream science journalism compared with blogs and other forms of science communication. […]
Category: Editors at large
Domhnall MacAuley: A full Irish breakfast and a pint of Guinness
A full Irish breakfast and a pint of Guinness. The perfect Easter brunch. But, not on Good Friday. The pubs are closed in Ireland on two days of the year; Christmas Day and Good Friday. And, given that the Catholic Church deems Good Friday a day of fast and abstinence (one main meal, two snacks, […]
Domhnall MacAuley: Illness hidden behind steel doors?
Ever thought about prisoners? Not those unfortunates banged up in a far away jail; misguided young drug couriers, misunderstood plane spotters, or those whose foolish misdemeanours have been magnified through the eyes a different culture. They don’t tend to be forgotten. And elsewhere, we sympathise with downtrodden citizens protesting in foreign dictatorships, slammed into jail […]
Georg Röggla: Intensive care and emergency medicine in Brussels
More than 5000 participants from about 90 countries all around the world took part at the 30th International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine in Brussels, Belgium from March 9th to March 12th, 2010. The declared goal of this meeting was to celebrate 30 years of intensive care and emergency medicine and hopefully help […]
Helen Jaques: New publishing models at the BMJ Editors’ seminar
This week at the BMJ Editors’ seminar I heard about two innovative new publishing models: Nature Communications from Nature Publishing Group (NPG) and PLoS Currents from Public Library of Science. Nature Communications is an online only, multidisciplinary, “middle tier” research journal being launched this spring by NPG. […]
Harvey Marcovitch on publication-to-knowledge time – far too long
Theresa Harding’s long and tedious journey through increasing disability to a diagnosis of a treatable condition is a very moving one. Many readers will be as concerned as the BMJ patient editor Peter Lapsley in his rapid response to the article. […]
Peter Lapsley on hospital gowns and dignity
Among all the media reports of the NHS being destroyed by target-setting and endless reorganisation, and of patients being put last – or nowhere at all – in NHS policy-making, it was good to learn that, from this month, those dreaded hospital gowns are to be consigned to history, with newly designed ones being introduced […]
Domhnall MacAuley: goodbye health visiting
Baby clinic was always the happiest and busiest afternoon of the week. After routine medical checks, there was a chance to share the excitement of the new baby and build on a relationship for the future. Our practice has had an open access baby clinic, where mums can see both the doctor and health visitor […]
Georg Röggla on a new and different perspective of dying
I have seen many people die in the nearly three decades I have worked as a clinician. I was, however, confronted with a totally different perspective of dying while attending a symposium “noch mal leben/vivere ancora [to live again]” on palliative care at the free university of Bozen/Bolzano in South Tyrol in Italy on February […]
Georg Röggla: on the new European Research Council president
The European Research Council (ERC) unanimously elected Prof. Helga Nowotny, an eminent social scientist, as the new ERC President on February 19th, 2010. Helga Nowotny is currently the ERC’s vice-President. She is Professor emeritus of Social Studies of Science, ETH Zurich, and Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of Vienna University. She is also a […]