That articulated lorry hurtling towards you may be driven by one of your fat beer drinking patients- who just has fallen asleep at the wheel. Sleep apnoea used to be a rather esoteric research field in the backroads of respiratory medicine but is now mainstream or, more alarmingly, main road. Respiratory physicians may joke that […]
Category: Editors at large
Georg Röggla: Evidence and quality in intensive care medicine
‘The H1N1 pandemic-are we prepared?’ was the first hot topic at the 22nd congress of the European society of intensive care medicine (ESICM) in Vienna from 11th to 14th October 2009. The question of whether there will there be enough intensive care facilities for critically ill patients in a second wave of the pandemic was […]
Elizabeth Loder on neurologic controversies discussed at the 3rd World Congress on Controversies in Neurology
Anticoagulation in patients with microbleeds and TPA for stroke beyond 3 hours The 3rd World Congress on Controversies in Neurology, held in Prague October 8-11, used an all-debate format to highlight areas of uncertainty and disagreement in current neurological practice. With three concurrent sessions to choose from, I wasn’t able to attend everything of interest, […]
Oliver Ellis on ivory towers and elevator music
I had the good fortune to attend the Don and Dusted debate at the British Library on Wednesday (9 October). Up for debate was whether traditional scholarly work, where dons have wide academic freedom to do more or less as they please, is being replaced with impact measured and outcome driven research, and whether this […]
Georg Röggla at the 45th meeting of the EASD
The 45th annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) took place in Vienna, Austria, from September 30th to October 2nd The town centre and all places of interest were flooded with the bright red congress-rucksacks. […]
Tessa Richards: Jobs for health
As UK participants returned from last week’s European Health Forum in Gastein (read more), Austria, newspaper headlines calling for “Cuts in wasteful NHS bureaucracy” and “Pay freezes for high earners” will have reinforced the messages they heard. Debate focused on the impact of the financial crisis on health and what governments should do about it. […]
Domhnall MacAuley on a cure for cancer found (again)
If every media report of a cure for cancer were true, we should live forever. But, the media like a headline health story, and we cannot really blame the journalists. It is largely the fault of epidemiologists, according to Joe McLaughlin (International Epidemiology Institute, Maryland USA), who laments the change in culture. He feels that […]
Trish Groves: Let SPIRIT take you … towards much clearer trial protocols
Reporting statements like the CONSORT and STROBE statements are making an important and demonstrable difference to the quality of research papers by helping authors report exactly what happened in their studies. But these statements can’t fix studies that were inadequately designed or poorly conducted. They’re the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, rather than […]
Domhnall MacAuley: Equity, human rights, and access to care
Often the only visible links between a conference and the host city are the presence of intense young researchers with carefully rolled posters and middle aged delegates with matching bags, wandering aimlessly through the streets. But, by inspired by Zeno Bisoffi, conference chairman, the 6th European Congress on Tropical Medicine and International Health engaged directly […]
Fiona Godlee: Why we’ve joined 10:10
I’ve just signed up, on behalf of the BMJ Group, to a commitment to cut our carbon footprint by 10% by the end of 2010. For more information on the 10:10 campaign, go to 1010uk.org. […]