When Davidicus Wong (cool name) told of being asked by a fellow passenger on a plane “Are you a GP or just a just a specialist?”, it set the scene for the Impact BC Canadian Health Improvement Forum, which preceded the Institute for Healthcare Improvement meeting (10th Annual International Summit on Redesigning the Clinical Office […]
Category: Editors at large
Juliet Walker on using F1 technology in medicine
Formula 1 motor racing is not usually something associated with medical innovation, however a new exhibition at the Science Museum shows how Formula 1 inspired technology is being used to improve medical practice and resources. The Fast Forward exhibition shows twenty ways in which Formula 1 is changing the world, six of which are focused around […]
Zosia Kmietowicz: A lesson in diplomacy and persistence
It was hard not to feel sorry for Liam Donaldson on Monday morning. Arriving at a press conference to announce his latest strategies for improving the public’s health 24 hours after the most controversial of his plans was splashed across the Sunday papers, he had the right to feel ruffled and angry. But he showed […]
Support small charities, says Peter Lapsley
It is very good to see Changing Faces nominated as the BMA charity of the year, both because it is an outstanding organisation and because the nomination recognises a reality of which too many people are unaware. I know Changing Faces well. Run by its founder, the indefatigable James Partridge, it supports and represents people […]
David Payne on charity knitting
Stephanie Pearl-McPhee is a Canadian knitter who challenges people to think long and hard before they buy something over the course of a week. At the end of the week, during which you’ve hopefully resisted the temptation of capuccinos, theatre trips, jeans, shoes, meals out etc, you work out what you’ve saved and donate the […]
Trish Groves: More from TED 2009
Bill Gates’ talk on the first day of the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference got huge coverage, and within just a few hours some wag had turned Gates’ stunt of releasing mosquitoes into the audience into a Terry Gilliamesque game. […]
Trish Groves at TED 2009 – 4 February
TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is a movement as much as conference. It started 25 years ago with a couple of hundred technology experts and enthusiasts. Last year it attracted more than 1000 people and outgrew its home in Monterey, so it’s moved to Long Beach, California. Long term TEDsters say it’s broadened in the past […]
Peter Lapsley on the assisted dying debate
What interests the public and what is in the public interest can be two rather different things but can come together to argue strongly for change. Such is the case with British law in respect of assisted dying. It is wrong to say, as some do, that the law is adequate as it stands. It […]
Elizabeth Loder on academic-industry interactions
It was a Boston day so cold that my morning assortment of emails included a message suggesting that hospital employees should be on the lookout for indoor puddles that might indicate frozen, burst water pipes. As I walked across the medical school campus towards the Tosteson Medical Education Center, I did not anticipate that this […]
Birte Twisselmann on BMJ in the news
Although the medical myths from the BMJ‘s Christmas issue are still making headlines, it’s difficult teenagers that have caught the media’s attention this week. A research paper (with accompanying podcast) on outcomes of conduct problems in adolescence – a 40 year follow-up of the British 1946 birth cohort has been widely cited. […]