The well known general practitioner and outstanding communicator Ann McPherson died on 28 May 2011 from pancreatic cancer. She is celebrated for her books for patients, including The Diary of a Teenage Health Freak (BMJ 2009;339:b3355); the DIPEx (Database of Individual Patient Experiences) charity and its websites (www.healthtalkonline.org and www.youthhealthtalk.org); and Healthcare Professionals for Assisted […]
Category: Guest writers
Richard Feinmann on winning a BMJ Group award
I suppose I could be accused of banging on too much about doctors volunteering at the end of their career. But now I have another reason. At my age, I thought the days of national and international meetings were long gone. So, what a surprise to find myself at the Hilton on Park Lane with […]
Des O’Neill: Death and transfiguration
Death, suffering, and the after life – what a way to finish a geriatric medicine congress! I had at first viewed the invitation to the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra concert as an unexpected bonus to an extremely stimulating and hospitable Austrian and German Geriatric Medicine Congress the week before last. Yet when viewed through the lens of […]
Rebecca Robinson on being an athlete and sports and exercise medicine registrar
It seemed like the perfect match: combining my dream job as a new registrar in sports and exercise medicine, with plans to develop my competitive career in international athletics. In August 2010, I’d just competed for GB in the Barcelona European marathon and was commencing a post as a new ST3. However, six months later, […]
Sarah Welsh: Giving birth in art
Why is the subject of birth rarely engaged with in contemporary art? This is what Birth Rite’s collection “Birth in Contemporary Art,” questioned at a symposium on 11 June. Held at the Whitechapel Gallery in London, the event also took place in Manchester’s Whitworth Gallery on 9 June. In today’s free thinking art world, there […]
Sarah Walpole: It only takes health professionals to do nothing for bad things to happen
The key strategic challenges facing health services across the globe are to meet changing needs and expectations, improve quality of care, and work within financial, resource related, and environmental limits. Environmental health threats include pollution, adverse weather events, and changing climatic conditions (posing challenges to infectious disease control and food security). Resource shortages for healthcare […]
Sandra Lako: World Malaria Day in Sierra Leone
World Malaria Day was this week and unfortunately, although a preventable disease, malaria still kills many people in the developing world. At the children’s hospital I work at, we see malaria cases everyday. Some cases are very severe; the children are literally on death’s doorstep and other cases are mild and improve with oral medication. […]
Tracey Koehlmoos on open versus free access: lesson learnt
Out of the blue on 28 March my colleagues and I received notification that all Lancet journals are now available to everyone in Bangladesh. As you can imagine, this is excellent news for those of us who like to read the Lancet so that it did feel a little like Christmas especially for the systematic review […]
Anya Sarang: Russian prisons as a source of tuberculosis
Tuberculosis presents a serious problem to public health all over the world and especially in countries with developing economies. In spite of the availability of effective treatment for simple tuberculosis, annually it is responsible for more than 4500 deaths worldwide. More often than not, this is connected with late diagnosis of the disease and the […]
Sarah Welsh: Becoming a centenarian
How long do you expect to live… 70? 80? Maybe even 90? Many consider being around in your 80s is an impressive feat. Yet, new figures suggest as many as 11 million people alive today will live to see their 100th birthday. According to new data from the Office for National Statistics, over a quarter […]