Grand rounds were the highlight of the week on the ward when the head of our department himself conducted them. They were fun, all bets were open, and the teacher would give youngsters in the team as well as the most experienced senior doctors a piece of his mind in equal measures. Although his tone […]
Category: Guest writers
Layla McCay: Down with paternalism; long live shared decision making
Paternalism is so last century. In this new era of patient centered care, the modern health professional knows the importance of involving patients in decisions about their care, particularly when there is more than one appropriate option, and the decision hinges on personal preferences and values. […]
“e-Patient Dave” deBronkart: Back to the future: Tom Ferguson’s “e patients” emerge in shared decision-making
I’m an e-patient: empowered, engaged, equipped, enabled. Diagnosed in 2007 with late stage kidney cancer, I used the internet in every way possible to help my cause, in concert with world class physicians at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Today I am well. A year after my diagnosis I discovered e-patients.net, a blog started […]
John Coggon: Organ donation and public ethics
Public healthcare is by definition everyone’s business. Yet there is considerable disagreement about who should take part in its development. This problem is most pronounced when the issue is one of widespread social concern, and one on which there is a great range of views: scientific, clinical, political, moral. […]
Vasiliy Vlassov: In the name of Pirogov
Recently Russia celebrated the 200th birthday of Nikolay Pirogov. He is one of Russia’s most esteemed physicians, famous for his surgical skills and teaching, research in clinical anatomy, and especially for using “ice anatomy” — sections of frozen cadavers. He is also well known for carrying out experiments with ether anaesthesia, at the same time […]
Des O’Neill: Christmas, South Park, health, and pluralism
When the largest teaching hospital in Dublin removed the Christmas crib from its atrium a few years ago, the response to the resulting public outcry suggested a timorous confusion about the difference between pluralism and secularism that is not uncommon in medicine. As artists are ever to the fore in illuminating societal dilemmas, South Park […]
Rahij Anwar and Nitish Gogi: Fractures in snow: Are we better equipped this time?
Earlier this year, I (RA) slipped on ice on my rather steep drive. The result was an electric shock like sensation from head to toe and a sore neck. I conducted a quick “self examination” and couldn’t come to a diagnosis that could qualify me to be “off sick.” I therefore, disappointingly proceeded to work […]
Ike Anya: Human rights day – reflecting on access to healthcare for undocumented migrants
The current financial pressures on the public sector and the drive to achieve savings in the NHS are the focus of much debate and speculation at the moment. Of particular concern, though less prominently voiced, in a time of squeezed budgets, is the potential impact of these pressures on some of the more marginalized and […]
Michael Wilks: the last day of the Cancún conference
The end of any international meeting is always fraught with uncertainty, and compromises are more likely as deadlines loom. On this last full day, Cancún looks like being very difficult to spin other than at a level that takes a deep sigh of relief that any structure exists on which to build further agreements ahead of […]
Michael Wilks on the latest from Cancún
As we reach the middle of the second and final week of this COP meeting, positions are beginning to harden, and may well persist into the post-Cancún landscape. Ministers started arriving yesterday and were given a shot in the arm by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. In spite of this, the main offenders are being identified […]