Older readers will remember when the Medical Defence Union had a telegraphic address – Damocles. Younger readers may not know that he was another of those Greek mythological characters to whom the gods or their employers gave a tough time – in his case suspending a sword over his head by a single hair. Oh, […]
Category: Guest writers
Tauseef Mehrali on meat free Mondays
My grandfather used to counsel my mother’s worries about my insatiable carnivorous tendencies as a child by suggesting that the only solution would be to ensure I gain a butcher as a father-in-law. I would frequently be teased at dinner parties when it looked like I was struggling to make it to dessert with mock […]
Ohad Oren: How can medical students adapt to their ever changing profession?
“Medicine is an ever-changing science” goes the familiar message on the opening page of most medical textbooks. Judging by the rapid pace at which textbooks expand, you have to wonder whether that would be a good enough reason to abandon the written word for good. Lateral epicondylitis used to be learnt through reading and repetition; […]
Keith J Petrie and Kate Faasse: Monitoring public anxiety about flu
Greater monitoring of the web could provide a guide to public anxiety about flu outbreaks and social media could be used more intensively to provide relevant public health information to younger groups. […]
Stephen Ginn on complementary therapy and disenfranchisement
I went to a debate on complementary medicine recently, hosted by the KCL Social Medicine Society. Despite being held on Guy’s Hospital Campus, a supposed stronghold of conventional medicine, the lecture theatre was awash with complementary therapists and when the pre-debate votes were taken the numbers were two to one against critics -like me – […]
Tracey Koehlmoos: The Colonel arrives with a bang in Bangladesh
On my way home from the centre where I work in Dhaka, Bangladesh, I drive through an area with four closely located private universities. Yesterday I was stuck in rush hour traffic. Students were swarming on their way out of class. Suddenly I could hear music behind me. […]
Matiram Pun on clinical medicine vs research
I developed a strong interest in medicine and becoming a doctor at the beginning of high school. I liked the idea of being of service, the social respect doctors are afforded, and the bread and butter (financial reward) was fair enough. […]
Stephen Ginn on self help: friend or foe?
There was a page advert in the Metro this week for a three days seminar with TV hypnotist Paul McKenna and pals which promised to “Change your life in three days.” […]
Tony Waterston on climate change talks at the Commons
A meeting in the House of Commons to discuss the health impact of climate change? Surely that would be worth 32kg of CO2 to travel from Newcastle for – since there appears to be a severely lacking awareness of this subject among our MPs, who are not well known for their low carbon lifestyles. And […]
William Lee on Philip Nitschke’s return to the UK
Philip Nitschke is in the UK giving his DIY suicide workshops again. I attended one of these in October and blogged about it then. His reappearance reminded me that last month BBC Radio 4 aired “The Report“, in which Simon Cox investigated some concerns about the conduct of the head of another assisted suicide organisation, this […]