Last year my sixty year old brother took his own life. When he was diagnosed with terminal renal cancer, he had just watched a close family member die a drawn out and undignified death from cancer. He was determined not to go through the same misery—to have some control over his death. In the absence […]
Category: Guest writers
Lavanya Malhotra: Sex education in India
The website of India’s health minister, Harsh Vardhan, currently states: “So called ‘sex education’ to be banned. Yoga to be made compulsory.” The media has not been impressed, and controversy rages as health professionals and educators debate the merits of age appropriate sex education in schools. Vardhan has since retracted his original statement, saying: “Crudity and […]
Sean Roche: Resistance—what society needs to learn from the microbes
The first week in July saw extensive media coverage of the looming specter of microbial antibiotic resistance. The basic problem: Big Pharma isn’t developing new antibiotics. We look on, seemingly helpless, in the face of ever evolving strains of dangerous, resistant “superbugs.” The logic of this scenario is familiar, and mirrors perfectly our apparent helplessness […]
Robin Kincaid: Surgical skills in Palestine—handing over the baton
In April this year, the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd) team travelled to East Jerusalem to oversee the teaching of the Basic Surgical Skills (BSS) course, which has been endorsed by the Edinburgh college for Palestinian surgeons in training. The idea for this project grew its roots back in early 2010, and the scheme is […]
Gillian Turner: Recognising frailty in older people
Given the current emphasis on emergency admissions and older people, it is perhaps not surprising that the words “frail” and “frailty” are used almost interchangeably with “older people.” Yet more than 50% of people over the age of 85 will not have frailty. For the 40 to 50 % that do, we need to carefully […]
Liz Allen: The economic case for medical research
Former US president Bill Clinton achieved a lot in the White House. He presided over the longest period of peacetime economic growth in American history, he signed the North American Free Trade Agreement, and he was the first Democrat since Franklin D Roosevelt to win re-election. Yet when asked last month to recall his greatest accomplishment, […]
Tom Jefferson and Peter Doshi: EMA’s double U-turn on its Peeping Tom policy for data release
Yesterday’s announcement that the EMA Management Board may have adopted a less obstructive policy to releasing clinical trial data comes hard on the heels of widespread coverage (see here, here, here, and here) and protests (by the EU Ombudsman, us, us again, Trudo Lemmens, the ISDB/AIM/ Nordic Cochrane Centre/ Medicines in Europe Forum, German IQWiG, […]
James Partridge: The face of a warrior for the human spirit
To be chosen as the subject of the first People’s Portrait was, as Simon Weston put it, a very humbling experience. But as he showed consistently throughout the beautifully crafted BBC film about the making of the portrait, he is a delightfully humble man. But not in the way you might imagine I mean. Not […]
Zoe Smith: Changing the story for neglected tropical diseases
While it’s been challenging to make neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) a priority on the global health agenda, until recently, the struggle to raise the conversation beyond niche circles has been even harder. The illnesses are prevalent in places that many would struggle to find on a map, let alone pronounce (echinococcosis and onchocerciasis, for example). Factors […]
Chris Hopson: You get what you pay for—a different approach to the 2015/16 NHS tariff is crucial
If you get what you pay for, then 2015/16 risks being a very difficult year for the NHS, as the system affordability challenge, according to Monitor, jumps from 3.1% to 6.6%. This is driven by increasing demand and costs, a flat NHS budget, changes to NHS pension arrangements, and the *Better Care Fund. NHS providers […]