Getting to Rwanda takes ages. I don’t know why there isn’t a direct flight to Kigali from the UK but there just isn’t—which meant that my journey there took close to 24 hours (via Kenya and Burundi). I have travelled through East Africa plenty before, but this was my first trip to Rwanda. I went […]
Category: Guest writers
Amanda Glassman et al: A post 2015 development goal for health—should it be universal health coverage?
As 2015 approaches and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) expire, the global health community is discussing the options for the next set of international goals for health. In the current set of MDGs, there are multiple goals that directly and indirectly relate to health (see below). Today, there is some worry that the next set […]
Tara Lamont: Where are the doctors in patient safety research?
Bob Wachter, a leading US clinical researcher and leader of “hospitalist” fame, came over here on a sabbatical last year and mentioned in passing his personal roll-call of influential figures from this side of the water on patient safety research. Jim Reason, Charles Vincent, Mary Dixon-Woods….but they are all social scientists. Where were the doctors? […]
Kieran Walsh: Free medical education would deliver savings in the long term
“Even in comparatively poor countries we find scientific knowledge and trained intellects regarded as sound public investments, and the popular voice applauding a liberal application of public money to secure them.” Isambard Owen, 1904 […]
Desmond O’Neill: Nowhere to hide
The large gilded hall of the Musikverein in Vienna is instantly recognisable to most people from the annual New Year’s concert dedicated to the Strauss family and their contemporaries. In real life it is no less magnificent, although it feels smaller than the images projected by the televised event. Endowed with a crystal clear acoustic […]
Jega Aravinthan on the Mental Health (Discrimination) Bill
“Those that the gods would destroy they first make mad” is a quotation misattributed to Eupirides and is a historical example of the negative connotations and stigma experienced by individuals with mental health problems. These have been perpetuated through the centuries and continue to be enshrined in current UK legislation, which restricts the ability of […]
Sarah Woolnough: The importance of patient data for research
In the UK, one of our most valuable resources in the fight against cancer is our pool of patient data. Records of the nation’s health stretch back decades. And these data are unsurpassed globally. Cancer Research UK has benefitted hugely from the opportunities that this resource represents. We’re committed to ensuring that in the future […]
John Ashton on witnessing the Hillsborough disaster
You don’t expect to set off for a major football match on a beautiful spring morning with your young sons and nephew and emerge 12 hours later like a survivor from 9/11 or the Somme. In 20th century Britain you didn’t expect to find yourself in a football stadium reminiscent of Dickensian England or a […]
Rhys Davies: A sign from God or Schneider?
I am currently on my psychiatry rotation. Psychiatry is one of those peculiar specialties that tends to polarise medical students. Some dismiss it as merely asking, “And how does that make you feel?”, while others are like my housemate, whose eyes light up at the mention of psychosis and neurosis. Myself, I am approaching the […]
Athene Donald: “Science: it’s a girl thing” is not a cure
The EU scored an own goal a few weeks back when it launched its new website “Science: It’s a Girl Thing,” a site aimed at getting more teenage girls to consider pursuing science as a career. If you look at the site now, it looks innocuous enough, indeed possibly rather interesting and informative, but on […]