27 October 2010—sitting in a plane taking off from Paris, flicking through the Lonely Planet to Guadeloupe that I had just bought at the airport, I cast my mind over the events of the last year leading me to this departure for a six month post in the French Caribbean… Keen to build on a background of […]
Category: Guest writers
Hannah Bass on healthtalkonline.org
The award-winning experiential health website, healthtalkonline.org, launched a new section devoted to carers of people with a terminal illness on Wednesday. The website’s real life stories are proving a valuable resource not only to patients but also to health professionals. healthtalkonline already hosts thousands of videos of people talking about their experiences of different medical […]
David Warriner: Depression in sport
Ex-England and Lancashire cricketer Andrew “Freddy” Flintoff presented a candid and insightful documentary on depression and professional sport, titled “The hidden side of sport,” which was shown on BBC One on 11 January. He met with other famous sportsmen, all of who had been affected by depression; such as former professional footballer, now turned Hollywood […]
Marge Berer: The breast implant fiasco: a scandal of private medicine
So, the silicone’s hit the fan. The use of industrial-grade silicone intended for mattresses, the possible fraud in hiding information from inspectors at production stage, and the failure in quality control in the regulatory phase, are particularly outrageous. However, the rapidly expanding private sector provision of breast implants for cosmetic reasons, by an “industry” that has been […]
Evi Kalodiki on the fellowship of women: two hundred surgical lives
The fellowship of women: two hundred surgical lives, is a fascinating book. It was launched at the Women in Surgery (WinS) meeting of the Royal College of Surgeons on the 4 November 2011. It commemorates the 100th anniversary since the first woman surgeon was permitted to take the fellowship examination and be admitted into the RCS […]
Hannah Bass on Frontline: a year of journalism and conflict
2011 was an incredible year for news. Unrest across the world was organised via social media and often documented by citizens using little more than mobile phones. Rolling news bombarded us with grainy footage of protests and kilings. Now a new exhibition, sponsored by Sky News, looks back on a year of reporting violence. Frontline: […]
Sameer Sarkar: Should a doctor have to countersign gun licence applications?
There are two sides to every story. However in the case of the tragic shooting incident on New Year’s Day in County Durham, we are only hearing part of the story. Mainstream media reports that the shooter Michael Atherton, a taxi driver (who also died in the same incident), was licensed to have no less […]
Richard Vize: How to spend a £300 million capital fund
The Department of Health is sitting on hundreds of millions of pounds it doesn’t know how to spend. As the Health Service Journal revealed last week, the DH has suddenly started scrabbling around for ways to use £300 million of capital budget. Some trusts have been given only seven working days to apply, others don’t […]
Tom Yates: Separate analysis of independent and industry supported studies would be informative
I am very glad the Cochrane Collaboration exists. However, it is important to consider how its activities might be harmful and to take every effort to mitigate this risk. I periodically re-read Joel Lexchin’s review of outcome in industry supported vs non industry supported studies to remind myself of the powerful and pervasive impact that […]
Albert Jovell: challenges for the Spanish healthcare system
A 75 year old man who was diagnosed with coronary heart disease when he was 60, and has been treated with medication since, represents a typical patient in primary care and hospital care in Spain. He has also been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Treatment with drugs and insulin therapy started when he was 72 […]