Since its inception, the BMJ has never ceased publication, even when London—where the British Medical Association is based—was being bombed during the Second World War. At the time, victims of air raids were being treated and operated on by dedicated and courageous doctors like Diana Mary Brinkley. Diana, who later went on to train in […]
Category: South Asia
The BMJ Today: Educating clinicians and consenting adults
BMJ news highlights ongoing debate around pharmaceutical companies providing medical education with a look at GSK’s plans to employ their own doctors to educate peers rather than using key opinion leaders to do this. The majority vote so far in this week’s poll is that GSK’s new proposal is no more transparent than paying external […]
Seye Abimbola and Aku Kwamie: Posting and transfer in the health sector
The things we don’t talk about in global health escape our attention perhaps because they don’t have a name—the unnamed subject being, in effect, a non-issue. From 3 to 7 February, a group of 19 researchers, decision-makers, and policy advocates from 12 countries gathered for a meeting at the […]
The BMJ Today: Is “Madonna” the answer and do these genes make me look fat?
Is “Madonna” the answer? Definitely “No” although the woman nominated one of Time Magazine’s 25 most powerful women of the past century would certainly have something to say about (Dr) Tracey Koehlmoos’ experiences as the only woman on a panel of experts. Each time she is introduced as plain “Tracey” at yet another high powered […]
The BMJ Today: Cigarettes and alcohol
“My earliest ambition was to be an engineer, because someone told me girls couldn’t be engineers,” says Glasgow based GP Margaret McCartney in BMJ Confidential. It’s this tenacious attitude that has characterised Margaret’s career, from her day to day work as a GP in Glasgow, to her tireless defence of the ethics and values of […]
Simon Chapman: Will vapers really “quit and (not) die?”
The public health appeal of vaping that emboldens its advocates to sanctimoniously taunt anyone unconvinced by their evangelism as callous “quit or die” moralists is that e-cigarettes are spectacularly promising as a way of quitting smoking. Aware that many vapers also continue to smoke, they point to the seemingly undeniable logic of “every cigarette forgone […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review—17 March 2014
NEJM 13 Mar 2014 Vol 370 1029 Doctors, by and large, make bad scientists. We train our minds for years in some of the hardest intellectual disciplines, and then make do with the sloppiest excuse for thought when it comes to believing what we wish to. All of us learned, at some time between the […]
The BMJ Today: Statins in the headlines again
Statins have been featuring in the news fairly regularly of late. Last week they made the headlines again when a systematic review of side effects in placebo-controlled trials of statins was published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology. “Statins ‘have no side effects’” read the front page of The Daily Telegraph. But as Jacqui […]
Simon Chapman on e-cigarettes: the best and the worst case scenarios for public health
Use of electronic cigarettes (e-cigs or Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems—ENDS) is showing exponential increase in some nations. Their regular use remains marginal in Australia, where the sale of nicotine liquid is banned (personal imports are legal only if the importer needs nicotine for therapeutic purposes—including to assist with the cessation of smoking. Legal importation of […]
The BMJ Today: One portion of broccoli and hummous to go
Do you ever stop off for a burger or a slice of pizza on your way home from work? And if the takeaway had organic broccoli spears and a hummous dip on the menu, would you go for the healthier option instead? […]