I have just come across a neat little web tool from the New York Times. You can type in any word, and see a line graph showing how frequently it’s been used in the New York Times by year right back to 1860. You can also compare several words simultaneously. It’s a fascinating insight into the degree of […]
Category: Students
Lavanya Malhotra: Tackling obesity with gold
The Dubai municipality has come up with a novel way to promote a balanced diet and exercise in the city: slim down, and the reward will be worth your weight in gold. Or rather, you will receive 1 g of gold for every kg shed. Earlier this week it was estimated that more than 15 000 people had […]
Jack Johnson: My week as a medical journalist
I arrived at the offices of The BMJ on Monday 7 July, expecting to spend the day at a desk reading scholarly articles, which I had little chance of making sense of. I am a sixth form student and spent a week at The BMJ on work experience. My previous encounter with work experience was at […]
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 […]
Rhys Davies: Ode to a stethoscope
A recent article in The BMJ wondered whether portable ultrasound scanners might soon replace the trusty stethoscope. These ultrasounds are easy to use, sexy, cheap at only £5000(!), and lead to greater confidence at the examination couch. But forgive me if I’m not ready to swap my stethoscope for a tricorder just yet. The invention […]
Hemal Kanzaria et al: How can we reduce medical waste in US hospitals?
US hospitals annually discard millions of dollars of clean, unused medical equipment due to procedural excess or federal regulations. [1,2] Many health professional students do not recognise the magnitude of this waste or the extent of worldwide inequities in access to such supplies. In an era of value driven care, it is critical to engage […]
Richard Smith: Teaching medical students online consultation with patients
A first year medical student of today may well still be practising in 2070. We can’t know how medicine will look then, but we can see some clear trends. The relationship between doctors and patients will surely be much more equal; indeed, health will be the business primarily of patients, with doctors as advisers, guides, […]
Alice James: Tackling tobacco temptation—why we need to target children
The most effective way we can reduce the global burden of smoking is to target young people. During the debate on standardised packaging of tobacco products, an initiative which has for now been stalled by the government, MP Bob Blackman stressed that, “Two thirds of current smokers began under the age of 18” and that […]
Keir Arran: A remote and rural foundation programme—a unique experience
Several recent publications, including the BMA’s Healthcare in a rural setting suggest that there is a shortage of doctors working in rural areas. I first heard about the N10 rural track foundation programme from a registrar working in A&E when I was a student. He talked about the programme with such enthusiasm that I looked […]
Isabella Laws: Innovative teaching—why hasn’t it come further?
Medical education has long seen the need for reform. The aged style of listening to a lecturer impart hours worth of highly technical scientific information at a rate which sees you frantically scrawling everything down on a page continues to cling on, despite the fact that it is outdated. For one, lecture notes are available […]