In the summer of 2010, fresh from my 3rd year of medical school, myself and another student chose to take a six week elective in Bhopal, India. Our motivation to choose the capital of India’s most central state? An opportunity to learn first hand about an ongoing industrial disaster—the biggest in history. This came about […]
Category: Students
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 […]
Toby Pitts-Tucker: The Paralympic legacy and disability hate crime
At the start of London’s Paralympic Games, ITV’s Don’t Hate Us, broadcast on Thursday 23 August, is a stark reminder of the levels of hate crime against the disabled in this country. The programme explores a shocking statistic: of the 65,000 estimated hate crimes against the disabled last year, only 2,000 were reported and only […]
Emma Rourke: Superhuman at the Wellcome Collection
Are you superhuman? Most people’s innate reaction would be to refute such a claim. “Superhuman” evokes images of superheroes, creations of human fantasy, and imagination, but what if we took the view that everyday objects such as glasses, hearing aids, and lipstick constituted forms of human enhancement? This insightful and thought-provoking exhibition of over 100 […]
Toby Pitts-Tucker: Reining in the euphoria—the public health legacy of London 2012
The success of the London 2012 Olympics rather took the country by surprise. Not only did team GB amass an unprecedented pile of gleaming gold, silver, and bronze, but also the whole event was remarkably smooth. Construction was delivered on time and on budget, the opening and closing ceremonies were a huge triumph and everyone […]
Emma Rourke reviews Horizon: Eat, Fast, and Live Longer
There’s a new intervention being trialled. It will help you lose weight, it will delay the potential onset of dementia, and best of all it will enable you to live in the fullest of health for longer. Perhaps the main virtues of this intervention centre on its sheer simplicity: it doesn’t involve putting any chemicals […]
Anna Allan: Life after finals?
The last few weeks have been life-changing for thousands of final year medical students, present company included. Final exams themselves have been a far off concept for many of us since the very beginning of our medical student lives—we have been perpetually aware of them, but they always seemed to happen to someone else. Even […]
Emma Rourke: Junior doctors don’t put patients’ lives at risk
It’s coming up to that time of year once again, where—for newly qualified doctors across the country—the jubilation associated with passing finals gives way to the incipient dread of the first day in a new job, and the knowledge that very soon patients’ lives really will be in their hands. It’s well known that if […]
Henry Murphy: Epidemic – a sick musical of immense proportions
Effort ***** Value for money ***** Entertainment **** Public health education ** Price: Free One of the perks of being the Clegg Scholar is that you get forwarded details of events that clash with the busy schedules of other BMJ staff. After three members of the editorial team turned down the opportunity to review a […]
Rhys Davies: 21 June—is there a medical student in the house?
Yesterday, the BMA announced the results of its members’ ballot on industrial action. Tens of thousands of doctors across different branches of medicine responded, coming out strongly in favour of industrial action. With a mandate to move forward, the BMA have scheduled a day of industrial action on 21 June. Doctors will perform only urgent […]