One of The BMJ articles trending today is our outspoken weekly columnist Margaret McCartney’s latest piece, which takes to task recent critics of overweight NHS staff. Sally Davies and Simon Stevens, you know who you are. The headline, “Fat doctors are patients too,” was queried by The BMJ duty editor yesterday. He questioned if “fat” […]
Category: The BMJ today
The BMJ Today: Talking about the harms of IV fluids
I recall grillings about intravenous (IV) fluids and the compartments of the body as a very junior doctor. Confidence in prescribing the right fluid, at the right rate at the right time, with or without added potassium, seemed to be the mark of a registrar. Amid the anxiety provoked by on-call ward cover—a stack of […]
The BMJ Today: A US unprepared for Ebola, fat doctors, and stiff upper lips
“Misinformation and conflicting messages have led to panic about contagion among the public,” writes The BMJ’s US clinical research editor, José G Merino, in our latest editorial on Ebola, which considers the response to the outbreak in the United States. Four cases in the country, he writes, have “led to overreaction and unjustified fear . […]
The BMJ Today: More GPs needed
“Why are medical schools attracting so few would-be GPs?” asks Richard Wakeford in a personal view, concluding that the Medical Schools Council is at least partly responsible: “Of 33 members representing undergraduate medical schools just two are GPs, the rest mostly clinician scientists.” His conclusion: “Medical schools must act, and the Medical Schools Council’s membership […]
The BMJ Today: Have we forgotten our stiff upper lip?
The “Keep Calm and Carry On” slogan is a familiar sight on everything from posters to mugs, but has this sentiment, the embodiment of the famed Dunkirk spirit, been forgotten in modern Britain? A head to head debate on thebmj.com discusses whether emotional restraint or openness is a healthy response to adversity—a stiff upper lip […]
The BMJ Today: Trade wars and naloxone
A free trade agreement between the European Union and the United States is designed to meet the interests of corporations rather than patients and must be stopped in its tracks, says an editorial by John Hilary, executive director of campaign group War on Want. The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is a series of […]
The BMJ Today: What’s in a name?
Next time you sneak a peek at an author’s affiliations, ask yourself if they mattered to you. Do you pay more attention to a study from Harvard University in the United States or one from the University of Abuja in Nigeria? Matthew Harris asks this question in a personal view, arguing that omitting the provenance of […]
The BMJ Today: Managers need to get ‘aht the flippin’ way
Many thanks to consultant psychiatrist Geoff Searle for providing the headline for today’s BMJ Today, shamelessly stolen from his weekend rapid response to the essay about “flipping healthcare,” published last week by US authors Maureen Bisognano and Dan Schummers. Flipping, the authors argue, is the key to providing better care and lowering costs, shifting the power […]
The BMJ Today: Clinical challenges
When my patients with acute stroke develop a urinary tract infection, I often prescribe a course of co-trimoxazole (trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole). Many of these patients have hypertension and are also taking an angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEI) or an angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB). Prior studies show that trimethoprim and renin-angiotensin system blockers can lead to hyperkalemia, particularly […]
The BMJ Today: Leapfrogging—the new buzzword in healthcare
It is easy to take universal health coverage for granted if you were born and raised in a European country, for example. But in low and middle income countries, people often have to somehow find the means to pay out of pocket for their healthcare, regardless of the availability of quality healthcare. Costs can quickly […]