As the seasons shift here in the UK to embrace autumn, more people will seek advice for coughs, sore throats, and hoarseness, but are you up to date on laryngitis? In their clinical review, an Australian ENT team present the diagnostic challenge of this condition, outlining the red flag symptoms to prompt investigation for malignancy—very […]
Category: The BMJ today
The BMJ Today: Ebola and the importance of taking a travel history
The new cases of Ebola virus disease reported in Spain and the United States in recent days have reminded healthcare workers around the world to be vigilant for the infection. Several weeks ago, we spoke to Nick Beeching, senior lecturer and consultant in infectious disease at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, about the UK’s […]
The BMJ Today: Antidepressants, FDA warnings, and suicide under the microscope . . . again
For those who like “journalology,” today’s The BMJ has many of the ingredients for a rich case study. The latest published letters to the editor are dominated by those taking issue with a previously published research paper. The paper at issue—published this June and authored by Lu and colleagues—probed whether the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) 2003-04 […]
The BMJ Today: Guidelines—comfort in a sea of uncertainty?
We’ve just published two more summaries of recommendations from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. We hope that these help our busy clinician readers get to grips fast with current best practice, especially where uncertainty or controversy exists. Both these summaries cover the latest you should know on diagnosis and management; one concerns […]
The BMJ Today: Honey, I shrunk the health service
If the blistering analysis article posted today on thebmj.com is correct, then foundation trusts (FTs) need to prepare for a cut in the NHS funded services they are legally obliged to provide. This reduction in “mandatory” core services could come as soon as 2016 for some FTs. It matters, say the authors, because the fewer […]
The BMJ Today: Climate change and conflicts of interest: the sound and the fury
“Fury as top medical journal joins the green bandwagon” fumed the Daily Mail last week, which took exception to The BMJ’s publication of an article that, in the words of editor in chief Fiona Godlee, was not medicine or health but “pure climate science.” “In this unequal battle with big business and political inertia we have […]
The BMJ Today: Neoliberalism and The BMJ
Has The BMJ fallen for neoliberalism? A rapid response to the latest opinion piece by our regular columnist Nigel Hawkes suggests that “the discredited Neoliberal Economic theories that are found throughout the mainstream media in the UK have now made it into The BMJ, which up to now has been a haven from such reactionary and […]
The BMJ Today: More on climate change
Earlier this year, The BMJ’s editor in chief, Fiona Godlee, was one of 50 senior UK medical professionals to sign a letter in the Times newspaper about the health benefits of ending investment in fossil fuels, and diverting funds instead to alternative energy and more active forms of transport. On 1 October 2014, The BMJ […]
The BMJ Today: A new era in transparency
A new era in openness and transparency—and arguments over data—has begun with the publication of the first tranche of data made available under the US’s Sunshine Act. The act makes all drug, device, or biological manufacturers declare money they give to doctors (if it’s above $10), including cash in kind, i.e. food or drinks, even if […]
The BMJ Today: Conflicting interests
As politicians enjoy a glass or two of the hard stuff during this week’s Conservative Party conference, they may like to find time to read a BMJ research paper on the impact of minimum alcohol pricing, and reflect on government policy in this area. Prime minister David Cameron has reneged on promises to impose minimum […]