Research highlights – 20 May 2011

“Research highlights” is a weekly round-up of research papers appearing in the print BMJ. We start off with this week’s research questions, before providing more detail on some individual research papers and accompanying articles. […]

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Cheryl Rofer: Limitations of BEIR VII estimates of radiation risk

While I do love numbers, it’s important to understand their limitations. Numbers are essential for verifying predictions, but the limitations tell you how much you can rely on the numbers I gave in my previous post. The biggest limitation of Biological Effects of Ionising Radiation (BEIR) VII, or any other study of radiation effects, is the […]

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Fiona Pathiraja: Because we’re worth it

I’ve always thought of myself as a feminist and have never consciously made career decisions based on my gender. However, male medical colleagues often comment that my Jackie O-inspired work wardrobe does not necessarily fit with being a feminist. Some have even suggested that I am “more feminine than the average female doctor.” This raises […]

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Daniel Palazuelos on community health workers

Consider this proposal to address firefighting disparities: “The problem of fires in resource poor areas is growing. Even though we’ve had the tools to control fire for years—namely water, buckets, and hoses—thousands of people and millions of valuables continue to burn each year. Unfortunately, the employment of professional fire fighters in rural areas has not proven to […]

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Fiona Pathiraja: Twitter – the medium and the message?

In his BMJ blog last week, David Kerr asked whether Twitter would ever be used for healthcare.  As soon as this blog was posted, the Twitter healthcare community was buzzing with responses including: “It already is [being used for healthcare]: we are developing healthcare through our discussions,” “Does he mean the same Twitter that is […]

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