Poverty is synonymous with Malawi, a small African country, but nevertheless Malawi seems to be leading the field in terms of quality research. At least it is according to the Global Research Report: Africa by Thomson Reuters published in April 2010. The report assessed publication output in the Web of Science database between 1999 and 2008. […]
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Emily Spry on leaving Freetown
Today is my last day in Freetown. I’m heading back to London tonight. It seems hard to believe that the UK is a mere six hour flight away. Perhaps more so given our unusual method of getting to Freetown last August; my boyfriend and I travelled overland for six weeks in an old Landrover through […]
David Pencheon: Saving money can save lives and improve quality, if we know what quality is…
It’s easy to say that the NHS should do better, not more – but what does that actually mean? Well, it means investing resources (money, people, buildings…) in healthcare which delivers outcomes that people both want and need. Unlike many private organisations whose objectives may be a little simpler (e.g. maximising shareholder value, obeying the […]
Emily Spry: Being pestered is part of being a foreigner in Freetown
Two young boys once helped me when my bicycle tyre was ripped right open by a bit of metal in the road. I spent an hour or so sitting with one while his cousin, who also had a bicycle, took my wheel to the repair man. When he came back, I tipped them both as […]
Joe Collier: Price regulation offsets UK spend on anti-flu drugs
Everybody now knows that while the outbreak of swine flu reached pandemic proportions, the disease itself was less severe than first feared. Illness and death certainly occurred but the original figures never materialised. Despite early estimates suggesting deaths in the UK alone of between 3,100 – 65,000, recent evidence indicates that the figure will be […]
Andrew Burd: “The Goddess of Democracy”
The days leading up to 4th June, the 21st anniversary of the shooting of prodemocracy protestors in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, give pause to some sombre reflection in Hong Kong. Last year there was plentiful coverage of this time, particularly by the BBC. This year something rather remarkable happened that appears to have gone unnoticed by […]
What we’re reading – 11 June 2010
In the BMJ editorial office, we often come across interesting articles, blogs, and web pages. We thought we would share these with you. Some are medical, some techie, and some just general. […]
Richard Feinmann: Fear of HIV lessening and incidence rising
There is increasing evidence that for cultural reasons, women are unlikely to use condoms if their family planning method was satisfied through a long acting reversible contraceptive (LARC) and that women were more likely to have concurrent partners if the risk of pregnancy was so effectively removed with a LARC. […]
Andrew Burd on ‘deadly cosmetic surgery’
One of the sessions I attended at the 15th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Indonesian Association of Plastic Surgeons in Balikpapan was on patient safety. It is incredible to think that the WHO is having a global initiative on safe surgery with the number one goal being to reduce the number of operations performed where the surgeon […]
Muza Gondwe on Gondolosi – African Viagra
I first came across it on a weekend sojourn to Lilongwe from Blantyre in Malawi. On the drive up to Lilongwe, the guys took an unscheduled pit stop in a bustling market village. After protracted discussions, one of the vendors disappeared and promptly returned with several roots of “white ginger” wrapped in a newspaper. We […]