A meta-analysis suggests that everyone over a certain age should be given blood pressure lowering drugs to prevent the risk of heart disease. The research has received widespread press coverage. The Daily Telegraph quoted a Stroke Association spokesperson who said, “Whilst blood pressure medication is one of the safest and most studied medications, they do have […]
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Joe Collier on working with the media
Medicine’s relationship with the mass media is fickle with clinicians praising its judgement one minute (when they are subject to media approval) and cursing its trickery the next (when the object of criticism). The truth is that the media deserves a more reasoned attitude, a view I have come to after working closely with the […]
Richard Feinmann on aid to Africa
Sitting here pondering as a VSO doctor in Uganda I wonder all the time is the aid money to Africa well spent. Uganda gets £70m from the Department for International Development (DFID) and Africa gets about £1.2 billion. I feel some of it could be spent differently. […]
Joe Collier on manoeuvres for avoiding Mexican flu
Mexican (swine) flu is clearly a threat. It is difficult to know exactly how best to avoid being infected, and although the risks for a Londoner are remote here are some changes I now make in my day-to-day life in an attempt to stave contagion off. […]
Juliet Walker: BMJ in the news
The swine flu pandemic has dominated the news in the last few days. In a BMJ editorial, Richard Coker argues that, “as the virus is present in several countries, trying to contain it is probably not feasible any more. Efforts should now focus mainly on mitigation… Poorer countries are most vulnerable because they have underdeveloped […]
Joe Collier on being bald
I have been bald for most of my adult life. My hair started ‘thinning’ in my late teens. By my early 20s I no longer needed to brush it out of my eyes when playing sport. By 27 it had gone from the crown of my pate (save for some fine ‘baby’ hair) and all […]
Peter Lapsley on the value of patient information evenings
Like many observers of the National Health Service over the past few years, and like many people within it I suspect, I have become weary of the endless succession of changes that have been imposed on primary care – many of them no more than cost-cutting exercises dressed up as improved patient care. Weariness leads […]
Juliet Walker: BMJ in the news
The timing of organ donation requests and who is making the request may influence a family’s decision to donate a dying relative’s organs. This is the conclusion of a BMJ study. The study found that an organ donation request should not be made at the same time as relatives are told that their relative has […]
Juliet Walker: BMJ in the news
A BMJ analysis of using financial incentives to achieve healthy behaviour has stirred a debate in the press this week. News agency AFP wrote that, “Health authorities and corporations are increasingly offering money to people who quit smoking, lose weight or take medicine, despite uncertainty that such incentives work beyond a few months”. The Financial Times […]
Dr Harry’s netlines: Avoiding spam
The widespread use of e-mail is one of the greatest advances of the internet boom and many people, certainly in the developed world now have at least one e-mail address which they regularly use. In medicine, certainly between health professionals and increasingly between health professionals and their patients, e-mail is a key communication medium. […]