Modern medicine is an increasingly wary place for the digitally illiterate. With medical records turning electronic and computers springing up at the bedside, there is little hiding place for doctors who are averse to the machine. In an attempt to prepare students for 21st century clinical practice, Leicester Medical School recently became the first medical school […]
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Emma Parish: Risky Business 2014—I choose to be optimistic
Leaving the Risky Business event I was abuzz with enthusiasm to “choose my attitude,” “listen to the right people,” and treat patient safety “like lives depend on it.” However, it was not all buzzwords, tweeting, and chatting with celebrity speakers. It was a packed day, with lots of emotive content and key messages to change […]
Dan Bloomfield: Sometimes patients could use a dose of nature, but how could it be prescribed?
This blog is part of a series on sustainable healthcare, which looks at health, sustainability, and the interplay between the two. The blog is coordinated by the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare and shares ideas from experts across the healthcare field. Doctors generally understand that exercise is good for you. They also realise that isolation is […]
Jamila Sherif et al: The current state of healthcare in Gaza
State of healthcare in June 2014 Three weeks before the start of the current Israel–Gaza conflict, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza declared an emergency, saying that they were unable to maintain health services owing to a lack of sufficient electricity and necessary supplies. Elective operations had to be cancelled. Thirty per cent of […]
Iñaki Martínez Nimatuj and Mónica Garcia Asensio: A pharma free medical conference
Osatzen is the Basque Family Physicians Scientific Society and part of the federation semFYC (the Spanish Family Physicians Society). It is composed of 900 GP partners who pay an annual fee of €66. Our main goal is to generate and share scientific knowledge, and—for that reason—we prioritise transparency, objectivity, and autonomy in both our own scientific […]
Barry Main et al: Bringing informed consent back to patients
Every day around the world, thousands of operations are undertaken. In the days and weeks leading up to these procedures, surgeons and their patients discuss the goals of surgery, expected outcomes, and concerns about potential unfavourable events. These often thoughtful, and sometimes difficult, discussions culminate in the signing of a legal document: the informed consent. […]
Anneli Hujala: Multimorbidity challenges care professionals to cross boundaries
The ICARE4EU project wants to improve the care of people who are suffering from multiple chronic conditions. It will describe, analyse, and identify innovative integrated care models for people with multimorbidity in 31 European countries, and aims to contribute to the more effective implementation of such models. During the project (which runs from 2013 to […]
Jane Feinmann: A way forward for quality peer review
Blind faith that the publication of medical research in peer reviewed journals elevates a study to the status of “the evidence,” and therefore “the truth,” may be on the wane among those in the know. But for the public, and a vast number of doctors, this “naïve and misplaced” credulousness persists. According to Dr Jigisha Patel, medical […]
Aser Garcia Rada: The resurgence of HIV/ AIDS in Europe—let’s focus on priorities
I was recently invited to a meeting on HIV/AIDS that was hosted in Athens by the European Commission. Although the grass is greener on the EU side, the epidemic still poses relevant challenges. Contrary to the overall global decline in new HIV infections, 29 381 people were newly diagnosed across the EU in 2012, 1% more […]
Kamran Abbasi: Twenty five years of The BMJ’s editorial registrar scheme
The BMJ tends to hesitate over anniversaries, especially its own, but today marks 25 years of the best training scheme in the history of medical journalism. I would say that, I’m a former editorial registrar. So is editor in chief, Fiona Godlee. As is deputy editor and head of research, Trish Groves. Helen Macdonald and […]