With the 2014 World Cup in Brazil fast approaching, hundreds of workers in China have been struck down with a serious bout of football fever. As Jane Parry reports, an online vendor on Taobao.com (China’s equivalent to eBay) has sold 440 fake sick notes in just one week, as scheming workers seek to avoid work […]
Category: US healthcare
William Cayley: “If you build it, they will come”
“If you build it, they will come!” So went the catchphrase of Field of Dreams, in which an Iowa farmer is inspired by voices to build a baseball diamond in his cornfield. And, indeed, “they” do come—the movie ends with an endless line of people in cars coming to see a ball game in his […]
The BMJ Today: Prisoners and medical professionalism
Sarah Kimball and Stephen Soldz’s editorial on The BMJ’s website today raises important questions about medical professionalism when dealing with prisoners. A recent report into the role of doctors in prisons such as Abu Ghraib in Iraq presented some disturbing findings, the authors say. […]
Glyn Elwyn et al: Crowdsourcing health care—hope or hype?
The Dartmouth Center for Health Care Delivery Science How does the increasing interest in the use of crowdsourcing platforms, as a way to help patients, fit into the debate about personal health information and the desire for confidentiality? Social media platforms have redefined how people interact with each other, but could it be that health […]
William Cayley: Is primary care in the US really the future?
Is primary care really the future? I’d like to say “Yes,” but I’m not so sure… (at least in the USA). There has been much talk and writing about the growing need for primary care physicians to serve our population, and one “promise” of the Affordable Care Act is “its potential to make primary care […]
Jim Murray: Abbvie withdraw case against European Medicines Agency
AbbVie have withdrawn their legal challenge against the release of certain company documents on Humira (adalimunab) by the EMA. This followed an offer by the agency to redact parts of the document originally intended for release. Is this good news? There are those who think it is, but we cannot be entirely sure at this […]
Jen Gunter: The Tamiflu talisman
Oseltamivir (Tamiflu) has been prescribed for my son, Oliver, multiple times. It’s possible he has taken this drug more than anyone. Oliver was born at 26 weeks gestation and was left with significant bronchopulmonary dysplasia. He also has a complex congenital heart disease, now partially repaired, but he is left with moderate pulmonary valve regurgitation […]
The BMJ Today: The glass ceiling, upcoming elections, and big tobacco
As I look around our open plan office, towards where our editor, Fiona Godlee, sits, it would seem that the glass ceiling has been shattered at The BMJ. But, in her personal view, Medicine still needs feminism, Helena Watson argues that there are “legions of feminist issues still left to fight.” […]
The BMJ Today: If you hear hoof beats in Texas think of horses, not zebras
As Saurabh Jha writes, “The likelihood that someone with cerebral aneurysm hit by a bat develops subarachnoid hemorrhage (near certainty) is not the same as the likelihood that someone who develops subarachnoid hemorrhage after high impact trauma has an aneurysm, hitherto undisclosed (very low).” But would you order tests so you could absolutely rule it […]
Hemal Kanzaria et al: How can we reduce medical waste in US hospitals?
US hospitals annually discard millions of dollars of clean, unused medical equipment due to procedural excess or federal regulations. [1,2] Many health professional students do not recognise the magnitude of this waste or the extent of worldwide inequities in access to such supplies. In an era of value driven care, it is critical to engage […]