The NHS is treating record numbers of patients with better outcomes, but it is now facing some of the biggest challenges in its history. Against this backdrop, Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPs) will be unveiled over the next few weeks. These are being designed by local NHS and social care leaders, working together across 44 […]
Lesley Henderson and Simon Carter: What can we learn from the doctors of Star Trek in its 50th anniversary year?
You don’t need to be a “Trekkie” to have noticed that 2016 marks the 50th anniversary of Star Trek. Events around the world have been organised to celebrate the enduring success of this popular TV and film series. We think that doctors should be particularly interested in Star Trek, not least because doctors have always featured […]
Paul Buchanan: Words can also hurt me
Words. As we look ahead to an increasingly connected and interconnected world, how do we, as clinicians and patients, account for the words we use? How do we record the words we use to create a narrative and a context for ongoing treatment, as an archive of data that could help with research, with therapy […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Empathy—fact and fiction
The English suffix -pathy comes from the Greek -παθεια. Vary the prefix, vary the feeling: ἀντιπάθεια – suffering instead, contrary affection, aversion (ἀντί = opposite, against); εὐπάθεια – ease, sensitivity to impressions; in the plural, luxuries (εὐ = well, thoroughly); περιπάθεια – violent passion, indignation (περί = around, near, concerning, beyond); προπάθεια –anticipation; in the […]
Andrew Furber: Should local government run the NHS?
A white paper published by the Conservative government in 1944 proposed that a new National Health Service should be managed by local authorities. [1] The Labour Party was split on the matter, but after their general election victory in 1945 Bevan proposed a plan favouring nationalisation of all hospitals. And so the NHS was born. Nearly […]
Tom Jefferson: The EMA’s policy 0070 is live
Yesterday the European Medicines Agency’s (EMA’s) long awaited policy 0070 went live. I have previously described the policy, its aims, advantages, possible limitations, and potential impact on everyone here and here and here. Briefly, the first phase of the policy sees the release of fundamental components of clinical study reports (CSRs) of randomised controlled trials […]
Richard Smith: What should a patient ask before entering a clinical trial?
“What,” a Finnish journalist asks me, “should a patient ask before entering a clinical trial?” That’s a good question, I think, as on my feet I try to answer the question. So here’s an attempt at an answer. She asked me the question because I’d been saying that much that is published in medical journals […]
Sharon Roman: I am the girl next door
I flatter myself that the wedding ring on my finger does not stop the opposite sex from finding me attractive and noticing me. On good days, I am able to appear to be just as attractive and “normal” as everyone else does, if you do not look too closely. My apparent normalcy does however hinder and frustrate me […]
Claire McDaniel and Daniel Marchalik: Physicians and their pasts
The Doctor’s Book Club Richard Flanagan The Narrow Road to the Deep North So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. -F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby It is estimated that almost 13,000 Allied prisoners died building the Burma Railway during the Second World War. Richard Flanagan’s The Narrow […]
Hitesh Bansal: When the worlds of medical student and medical patient collide
A 20 year old male presented to A&E with abdominal pain. The pain was sharp, constant, severe, located in the epigastric region, radiating through to the back, and had been present since waking that morning. It was associated with profuse vomiting, no hematemesis, no change in bowel habit, no history of unfamiliar food, or travel […]