In my first medical mission to Aleppo in October 2013, I was asked to examine a toddler who had arrived at our hospital after being shot in the head by a sniper one hour earlier. He was just 3 years old. His heart was beating, but he exhibited no other signs of life. I was […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Mind your temper
According to Galen, whose views influenced the practice of medicine for hundreds of years, each of the four fluid humours of the body, αἷμα, blood, φλέγμα, phlegm, χολή, [yellow] bile, and μέλαινα χολή, black bile, was associated with a mood, called a temperament: sanguine (optimistic), phlegmatic (stoical), choleric (irascible), and melancholic (depressive). Others described other […]
Richard Smith: The “micro-macro problem” and the difficulty of using evidence to make policy
Doctors commonly complain that they consider evidence before they treat a patient, but politicians and policy makers don’t use the same rigour when making changes to health services. Indeed, Margaret McCartney—GP, BMJ columnist, and now stand up comedian—calls for this in her show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival: “What do we want: evidence based policy […]
Martin McKee: Brexit—the confusion continues
It is now over two months since the British electorate voted narrowly to leave the European Union. The UK has a new prime minister and cabinet, including two new government departments created to implement this decision. So what have we learnt about our future relations with the EU? And what does this mean for health […]
Peter Roderick: Brexit, a public health nightmare
Since the Brexit referendum result, much attention has been paid to when and how the UK government will notify the European Council of its intention to withdraw from the European Union under Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU). Under this Article, the EU and the UK following that notification “shall negotiate and […]
Julian Tudor Hart: Government, healthcare professionals, and the people’s NHS: time for a new hypothesis?
Until the BMA rejected the government’s contract imposed on junior doctors in NHS England, negotiations were conducted in conventional diplomatic terms, based on a shared hypothesis that all contestants played an open hand, meant what they said, without covert motives. 58% of junior doctors have now indicated that they are no longer willing even to […]
Lynda Ware: Can vitamin D help reduce asthma attacks?
Cochrane UK’s Senior Fellow in General Practice Lynda Ware looks at the new Cochrane review on Vitamin D for the management of asthma. A new Cochrane review looked at precisely this question and found high quality evidence suggesting that it does. What’s the story? It seems to me that vitamin D—also known as the “sunshine […]
Richard Smith: How humans might divide into a superclass and a useless class
Many people think Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari the single most important book they have read, and a nonagenarian friend said it made him see the world in a new way. The book has been translated into 40 languages, but the commonest question Harari was asked in his interviews about […]
Billy Boland: Can inspiration deliver better healthcare?
Two different people told me I inspired them last week. How cool is that? I wasn’t even fishing for compliments (it has been known). They were actual, spontaneous, genuine acts of generous feedback. I’ve noticed people say this to me more these days. Each time it’s a gift. Something to delight in and reflect on. […]
Maslah Amin: How can the NHS tackle the white male dominance of leadership roles?
The lack of women and people from a black, Asian, or other ethnic minority (BME) background in senior NHS positions is well known. It is in and out of the news and you hear it discussed on the shop floor among colleagues. Yet it continues to persist. Researcher, Roger Kline’s 2014 survey of discrimination in […]