Jeremy Hunt remains at the helm of the Department of Health—an announcement that last week generated a largely predictable and mostly tribal response. By making Hunt the secretary of state for health and social care, prime minister Theresa May has put a political premium on making progress on longstanding questions about how we pay for […]
Carillion, an outsourcing company that had become a major provider of support services in the NHS and other sectors of the economy has joined a select group of once great corporate players, including Enron, Lehman Brothers, Northern Rock, and Royal Bank of Scotland. All, in their times, fell into the category considered “too big to […]
A young doctor friend sends me a link to a piece he has written in the Guardian newspaper. I praise the simplicity and clarity of the language and suggest that next time he sends a piece to an academic journal he uses the same language. “But will the editors accept it?” he asks me. I’d […]
Listening to patients and thinking outside the box can make the difference between diagnosis and dismissal, says Kirsty Gadsby […]
Will member states respond? The executive board of the World Health Organization (WHO) will meet on 22-29 January. A key agenda item will be the latest draft of WHO’s 13th General Programme of Work (GPW) for the period 2019-2023. WHO’s constitution obliges the executive board to submit a GPW periodically for approval by the World […]
In the UK, deaths due to asthma attacks are at their highest level for a decade, but with better diagnostics and tailoring of treatment to asthma sub-type, these could be reduced. [1] When it comes to asthma diagnosis, innovation is slow. Asthma Diagnostics: A 21st Century Challenge, a new report released by Asthma UK today, […]
There is nothing new about winter pressures in the NHS, but those pressures have become relentless, extending into traditionally quieter months and deepening in intensity over the winter. It is time for the government not only to address the current crisis, but to look over the horizon, and take a whole system approach covering the […]
Richard Lehman reviews the latest research in the top medical journals […]
As I noted last week, “spuria”, defined in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) as “spurious works, words, etc.”, was first recorded in 1918. The word appeared in Rupert Brooke: a Memoir by Sir Edward Marsh, who also edited Brooke’s Collected Poems in the same year (pictures). Commenting in a footnote on Brooke’s use of “your” […]
We need to make feedback meaningful for doctors and easier for patients […]