Carinthia is a fascinating corner of Austria, formally included in the new Austrian Republic in a plebiscite in 1919 and imbued with the confluence of Austrian, Slovenian, and Italian cultures. Packed with history and culture, it provided rich material for underpinning a keynote lecture for the Austrian Geriatrics and Gerontology Society conference in Villach on how […]
Dan Kremer: Time limits on published sanctions are needed but we must tailor them to doctors’ circumstances
We are pleased that the General Medical Council (GMC) has changed its policy on how long it publishes sanctions imposed on doctors, but do not believe it sufficiently considers individual doctors’ circumstances. Currently all sanctions on a doctor’s registration, imposed by either a fitness to practise panel or an interim orders panel, remain on the […]
Pharmaceutical transparency in Canada: Tired of talk
Health Canada has been talking about improving the transparency of information around pharmaceutical drugs for years. And for years the drug regulator has failed to back up that talk with commitment and action. The lack of transparency around pharmaceutical drugs continues to undermine patient safety and public health. Unless a drug’s full safety and effectiveness […]
Ashish K Jha and Liana Woskie: Funding, trust, and the 69th World Health Assembly
By traditional measures, the recent World Health Assembly (WHA) was a success. The assembly, which governs the World Health Organization (WHO), passed resolutions on important topics such as reducing traffic accidents; improving nutrition; and promoting integrated, patient centered care. All good things. But the west African Ebola outbreak and WHO’s failure to respond effectively cast a […]
Richard Smith: Depression—a description of the near indescribable
I’ve never been depressed. I’ve been down, sad, blue, but never depressed. But many family and friends, people I love, have been depressed. Some have tried to describe it to me. I learnt about depression as a medical student, but I’ve felt my understanding to be shallow. I wanted to know more about this pernicious […]
Richard Lehman’s journal reviews—6 June 2016
NEJM 2 Jun 2016 Vol 374 Germs, catheters and hospitals 2111 Anyone who has an indwelling urinary catheter will get bacteriuria, sooner or later. I was taught this as a medical student, as a medical HO and urology SHO, and observed it through 35 years as a GP. This article begins by stating that up […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . MARKing and preventing medication errors
The European Medicines Agency’s definition of a medication error, published last year, is “an unintended failure in the treatment process that leads to, or has the potential to lead to, harm to the patient”. This, with the addition of a single word, “unintended”, is the definition that Robin Ferner and I suggested 16 years ago. […]
David Payne: Do we still need hospitals (and hospital beds)?
During a conference coffee break last week two physiotherapists pushed a hospital bed through the networking area, along with a wheelie bin overflowing with “redundant” bed-related paraphernalia—monitors, clipboards, etc. The hospital where Shanna Bloemen and Yvonne Geurts work plans to remove beds during the day to encourage patients to get active and get out of […]
Recognising vulnerabilities and building resilience: A UK conference on migrant health
“My problem is your problem.” These were the words of a mother of four who has been waiting for a decision on her asylum claim for 17 years, and who was an attendee and speaker at the University of East Anglia’s (UEA) migrant health conference last Friday. Her declaration was not a demand that the audience recognise or […]
Birte Twisselmann: “It is not your fault”: 4.48 Psychosis—the opera
In the same month in which British journalist Sally Brampton died at age 60 after purportedly walking into the sea near her home on England’s south coast after decades of crippling depression, the Royal Opera House staged a new opera by composer Philip Venables at the Lyric Hammersmith. 4.48 Psychosis is based on playwright Sarah […]