Good health is not equally distributed throughout society, a fact that has been well established since the publication of the controversial “Black Report” in the 1980s. There are a number of socio-economic factors—such as housing, skilled employment, and education—that influence health, and subsequently those living in the most deprived communities tend to also be burdened with […]
Céline Miani and Eleanor Winpenny: Can hospital services work in primary care settings?
As Martin Roland explained in an editorial in The BMJ a few months ago, general practice is facing substantial challenges. Contributing factors include problems recruiting, rising workload, increasing stress, and doctors retiring early. Recent proposals put forward by NHS England on primary care as part of its General Practice Forward View have been positively received, with a series of funding commitments and reforms […]
Shelby Quast: Is cosmetic labiaplasty in adolescents just FGM under a different name?
Labiaplasty in girls younger than 18 has become increasingly popular in the US in recent years. According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, the number of girls aged 18 and younger having cosmetic genital surgery increased by 80% between 2014 and 2015 (from 222 girls in 2014 to 400 girls in 2015). While some surgeries […]
Edward Wernick and Steve Manley: Meaningful patient collaboration—the end of the beginning . . .
The delay between this blog and the last one in November on the new King’s Fund Collaborative Pairs Programme reflects the level of work that we have been dealing with over the past few months. We write this after our final session on the Collaborative Pairs course at the King’s Fund headquarters in Cavendish Square. We have written before […]
David Payne: Matisse, decoupage, and digital health
Are there lessons in the life and work of French artist Henri Matisse that could help regulators navigate the brave new world of digital healthcare? How can the experience of Matisse—who radically and constantly reinvented himself throughout his career—support organisations with responsibility for regulating apps and other innovations, such as the US Food and Drug […]
Remembering Jean Martin Charcot: The “Napoleon of Neuroses”
Jean Martin Charcot (pictured) (1825-1893) was one of the great pioneers of neurology—the so called Napoleon of the neuroses. He was the first to describe multiple sclerosis, named the “shaking palsy” Parkinson’s disease, and bestowed the eponym for Tourette’s syndrome in honour of his student Georges Gilles de la Tourette. (His other later famous students included Sigmund […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review—31 May 2016
NEJM 26 May 2016 Vol 374 An end to oncology drug madness? 2001 “Seamless Oncology-Drug Development” is a viewpoint piece about the research and regulatory changes that have allegedly been driven by a desire for “early access to transformative new anticancer drugs.” To my simple way of thinking, this would mean first showing that the […]
Linda Bauld: The road to standardised tobacco packaging in the UK
Every year in the United Kingdom around 200 000 children start smoking. Half of those who try a cigarette will become regular smokers, putting themselves at risk of tobacco related diseases that can shorten their lifespan by at least a decade. Because of this, the UK and other governments have implemented a range of tobacco […]
The SOCHARA Team on providing community health in India
The Society for Community Health Awareness Research and Action (SOCHARA), an Indian NGO, is recognised widely for its promotion of community health through networking, innovative training, research, policy engagement, and solidarity with movements and networks such as the People’s Health Movement, medico friend circle, and COPASAH. Recently the occasion of SOCHARA’s silver jubilee gave us […]
Jamie and Sue Mumford: Palliative care in Ethiopia
We have recently returned from our fourth visit to Addis Ababa. With less than 1% of the estimated 150,000 new cancer cases annually in Ethiopia receiving specialist oncological treatment [1], the need for affordable palliative care in the country is huge. Hospice Ethiopia, the only palliative care unit in the country providing symptom control treatment, […]