Zika virus is not new. Last year, when I was asked if I knew of an expert on the disease in the UK, I searched for papers written by an author giving a UK address. I found 11 papers, six of which were written before I had started primary school in 1961. Yet in the past […]
Rebecca Coombes: Beware the medicalisation of female genital cutting
I met two remarkable women this week. Actually, I met many such females at the vast Women Deliver conference in Copenhagen—obstetricians, lawyers, midwives, and former presidents (including a possible future one when Hillary Clinton made a live appearance on the big screen). In a cast of thousands, activists Filzah Sumartono, from Singapore, and Mariya Taher, […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review—23 May 2016
NEJM 19 May 2016 Vol 374 Danazol & the Norns 1922 In early European mythology, life was seen as a fragile string, which could be cut by an arbitrary force outside the power of the gods. In the Greek version, a child would be visited on the third day of life by the three Moirai. […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Political personification
Having deconstructed part of the Conservative Party’s 2015 manifesto in last week’s blog, I thought that I ought to extend the favour this week to the Labour Party’s 2015 manifesto. Reading it, I was immediately struck by a phenomenon that I previously described when discussing weasel words—the flexible use of the words “we” and “our”, […]
John Appleby: New NHS inflation figures underline funding pressures facing the NHS
The latest Quarterly Monitoring Report from the King’s Fund surveying NHS trust finance directors reveals deepening pessimism about local finances and concern about the outturn for the current financial year. New NHS inflation figures from NHS Improvement reveal the true extent of the financial pressures facing the NHS this year and up to 2020/21. How much money […]
Trish Groves and David Moher: How to get published
In the run up to Evidence Live 2016, we are running a series of blogs by the conference speakers discussing what they will be talking about at the conference. The highlight of last year’s excellent Evidence Live was, for me (Trish Groves), a short, private conversation. Two doctors from Pakistan (a husband and wife) sought […]
Sarah Venis: Debating evidence and innovation in humanitarian assistance—a conference without borders
How strong is the evidence base underlying humanitarian medical assistance? How do you innovate safely to overcome the obstacles inherent in delivering care in conflict settings or to regions where no direct access to the population is possible, such as the besieged areas of Syria? Every year, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) attempts to answer some […]
Richard Smith: Returning health to the people
For the first two million years of humans there were no doctors. People were born, flourished, became sick, suffered, and then died without doctors. Probably there were healers who danced, sang, rattled skulls, and used herbs but managed without microscopes and randomised trials. “Scientific doctors” appeared recently, and quickly—according to Ivan Illich, the critic of […]
Shared appointments: Medical utopia or dystopia?
In simple supply and demand terms, there are now more people living with chronic disease than there are doctors and other professionals around to help them. So how can the practice of medicine respond to this particular challenge? Here in the United States, there is growing interest in exploring the potential value of shared medical […]
Leonardo Palumbo: Shorter regimens offer new hope to adults and children with MDR TB by halving treatment time
Recent treatment regimens for drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) have resulted in patients enduring a gruelling two-year treatment journey, which necessitates taking up to 20 tablets every day with months of daily painful injections. The side-effects associated with the treatment results in many suffering from permanent hearing loss and some developing suicidal depression and psychosis. For those […]