The European Medicines Agency (EMA) guards access of new drugs to the health markets of the EU member states. It was founded over 20 years ago to combine the best of knowledge from all national agencies and to respond to the need to speed up the evaluatory process, which in some countries could take more […]
Amanda Glassman and Rachel Silverman: Evaluating what works in global health
Around the world, people are benefitting from a global health revolution. More infants are surviving their first months of life; more children are growing and thriving; and more adults around are living longer and healthier lives. This amazing worldwide transformation is cause for huge celebration, but it also begs several questions. What, specifically, are we […]
James Partridge: A new dimension for treating acne
I was recently invited to speak on “new models of care” at a meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Skin at the House of Commons. I chose to speak about a new approach to address the failure of the NHS to tackle the angst and distress felt by so many people with skin […]
Tony Waterston: Infant formula once again at the RCPCH
There was nervous expectancy in the huge hall at the Liverpool arena as the gathered paediatricians awaited the count on the motion to ban infant formula funding from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH). The president and council had expressed their opposition to the motion, and wrote a piece that was circulated to […]
WIRED Health 2016
Technology magazine Wired held its annual health conference in London on 29 April, with 21 speakers presenting “the future of the healthcare and medical industries.” Thomas Macaulay was there for The BMJ, and presents his pick of the day’s sessions: […]
Desmond O’Neill: Peak medical students
Asked to do a column on medical education for an Irish newspaper, I was struck by how little professional debate we have had on the extraordinary increase in student intakes in these islands. Traditionally Ireland has had a large number of medical schools proportionate to its population: recent presentations in the Royal Colleges of Physicians […]
Richard Smith: Ugandan health—what should be the priorities?
Uganda, like all low income countries, has formidable health problems and limited resources. If you were the health minister in Uganda what would be your priorities? This question was in the back of my mind as I listened to the presentations at the Uganda Health Summit held in BMA House and organised by the Uganda […]
How do the healthcare systems in the UK compare with others internationally?
Two years ago I wrote about how health systems in other countries were grappling with the problems of how to support an ageing population with high rates of comorbidities. I was interested in the fact that the same policy problem can generate different solutions depending on the context in which it sits—so while it may […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review—3 May 2016
NEJM 28 April 2016 Vol 374 Colon cheer 1605 As we get more affluent, we drink more alcohol, grill more meat, grab bacon or salami sandwiches for lunch. Up in heaven, a wrathful god looks on and smites us with bowel cancer. Oh wait, no, he seems to be easing off: for all our sins, […]
Nick Hopkinson: Canvassing—should medical students get out on the doorstep?
The price good people pay for not engaging in politics is bad government. I prefer this version of Plato’s aphorism to the more usual “rule by your inferiors” one. The guiding ethical principle should not be one’s position within a hierarchy, but rather that society should be fair and reasonable; organised in a way that […]