NEJM 24 & 31 Dec 2015 Vol 373 Second cancers after Hodgkin’s cure 2499 Hodgkin’s disease was one of the first cancers to move from invariably fatal to routinely curable. It happened about 50 years ago, and we have long known that the price for this was an increase in risk for later cancers, due […]
A happy New Year to both my readers. And what a cornucopia of anniversaries we can celebrate this year. Take your pick. The topics are diverse (see also the pictures below): anatomy (Mondino de Luzzi); physiology (Realdo Colombo, William Harvey, and Caleb Parry); pharmacology (glossopetrae, penicillin, and post-coital contraception); genetics (Fortunio Liceti, Gregor Mendel, and […]
There can be no doubt that the problems facing general practice are complex and interconnected, and that the answers have proved elusive for many. GPs and the organisations that represent them have been very vocal about the obstacles hampering the ability of grassroots GPs to do their jobs safely and effectively: from increasing workload from […]
The Nepal Health Research Council was established in 1991 for the purpose of: regulating health research in Nepal (ensuring the ethical conduct of health research), generating and collating evidence for translation into policies and programs, and building the capacity of health research in the country. As part of one of our three major mandates we […]
Doctors of the World has been helping refugees in various locations around Greece including Idomeni on the border with Macedonia. By early autumn around 10,000 refugees were pouring across this border every day. Sarah Pickworth, a general practitioner from the Highlands, has been providing medical care with the Greek Doctors off the World team in […]
The Christmas holidays annually are a time for jolliness, cheer, and fun—from “Ugly Sweater” events to “White Elephant” gifts, and even The BMJ Christmas issue. It’s all in good fun, it can be especially helpful at this (often grey and gloomy) time of year, and it all seems to somehow make sense when one thinks of […]
Exams and the pre Christmas rush notwithstanding, a triple-line party whip was in force within the family for the midnight first screening of Star Wars, The Force Awakens. Sitting in the back row of a packed, expectant, and goodnatured cinema, I was struck by the number of contemporaries also attending with adult and teen children. […]
One of the responses of the Department for Education to the problem of radicalisation of pupils in schools has been to increase the number of Ofsted inspectors. The issue of home schooled pupils raised the faintly ridiculous prospect of Ofsted inspections of family homes. It seems that the culture of regulation by inspection is pervasive […]
In Tokyo last week, at a workshop to prepare for the May 2016 G7 summit in Ise Shima, I arrived early at the hotel’s conference room; I was giving a presentation later that day and wanted to pre-load my slides. The hotel staff were setting up the room, placing print copies of the day’s meeting […]
Poor Jeremy Hunt he can’t catch a break. As health secretary, one of the few things you could rely on was that your employees, sorry “colleagues” (the term Mr Hunt used when he recently wrote to all junior doctors about contracts), were so busy working that you could make politically expedient changes to the NHS […]