When I read it I was so shocked. In fact I had to go back and read it again to make sure I was actually right in what I had seen. Steve Field, the Chief Inspector of General Practice at the Care Quality Commission and a GP himself had said that GPs had “failed as […]
Richard Smith: Why are we doing so badly with hypertension?
Forty years ago at medical school I learnt the “rule of halves” that states that among those with a chronic disease, like hypertension, half are diagnosed, half of those diagnosed are treated, and half of those treated are treated adequately. Last week I learnt at a meeting organised by Public Health England that England has […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review—21 December 2015
NEJM 17 Dec 2015 Vol 373 Chilling brain trauma 2403 Traumatic brain injury is the commonest cause of permanent disability in Europeans under the age of 40, and its incidence is rising. After the trauma, many people show an increase in intracranial pressure above 20mm Hg. One way to reduce it is to cool the […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Magazines
Magazines have a long and distinguished history. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a magazine as “a periodical publication containing articles by various writers; esp. one with stories, articles on general subjects, etc., and illustrated with pictures, or a similar publication prepared for a special interest readership.” A periodical is “a magazine or journal issued at […]
Samir Dawlatly: Junior doctor contract crisis—conspiracy or incompetence?
I fully supported the right of junior doctors to be balloted for industrial action and to take it, if required. I was right behind them using the strongest bargaining chip that they hold in their bid to pressurise the government and NHS Employers into giving them a fairer and safer (for them and patients) deal. […]
Neel Sharma: Doctors need standardised training in non technical skills
Competency Based Medical Education (CBME) forms the backbone of the teaching and assessment of students and doctors in training. However, limitations have been described including the fact that there are endless lists of required abilities, there are logistical issues where trainees progress at their own rate, there can be a lack of mentoring, and there […]
Mohammed Bakir: a refugee camp on the fringes of society
We look on in silence from the car window as scenes of normality in central Calais, a typical Western European city, give way to the squalor and misery of the infamous refugee camp on the city outskirts known as “The Jungle.” There is no warning, no transition; the contrast is stark. Entering the camp, the […]
Dragan Ilic: Where’s the evidence for teaching evidence based medicine?
This blog is part of a series of blogs linked with BMJ Clinical Evidence, a database of systematic overviews of the best available evidence on the effectiveness of commonly used interventions. The term evidence based medicine (EBM) was first coined in the 1990s, with the aim of promoting the greater integration of evidence with clinical […]
Richard Smith: QMUL and King’s college should release data from the PACE trial
Several times when I was the editor of The BMJ the journal was declared the worst medical journal in the world by an ME association. Sometimes we shared the award with The Lancet. At another time my wife was telephoned and told that if I didn’t take a different line on ME (which is better known […]
Tony Waterston: Coming up for air at COP 21
Standing under the Eiffel Tower on the last day of the climate conference in Paris, the solidarity I felt with the thousands of demonstrators from around the world was invigorating. I went as part of the Friends of the Earth action weekend because I’m certain that climate change is the greatest threat to global health […]