• Samir Dawlatly explains in a blog the barriers that he faces daily as a practicing GP, which often hinder him from providing high quality healthcare. He gives the example of a patient presenting with tiredness and says that, under pressure, it is much more difficult and time consuming to explain why blood tests aimed at […]
Uganda’s medical diaspora and their engagement in global health
Background The World Health Organization has previously identified the emigration of healthcare workers as the most critical problem facing health systems in African countries. However, despite this documented negative impact of the brain drain of health professionals from Africa, there is an argument that transnationally oriented medical migrants (or diasporas) can act as development agents […]
Rubin Minhas: “Die Fluechtlinge”—the refugees
There is a scene in Richard Attenborough’s film “Gandhi” where rows of non-violent protestors face up to a platoon of soldiers, only to be methodically clubbed to the ground. Their wives and families then drag their broken and battered bodies away, another row advances and the sickening spectacle repeats itself, driven on by senseless logic. […]
Samir Dawlatly: Why is it hard to do the right thing?
“You want a blood test to make sure that there isn’t a reason why you’re tired?” I ask the patient sat in front of me, checking that I have understood what they have been telling me about for the last five minutes. I now know that they work shifts, have three children under the age […]
Florence Smith: Delivering women centred care in maternity services
Do maternity services put women at the centre of care? Are medical professionals providing women with the necessary resources, choices, and information to have a positive birthing experience? A conference held at City University London last month looked at how the NHS can make maternity services more women centred. Cathy Warwick, general secretary of the […]
The BMJ Today: Diagnostic challenges and telemedicine
• Pleural effusions present a common diagnostic problem: there are over 50 known causes. A clinical review describes how a primary care physician and a specialist can approach patients with pleural effusion to reach an etiologic diagnosis using clinical features, imaging, fluid analysis, and pleural biopsy. It also presents strategies to manage the breathlessness that afflicts patients […]
Ceinwen Giles: The puzzle of co-production with patients
The NHS Health and Care Expo, held in Manchester last week, aims to be a leading event in healthcare. Although it primarily features speakers from across the health, voluntary, and private sectors, the Expo also had a number of patient-led sessions within its “Pop-Up University.” On day 1 of the Expo, I led a pop-up […]
CM Munegowda: TB stigma in India—a harsh reality even after five decades of a TB control programme
In India, tuberculosis (TB) is still a major public health problem. According to World Health Organization (WHO) estimates in 2013, more than 2.6 million people in India are living with TB. India follows the directly observed treatment, short course (DOTS) regime recommended by the WHO at its public health facilities and this treatment is offered free of […]
Social media and health: a source of “patient voices” or “business insight?”
For many, smartphones and other web-enabled technologies have become ubiquitous, mediating activities from shopping to travel, from banking to romancing. From health apps to patient forums, the experience of being unwell has been similarly transformed. Social networking sites (SNSs) such as Facebook and Twitter now host burgeoning networks for individuals with chronic conditions. The size […]
Iain Frame: Why does it take so long to make innovative treatments and technologies available to patients in the UK?
As a scientist now working as a director of research responsible for overseeing a large programme of research funding, I can understand the frustration experienced by researchers who have invested years in a clinical trial, which then shows a new treatment to have significant clinical benefit but which patients can’t access because it doesn’t get […]