Doctors are not infallible; they are human and make mistakes. Occasionally, they know of their mistakes; sometimes, others are aware, while they remain oblivious and other times still, nobody knows that a mistake has occurred. With so many things happening without a clinician’s knowledge, it is not a question of “if”, but “when”, they will […]
Deepak Balak and Enes Hajdarbegovic: Towards harmonisation of referencing styles
“If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.” Isaac Newton’s famous quote accurately captures that what is pivotal in science: moving forward by building on work done previously. In terms of scientific writing, proper citing of other works is important in any research article. During our PhD […]
The BMJ Today: Handwashing, Medicare, and radiology shortages
A severe lack of specialist radiology training is failing children in the UK, an audit by the Royal College of Radiologists has found. The audit, undertaken in July this year, discovered that 35% of children’s radiographs and scans were performed by radiographers who had not received specific training in imaging children and that a similar percentage of scans were […]
Kiran Thapa: Blossoming health services research in Nepal—what are the challenges?
I recently did a PubMed search for Nepal, and I found thousands of articles that had been published in different journals across the world. This was a happy moment for me. I carried on searching and found that thousands of articles had been published over recent decades. I pondered for a while, thinking about how […]
Martin Kaminski: A word of advice to future house officers
Once again the NHS approaches the first week of August, specifically changeover Wednesday—when freshly tempered medical school graduates throughout the UK auspiciously start their first days working as bona fide junior doctors. But we often forget that changeover day also marks the no less important occasion when many doctors in training become ever so slightly […]
Toby Shipway: Zebras in the NT – quiz time
Questions – differential diagnoses please 1. The first patient was a young child who presented with fever, seizures, and decreased consciousness, developing over a 1–2 week period, to a community clinic 150 km south of Katherine. After transfer and evaluation, magentic resonance imaging of the brain showed bilateral thalamic necrosis. 2. The second patient was […]
The BMJ Today: Staffing levels, Alzheimer’s disease, blood pressure variability, and otitis media
• “If staffing were a drug, doctors would be asked to prescribe it,” Margaret McCartney says in her latest column. So she thinks it is a pity that NHS England has told NICE to stop work on discovering what constitutes safe staffing levels. Simon Stevens has decided to bring the operation “in house” and is […]
Samir Dawlatly: Will general practice survive?
Just before I completed my training as a GP the 2012 Health and Social Care Act was passed. I had a sinking feeling that general practice wasn’t quite going to be what I thought it was. Up until that time I had been concentrating on passing my exams and assessments and not really taken much […]
Stephanie Rimmer: Foundation training fears
Having recently graduated from medical school, in a few days’ time I will start my first ever job as a doctor. That title alone, which I worked so hard for, now completely terrifies me and feels totally unjustified. How can I have spent the last five years studying, to lead me up to this point, and yet feel […]
Anant Bhan: Leadership gap in India’s publicly funded health research
The Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR), India’s apex body for funding health research, advertised this month for directors of nine of its constituent institutes/centres. Applications are due by 4 September, and it’s probable that the positions will not be filled until the end of this year. ICMR’s top position—the director general’s post—has also been […]