Malawi, a country in Southern Africa, was recently acknowledged by the World Bank as the poorest country in the world, with the average gross national income being just $250. Its health system is in desperate need of human resources; there are just two doctors for every 100,000 people. Most doctors work in the tertiary referral […]
Lalitha Bhagavatheeswaran and Joseph Fitchett: That Sugar Film
Australian actor, writer and director Damon Gameau was about to become a father. With a little one on the way and the aim of teaching his future child how to lead a healthy lifestyle, Damon embarked on a 60-day experiment to unravel the truth about sugar. However unlike other films on sugar, which have focused on obvious high […]
The BMJ Today: The landmark announcement that wasn’t
Farewell to dietary cholesterol The US Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee has released its recommendations for the next edition of Dietary Guidelines for Americans. In an editorial on thebmj.com, Daan Kromhout writes that the committee’s recommendation that dietary cholesterol should no longer be a “nutrient of concern”, has been cause for much discussion. As has the […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review – 27 July 2015
NEJM 23 Jul 2015 Vol 373 307 Four summers ago I found myself dabbling in the early history of outcomes research. I was astonished to find that surgeons over a century ago were reflecting on much the same issues as they do today. In cancer, for example, there was lively debate about the place and […]
The earthquake in Nepal: Surgeons’ dispatch from Barhabise
The massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake that occurred 77 km northwest of Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, on 25 April 2015 left more than 8000 people dead and 16 000 injured. The district of Sindhupalchok, where more than 3000 people were lost, was struck particularly hard. At the request of the Japanese government, disaster relief medical […]
Kallur Suresh: Psychiatry at the forefront of science
I recently attended the 2015 International Congress of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Birmingham. It was one of the largest gatherings of psychiatrists from the UK and many other countries. It attracted around 2500 delegates who came to learn from its scientific programme, present their work, and network with other professionals. I was genuinely impressed […]
Neel Sharma: Medical certification—too many tests?
In May this year, Paul Teirstein and Eric Topol authored a viewpoint on the role of maintenance of certification (MOC) in the States. Their article highlighted the shift from a ten yearly to two yearly MOC approach pointing towards concerns of the value of such frequent retesting. These included the lack of evidence for such a […]
The BMJ Today: Are you closer to pharma than you think?
• Are you closer to pharma than you think? 36 English clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have been involved in medicines management programmes either directly or indirectly paid for by pharma. In a BMJ feature, Margaret McCartney examines the different types of relationships in practice, the potential benefits and harms that can arise from these and […]
Emma Ladds: Keeping a sense of perspective
Getting through the key safe is often a major accomplishment on home visits. Once you’ve achieved that, you can be pretty sure you can manage what lies beyond. Today I was going to see a lady with a palliative brain tumour*. I’d been part of her admitting hospital team and had remarkably come across her […]
Neville Goodman’s metaphor watch: Literally a metaphor
We use metaphor, a figure of speech, to explain or enliven: in doing so we write metaphorically, or figuratively. The opposite of metaphorically is literally. We don’t need to add metaphorically to a metaphorical statement; we rely on readers to recognise the metaphor: “Doctors’ morale has hit rock bottom,” not, “Metaphorically, doctors’ morale has hit […]