• Female sex workers in Bangladesh In a feature published on thebmj.com today, Jocalyn Clark provides a moving account of the plight of female sex workers in Bangladesh. With effectively no voice to demand basic rights and entitlements, these women suffer severe social stigma, poor health, and violence. Several non-governmental organisations have stepped in to offer […]
Michael Soljak: Data access for research—Kafka writes again
Data are the lifeblood of health research, and the UK government is claiming that data collected in the course of NHS clinical care are available to reputable researchers for the purposes of improving health and healthcare. However, the reality is rather different, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain research data. Anonymised patient level […]
Martin Marshall: The travesty of the 10 minute consultation
“Perfunctory work by perfunctory men.” That’s how an eminent physician once described general practice. “A ridiculous claim” cried GPs, rising to the defence of their discipline, “specialists just don’t understand the nature of general practice. They don’t value our ability to make quick decisions based on a deep understanding of our patients and their context, […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review—29 June 2015
NEJM 25 June 2015 Vol 372 2533 The research articles in this week’s print NEJM are all about arcane stuff I’ve covered previously. The Clinical Practice article takes us back to the real world—the one we’d rather not think about, where there is a smell of urine and random cries from rooms down the corridor. […]
The BMJ Today: Spot Diagnosis—a new type of education article in The BMJ
• The BMJ has just published the first of a new breed of articles in the education section, namely in endgames. This new type of article is called Spot Diagnosis, and it consists of a single image that is characteristic of a specific condition, and which is accompanied by a short vignette. The first one […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . An indefinite article
The grapheme <a> is used as a symbol for the phoneme /a/ when it is pronounced as the low front unrounded form of the vowel, as in the Scottish pronunciation of “back.” In the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) it is called Cardinal vowel number 4. The grapheme that looks like a handwritten version <ɑ>, Cardinal […]
Barbara Harpham: CCGs are not adopting new technologies quickly enough
In December 2011, the NHS identified six ways technology could help patients and, ultimately, save money. A freedom of information request was sent to 211 clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) across England in October 2014 looking for a progress update; 189 (90%) responded. How did they do? Well, it’s a mixed bag, with CCGs naturally opting […]
Richard Graham: Is it time to unplug?
As we approach the first UK National Unplugging Day, one might well ask why there is a need to have a day promoting gadget free time for families. After all, we can switch off our smartphones and tablets any day or at any time, and thus feel reassuringly conscious of and in command of our […]
The BMJ Today: The ongoing debate over e-cigarettes, increase in syphilis and gonorrhoea in England, and doctors’ burnout
• Jonathan Gornall’s feature, “Why e-cigarettes are dividing the public health community,” is continuing to generate interest this week. Gornall’s piece examining how the tobacco industry’s move into e-cigarettes and harm reduction has seen some experts shift their views has already attracted responses online. Join the debate here. • Today, Susan Mayor reports on some […]
Neville Goodman’s metaphor watch: other sciences, other images
PubMed accesses primarily the MEDLINE database of articles written about the life sciences but other sciences are represented too, even astrophysics. The first article turned up by searching black hole was “A possible macronova in the late afterglow of the long-short burst GRB 060614,” which is quite a long way from any biomedical phenomenon with […]