• Campaigners are taking the Dutch state to court over links with the tobacco industry, which is allegedly unlawfully influencing policies on the availability of tobacco products. The fight is on for children, who the industry apparently want to see as “replacement smokers” when those seeking a smoke free society believe it starts with young […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review—26 May 2015
NEJM 21 May 2015 Vol 372 2064 The NEJM has the highest reputation of any medical journal, so it’s impossible not to feel dismay when it lets its standards slip towards the near-nonsensical. When the first part of Lisa Rosenbaum’s three-part series on conflicts of interest appeared, I wondered if it might be some kind […]
Ian Barker: Why we should all move to an opt-out system for organ donation
On 1 December 2015, Wales will be the first country in the UK to introduce an opt-out system for organ donation. This means that patients will need to actively opt out of organ and tissue donation—otherwise consent will be assumed. This change is significant and one to be welcomed. As an advocate of organ donation, […]
David Wrigley: A seven day NHS? My seven point plan for Mr Cameron & Mr Hunt
The media have called this the “first major speech” in this brand new Conservative majority government. Prime Minister David Cameron, with five years of power ahead of him, decided to focus on the NHS, and, in particular, he focused on one particular aspect—seven day working. Trailed in the Tory manifesto and now offered to the […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . The X factor
There are symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) that do not represent the sounds of letters they look like. Among these is the grapheme /x/, which does not represent any of the sounds of the letter ex, but instead represents the sound of a voiceless velar fricative, as in an obsolete English word for […]
The BMJ Today: Crisis and corruption
• Chaand Nagpaul, chair of the BMA’s general practitioners committee, urges UK health ministers to halt a “surreal obsession” with seven day working at a time when the GP workforce is facing a workforce catastrophe, with more than a third set to retire in the next five years. Addressing the association’s annual local medical committee conference […]
Neel Sharma: Reforms in medical education—are we missing something?
Medical education has seen significant change over the past decade and more. Advances in teaching, learning, and assessment strategies are vast. The didactic lecture form of teaching is no longer the flavour of the month it seems with more and more emphasis on problem and team based learning. Classrooms are seeing the use of mobile […]
A gap in the evidence—what is the role of surgery in the patient with severe (secondary) Raynaud’s phenomenon?
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. By Ariane Herrick and Lindsay Muir People with Raynaud’s phenomenon secondary to an underlying disease or condition (the best researched one being systemic sclerosis) […]
Tessa Richards: Fewer tablets, more self management support
It’s easy to lose confidence and withdraw from life when you become ill and lose your job. “Anne” struggled for 20 years with multiple long term conditions and a drug regimen of 28 tablets a day before going on a six week self management course which “turned [her] life around.” She and other patients spoke […]
The BMJ Today: Tobacco, tennis, and “unmitigated quackery”
• An investigation by The BMJ into attempts by big tobacco to prevent the introduction of plain packaging of cigarettes has revealed that MPs and peers accepted gifts from the tobacco industry, including tickets to the men’s final at Wimbledon and the opera at Glyndebourne. Jonathan Gornall’s article showed that 38 MPs received a total […]