The BMJ has reported a number of medical fraud cases in the US lately. An ophthalmologist in Florida who used to see 100 patients per day has been accused of making false diagnoses of serious eye disease and providing unnecessary treatments which he would then bill Medicare for. He is considered the top Medicare biller in […]
Richard Vize: Facing the NHS funding reality
The intervention by former NHS England chief executive Sir David Nicholson in the election debate on the NHS exposes the chasm between manifesto rhetoric and funding reality. Nicholson pointed out that the political parties are promising extra services while the Five Year Forward View from NHS England—on which the widely accepted additional funding need of […]
General election 2015: The health and care debate live blog
The BMJ was live blogging from the Health and Care debate at the British Library. Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Health, Andy Burnham, Shadow Heath Secretary, Norman Lamb, Minister of State for Care and Support, and Julia Reid, UKIP Deputy Health Spokesman, answered questions at the debate chaired by Sarah Montague from the BBC. […]
Engaging medical diasporas with their country of origin
While discussion about the contributions of the African diaspora to their countries of origin is often centred on their financial and business resources, less attention is afforded to their participation in healthcare. Despite an attempt by the Ugandan government to engage with its diaspora community through a diaspora desk, we still lack a comprehensive engagement plan […]
Matthew Honeyman: Reconfiguring NHS services: necessary but fraught with difficulties
With the NHS facing growing pressures on all fronts, following the general election the next government is likely to begin a new round of NHS service reconfiguration planning. In addition, work will continue to implement the new care models—such as urgent and emergency care networks and modernised maternity services—set out in the NHS five year […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review—20 April 2015
NEJM 16 April 2015 Vol 372 1489 Your learning task this week is to memorise “proprotein convertase subtilisin–kexin type 9 (PCSK9).” The next big lipid lowering debate will be all about inhibitors of PCSK9, and somebody should urgently invent a popular name for them. I suggest fatins (fat lowering injections), to rhyme with statins. There […]
The BMJ Today: What is happening in US medicine?
Even though I was far away from New York City, I will always remember the 11 September 2001, as I was in medical school taking an exam that day. An article in research news reports that the emergency medical workers who arrived in the immediate aftermath of the World Trade Centre attacks were at greater […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Conjugation
A case of Vernet’s syndrome, unilateral paralysis of the 9th, 10th, and 11th cranial nerves, caused me to read up about the jugular foramen and tumours therein. The jugular foramen, a triangular structure at the base of the brain near the mastoid process, nearly long enough to be regarded as a canal, contains numerous important […]
Gabriel Rada: How much health evidence is there in the world?
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. Thirty five years ago, Archie Cochrane reproached the medical profession for not having managed to organise a “critical summary, by specialty or subspecialty, adapted […]
Tessa Richards: Is your conference “Patients Included?”
The conference circuit is buzzing. If you are not physically caught up in the whirl there are plenty of colourful twitter feeds to follow—last week’s #EvidenceLive for example. Next week #Quality2015 will be a hot hashtag as around 3000 or so delegates will gather at this year’s International Forum on Quality and Safety in Healthcare […]