• A news story reports on the intriguing case of a man who lost the use of his left thumb after playing the smartphone game Candy Crush all day for more than six weeks. The authors of the case report suggest that the stimulation of playing the game may explain why the man did not […]
Clare Gerada: Can we trust pre-election promises on the NHS?
Only a few weeks to go until the most unpredictable election in years and polls show that the NHS tops the list of voters concerns. Not surprisingly, politicians, of all persuasions are committing to promises about the service—details of extra funding and what they will offer patients in future. The Conservative manifesto, for example, pledges […]
Marika Davies: Medical ethics and the criminal justice system
If a patient produced a machete during a consultation, reminding you of your duty of confidentiality as he calmly placed it in the sharps bin, what would you do? Professional dilemmas such as this and many others were explored at this year’s BMA forensic medicine conference on medical ethics and the criminal justice system. Aimed […]
The BMJ Today: Promises, promises
• It’s political parties’ manifestoes week, and The BMJ‘s reporter Gareth Iacobucci has summarised the promises made on the NHS, health, and social care of those that have been published, and outlined the public pledges made by the parties yet to officially announce their plans. There is much to take in, and useful headings allow for […]
Suzanne Gordon: Pimping has no place in medical education
Until recently I thought I knew the meaning of the term “pimp” or “pimping.” But a couple of weeks ago a friend who is a student in a physician’s assistant program at a major medical school gave me new insight into the word when she told me how stressed she was because she was being […]
Neville Goodman: dead, revived, and mixed metaphors
Metaphors have a life and get tired, but dead metaphors are not just ones that have become very tired indeed. Dead metaphors have lost their original imagery, and have become absorbed into everyday language. For many people, some metaphors were never live. Those not familiar with baseball probably infer from its context that “step up […]
David Payne: What would you ask a future UK health secretary?
If you were in the same room as health secretary Jeremy Hunt, Labour shadow health secretary Andy Burnham, Liberal Democrat health spokesman Norman Lamb, and UKIP’s Louise Bours, what would you ask them? Now is your chance. […]
William Cayley: Who are you?
“The Patient” is everywhere. He is in consult notes, she is in hospital admission notes, he is in letters, and she is even in my daily dictations and procedure notes. “The Patient” is that anonymous moniker that gets plopped, intentionally or not, into clinical documentation of our medical care. This struck me today as I […]
Rui Tato Marinho: Travelling, learning, and futuring in Mozambique
Last September I was in Mozambique, trying to find my grandparents’ house in the city of Beira. The house is there, still alive. They left Mozambique 50 years ago. Mozambique is a Portuguese speaking country, in the southeast of Africa with 27 million inhabitants. Besides the curiosity to know a little bit about my family […]
The BMJ Today: Let’s ditch the posh sandwiches
– In her latest column, Margaret McCartney looks at the relationship between big pharma and doctors’ postgraduate education. McCartney argues that it is better for doctors to ditch the free sandwiches and the swanky locations and pay for their own education. “Doctors all want to advocate for patients, to be trusted and relied on. But […]