Birdman, one of the most riotously entertaining yet serious movies of the last decade, deservedly won a clutch of Oscars. Dealing with ageing, the fear of irrelevance, and the nature of art, it wore these themes lightly, bearing us aloft through the imaginative direction of Alejandro González Iñárritu, skilled camera work, humour, and a superb […]
The BMJ Today: From Wakefield to Whitstable, and Yeovil to Harrogate . . .
New models of care • Today, The BMJ carries the news that NHS England has announced 29 geographical sites to spearhead the new models of integrated care espoused in the recent Five Year Forward View. The story includes quotes from NHS England’s chief executive Simon Stevens, who said at the launch, “The NHS now has […]
David Payne: How to be an academic social media star
Melissa Terras is the most downloaded academic in her faculty at UCL, and attributes her success to social media. Eight years ago Terras (pictured below), director of UCL’s Centre for Digital Humanities, was supervising a PhD student’s research into the history of blogging. She started her own blog in response to this, but it was […]
Samir Dawlatly: Sabre-toothed tigers and the lottery
The other day an older gentleman* was brought to the GP surgery where I used to work. He was feeling nauseous, and his concerned family had initially taken him to the local pharmacy to see if there was anything they could buy over the counter to ease his symptoms. As he was on a number of […]
Neal Maskrey: Words matter
Me and mine all like Claire. She’s talented, works hard, and recently took a big chance going self-employed. It seems to be paying off. We chatted about her imminent holiday, and I was more interested in the plane she was going on than the exotic destination. The latest Boeing 787 is “The Dreamliner.” Carbon fibre […]
Neville Goodman: Morale is always at rock bottom
We all know that blood pressure is a continuous variable. We measure it with a sphygmomanometer and, within the limits of measurement and its extreme range, blood pressure can be anything: 80/40, 110/60, 125/85, 155/105, or 210/160—though the first and last of this list not for long, one hopes. This hasn’t stopped generations of doctors […]
The BMJ Today: Politics and health, patients and professionals, and stalled drug trials
Here’s your Tuesday roundup: Politics and health • In an analysis article, David Hunter argues that, rather than exclude politics from health, we must embrace it if we are to improve our complex health systems. Political science can, he urges, provide the insights needed to improve policy. “It has the potential to be of immense […]
Nasreen Jessani: The (conflicted) role of researchers as advocates
“You must lobby the parliament for your research to be considered! Rigorous evidence needs to be coupled with intense lobbying in order for political parties, who are steered by interest groups, to be willing to listen.” This was the advice of a Kenyan parliamentarian at the opening session of the ResUpMeetUp symposium in Nairobi, Kenya […]
Kim Wolff: New drug driving legislation in the UK
On Monday 2 March, the new drug driving legislation came into force in the UK taking on board many of the recommendations from the expert panel report commissioned by the Department for Transport published in March 2013 [1]. The new legislation specifies 16 controlled drugs and, in each case, the limit in blood for the […]
The BMJ Today: Geekiness, technology, and too few physicians
Inquisitive and geeky • Patrick Vallance, head of research and development at GlaxoSmithKline, is the subject of BMJ Confidential. Vallance says that his best career move was choosing to do what interested him rather than what was the “right next job.” It led to clinical pharmacology, research, and the job he has now. His guilty […]