Just as I think everybody should have a living will, a plan for their funeral, and clear instructions on whether you want to be buried or cremated, so I advise thinking about your obituary or even obituaries. If you are a doctor you can be sure to get one in The BMJ so long as […]
Research • Does early discharge increase the risk of complications and death? A cohort study from Sweden in patients over 50 with hip fracture found an increased risk of death in patients who stayed in hospital for 10 days or fewer. • Expanding coverage of health insurance in Massachusetts increased access to knee and hip […]
NEJM 19 Feb 2015 Vol 372 703 In our syphilis lecture at medical school we were told that immigrants coming to the United States of America in bygone days were quarantined on Staten Island and had to undergo testing for Treponema pallidum using the Wassermann Reaction. An unlucky few would test positive not because they […]
With the budget of the NHS being over £100 billion, coming from taxpayers’ money, it is inevitable that health is overtly political. How such a large chunk of the nation’s budget is spent is the interest of those in government, as well as those who are governed. One of the consequences of this is that […]
“Aah,” the maximally low and back rounded vowel sound, produced by opening your mouth and glottis and phonating, is not the only phoneme that could have formed the first linguistic sound. Change the shape of your mouth, keep phonating, and the sound changes. Interjections such as “eh” and “er,” “oo” and “oh” can all be […]
News • Andrew Dowson, director of headache services at King’s College Hospital, London, has been suspended from the UK medical register for four months for a “serious breach of professional standards” during the conduct of a clinical trial to test whether a new device for closing patent foramen ovale could cure migraine. • A study from […]
Over the last few months, I had been getting ready for being deployed to Liberia or Sierra Leone with a non-governmental organisation. Regrettably, owing to several doubts I had with the project, I finally will not be going. However, I have been trying to learn as much as possible about the Ebola virus disease (EVD) and […]
Out of the harrowing and often tragic cases that were highlighted by the Mid Staffordshire NHS Inquiry, Sir Robert Francis has started an extremely important conversation about whistleblowing with his follow-up review of the reporting culture in the NHS. The recommendations from his report, depending on how they are implemented, could have a far reaching […]
I write as a humble jobbing GP incapable of sound clinical practice without instruction, guidance, and supervision from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), my clinical commissioning group, my colleagues, or by reading today’s newspapers. Despite practising medicine for 40 years, it is apparent to all that I am still incapable of differentiating a minor […]
Research What are the long term effects of multidisciplinary biopsychosocial rehabilitation for patients with chronic low back pain? News • Chicago born Frances Glessner Lee (pictured), the “mother of CSI” and dollhouse-style dioramas, features in “Forensics: the anatomy of crime” exhibition at the Wellcome Collection, London. • The 2015 version of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans […]