Michel Foucault had much to say—mostly critical—about medicine. But the rarity of any mention of his name in medical journals tells me that medicine has had far less to say about him, perhaps unsurprisingly. Why engage with a philosopher, especially one who suggested in no indirect terms that medicine was inherently political, that the medical […]
Doug Altman: Author overboard—arbitrary limits at journals
Recently I was bounced off the authorship of a letter to the editor. I had been one of four authors of a research paper published in a leading medical journal. Subsequently the journal received a critical letter from a reader, and I contributed to our joint response. After submitting our reply we learnt that the […]
The BMJ Today: Hinchingbrooke, Circle, and tabloid smears
The recent news that England’s first privately run NHS hospital was to be placed into “special measures” by healthcare regulator the Care Quality Commission has sparked a fierce and rather ugly political debate. As The BMJ first reported on 12 January, Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust in Cambridgeshire—managed by Circle Healthcare—was subject to the action […]
Mihail Călin: Romania’s alcohol policy leaves public to fend for themselves
A woman holding a toddler in her arms falls in a ditch while trying to recover her beer bottle from the ground. She tries to get back up, only to fall on top of her child. Moments later, she leaves her two children (one of whom is now holding his mother’s bottle) on the side of […]
Sarah Kessler interviews Atul Gawande
Atul Gawande, surgeon, author, and indie DJ (check his Twitter feed for mini playlists between the policy), just delivered the Reith Lectures for BBC Radio 4. Broadcast to more than 50 million people worldwide, “The Future of Medicine” ranged across the UK, the United States, and India in a quest to navigate “the messy intersection of […]
The BMJ Today: Should I prescribe anti-virals to prevent flu for nursing home patients?
A news story last week reported scepticism about whether GPs should prescribe anti-viral neuraminidase inhibitors osteltamivir and zanamivir to prevent flu in nursing home patients. Yesterday afternoon, another news story said that some GPs feel pressured by Public Health England to do so. The chair of the BMA’s General Practitioner’s Committee’s Clinical and Prescribing Subcommittee, Andrew Green, […]
Christmas Appeal: Hitting the ground running—surgical transfer in South Sudan
I arrived in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, on 2 January for two whirlwind days of being briefed on my new role as medical specialist in Yida refugee camp, which is at the northern edge of South Sudan. On Sunday, my rest day before flying north, I was asked to help arrange care for a […]
Desmond O’Neill: Older drivers and medical fitness to drive
Does life really imitate art, or is it the other way round? Listening to an exhilarating live performance by the Philadelphia Orchestra of Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks, the droll tone poem about a famous trickster by Richard Strauss, I was struck by the notion that this might be the first description of ADHD through music. […]
The BMJ Today: Management consultants are like Marmite
“It must be comforting to live in a Manichaean world where management consultants are devils and doctors are angels,” posted Stephen Black, a confessed management consultant for a “major management consulting firm that often works for the NHS,” on thebmj.com yesterday. “It makes solving the many problems of the NHS so easy.” He was responding to […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review—19 January 2015
NEJM 15 Jan 2015 Vol 372 201 “The main challenge is to ensure better systems [of sharing data] for the future. Because ‘the optimal systematic review would have complete information about every trial—the full protocol, final study report, raw dataset, and any journal publications and regulatory submissions, ‘a prospective system of research governance should insist […]