Increasingly, I’m asked to advise and assist with the problem of predatory journals. While it’s probably only an annoying nuisance to many in the developed world, the increasing number of spam emails inviting articles and conference participation is beginning to feel like a potentially serious problem for developing world scientists and institutions. This demands action, […]
Guddi Vijaya Rani Singh: What matters—medicine, culture, and the space in between
My grandfather passed away last year. Surrounded by travel weary loved ones (from an extended family that also extends across continents), this man from rural India was promised a peaceful death in dignity. Except that he died in 2013 in one of Delhi’s largest private hospitals, with every medical test and procedure made available by […]
Saurabh Jha: The overdiagnosed party/ the false positives rave
Consider this equation. Early Diagnosis = Early Diagnosis + Overdiagnosis (1.1) This sort of unequal algebra will fail GCSE mathematics. A new NHS initiative is arithmetic defying as well. Patients who think they have symptoms of cancer will be allowed to book medical imaging directly, without seeing their GP. This is to catch cancer early. The logic […]
Richard Smith: Would you like to die at 75 or 150?
“Sex and death are the only things that can interest a serious mind,” said W B Yeats, so, although more of a flippant than a serious mind, I return to death after my last pondering on the subject that spread literally across the globe. I’m asking whether it would be better to live to 75 […]
The BMJ Today: Rabies, stroke, and screening
Rabies is a neglected tropical disease that predominantly affects the most vulnerable humans—children living in the most disadvantaged areas of the poorest countries. Many countries have successfully reduced the impact of the disease by tackling the gap between public and animal health through a concerted “one health” approach. […]
John Middleton and Jim Parle: Food crime—why should doctors care?
Food crime is big business. It is everywhere. It is international. The same organised crime networks that profit from drugs, cigarettes, booze, people, or any other kind of international traffic also profit from food crime. You can call it food fraud if you wish. But we should not be tempted to think that the “horsegate” scandal […]
Abhishek Bhartia: What can a hospital in India learn from a vineyard in Spain?
A lot, it turns out, about healthcare transformation. A fifth generation wine producing family in Spain faced the challenge of transforming itself in the late 1990s. The family vineyard in the region of Priorat, south of Barcelona, had been losing money for many years and past attempts to turn it around had failed. One day in September […]
Charlotte McIntyre: How to survive your surgical ARCP
The Annual Review of Competence Progression (ARCP) was introduced in 2007, as part of the implementation of Modernising Medical Careers (MMC), and can be an especially daunting time for surgeons in training. Particularly, if it is your first surgical ARCP, trying to ensure that you will meet all of the expected requirements can seem like […]
The BMJ Today: Raising funds for the fight against Ebola
After a hiatus of more than 18 months, blogger Sandra Lako provides an update from Sierra Leone, where she has been working for the past nine years, improving access to and quality of healthcare for women and children. “A year ago I would not have believed anyone who told me that I would be in […]
William Cayley: “Enjoy in struggling”
“Struggling is the meaning of life. Victory and defeat are in the hands of God, so one must enjoy in struggling.” The saying above the doorway caught my attention as I settled in at my friend’s home for a weekend visit. I was a medical student, rotating at a mission hospital in rural Africa, and […]