Surely most patients see doctors for the sole reason of getting healthier. Can recording a consultation help? Does it harm? Even if the law permits patients to record their medical encounters, should they do it? Should doctors encourage it? One thing seems certain: recording changes the behaviour of doctors as well as patients. Glyn Elwyn […]
Ahmed Rashid: Leadership in primary care—the “odd one out”
Picture the scene. It was the first day of the NHS national medical director’s clinical fellow scheme induction. A group of junior doctors, who had successfully applied to take a year out of their training programmes to develop clinical leadership skills, were sat around meeting tables, making introductions in a grand committee room in the […]
The BMJ Today: Getting to grips with research and research papers
The BMJ Today blogs this week are all written by research editors, who handle original research manuscripts from submission up to eventual acceptance (even though that only applies to a very small percentage of submitted papers). Many of our authors are practising doctors, as well as highly experienced researchers in top medical research centres who […]
David Oliver: Discharging patients from overcrowded hospitals—fewer “progress chasers” and more “doers” please
This year, urgent activity in English NHS hospitals has reportedly hit a record high. Officially reported “delayed transfers of care” (inpatients medically fit to leave, but awaiting community health and care services) have also peaked. These figures routinely underestimate the real number of people in beds whose needs no longer require the full facilities of the […]
Aditya J Nanavati: Are Indian medical students pessimistic about participating in research?
I recently completed my residency in general surgery. Towards the end of my residency, I was introduced to the world of research and publishing. Far from knowing it all, the more I explore this world, the more I realize that I should have been introduced to it much earlier. I believe I speak for the […]
The BMJ Today: Evacuation of children in World War II
The evacuation of civilians has been performed in many countries in times of war. The evacuation of civilians in Britain immediately after the outbreak of the Second World War was designed to save children from the risks associated with aerial bombing of cities by moving them to areas thought to be less at risk. Operation Pied […]
The BMJ Today: Small changes can make a big difference
As everyone settles into the new year and tries to keep to their resolutions, the reflective nature of the period is hard to ignore. If you’re revisiting the previous year’s high and low points, it can be difficult not to feel overwhelmingly negative about global health; Ebola continues to increase, obesity is rising, and health […]
Luca De Fiore and Tom Jefferson: Pills from the world
European regulatory agencies frequently inform doctors and pharmacists about their activities, paying particular attention to pharmacovigilance. The Italian Medicines Agency (AIFA) started a new information feed on 3 April 2012: “Pills from the world.” Every morning a news item is posted online, but analysis of some of the posted items is thought provoking. AIFA declares […]
The death debate: a response from Richard Smith
I’m sorry that I’ve upset many people who have cancer or who have had a bad experience of somebody dying of cancer [see previous blog]. That wasn’t my intention. I was writing for The BMJ and so primarily for doctors. My main intention was to urge people to think much more about death and dying […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review—5 January 2015
JAMA 24-31 December 2014 Vol 312 2659 The effects of extreme heat on older adults: what a great topic for this cold gloomy time of the year. “Heat wave periods (are) defined as two or more consecutive days with temperatures exceeding the 99th percentile of county-specific daily temperatures,” and in this US study they were […]