Nigel Hawkes: Searching for truth behind the taboos—or how science demystified sex

Serious students of sex, from Krafft-Ebing onwards, have not always had an easy time, possibly because some of them were distinctly odd. A new exhibition at the Wellcome Collection in London, The Institute of Sexology, explores the world of those brave pioneers through documents, photographs, letters, films, and objects that trace the gradual unveiling of […]

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What’s the leading cause of death among children in Bangladesh? It’s not what you think

The Millennium Development Goal (MDG) program focused needed attention on unacceptably high levels of child deaths across the world, dedicating its MDG4 target to reducing the under 5 mortality rate by two thirds by 2015. Considerable gains have been achieved overall and many countries are on track toward that target. Beneath the overall trends are […]

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Billy Boland: Final thoughts on the NHS Leadership Academy

Having made my final submission for the NHS Leadership Academy, and after being told I’ve passed the course by my learning set, the programme should be in the bag. That is unless there are any last minute surprises from the validating board coming up. I’ve always enjoyed the space between handing in coursework and getting […]

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The BMJ Today: Safe self monitoring and patient treatments

Hypertensive disorders in pregnancy are a leading cause of maternal mortality worldwide, with associated problems of poor foetal growth, low birth weight, and preterm delivery. While there is a trend towards pregnant women monitoring their own blood pressure, a recent analysis article asks if this is safe and effective? Guidelines encourage it and research suggests […]

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Desmond O’Neill: A gerontological fear of missing out

Faced with a gerontology conference with 30 parallel sessions over five days, the texting argot of teenagers comes in handy. To LOL and YOLO has been added FOMO: Fear of Missing Out! Effective FOMO management strategies involve several ingredients. The first is not change between sessions as invariably the timetable has changed in the other […]

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The BMJ Today: Gender and health—are men and women so different?

There are differences in the way men and women experience healthcare. Sometimes this is because the sex of a person confers a particular risk for a disease. Sometimes societal norms and cultural values lead to inequalities between men and women, which in turn affect health. Several articles published on thebmj.com in the past couple of days […]

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