NEJM 22 October 2014 Vol 371 1577 The whole point about tuberculosis is that it is slow. The discoverer of its causative organism, Robert Koch, called it the fungus-germ, or Mycobacterium. It takes 20 times longer to divide than most other bacteria. It is only after years of division that it can do terrible things. […]
As a GP who didn’t train in the UK and who has never worked in the country as a GP, I follow the situation of general practice in the UK with great interest, but from a certain distance that characterises an outsider such as myself. I am well aware that general practice in the UK […]
On learning about the source of the colour of Anna Dumitriu’s quilt, some people feel distinctly uncomfortable, and a few have even said, “But that’s irresponsible! That’s dangerous!” The blue doesn’t come from indigo or from a new type of powder—and the way it’s used is definitely not irresponsible or dangerous. Although the colour comes […]
Recently Lord Howe warned GPs to stop complaining about their work conditions, so that they did not cause a workforce crisis. Similar noises were heard from NHS England at the recent Royal College of General Practitioners Annual Conference, where politicians and leaders were questioned about the state of primary care and, in particular, general practice, by […]
Have you ever tried to get your hands on data from somebody else’s scientific paper? I have, for a meta-analysis. In my experience it is a discouraging task. If data still exist at all, they are too often kept under lock and key. Savage and Vickers tried to retrieve 10 datasets from papers published in PLoS […]
Sexual health and parenthood feature prominently in The BMJ today, in news stories that highlight the need to ensure policies are based on evidence and not prejudice. Jacqui Wise describes a study that finds that heterosexual couples who swap partners or have group sex have high rates of sexually transmitted infections, a finding that may […]
Who are you, what do you need, and how do I figure out how to care for you? Fundamentally, those are the questions that drive every encounter between a doctor and a patient. A recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine calls for us to expand the “social history” facet of this to include […]
If I hear one more time that keeping your weight down is all about personal responsibility—”just eat less and exercise more”—I will take a double chocolate, banana, and salted caramel, extra large, two for the price of one muffin and ram it into the mouth from whence this smug platitude came. Of course weight control […]
The recent release of a study by the Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, University of Sussex, which said that it had found changes in the structure of the brain caused by technology media multi-tasking, coincided with a panel discussion about just that at the Cheltenham Literary Festival. […]
The big news today is the publication of the chief executive of NHS England Simon Stevens’s five year plan for the NHS. As Gareth Iacobucci reports in The BMJ today, the report has a strong focus on public health and the prevention of illness. Unsurprisingly, this includes Stevens’s pet topic of tackling obesity. Stevens claims […]