The words automaton, android, replicant, and robot refer to pretty much the same thing. The word automaton (Greek αὐτόματον, a marionette), describing a device that moves by virtue of a concealed mechanism, entered English at the start of the 17th century and was applied to instruments such as clocks, clockwork toys, and mechanisms designed to […]
Last week saw the annual meeting of The BMJ’s Patient Panel—an international meeting across at least four continents via plane, car, train, and phone to discuss The BMJ’s partnership with patients. Since 2014, the panel has brought together international patients, advocates, and leaders in the field of people’s (patients or carers) experience, involvement, engagement, and […]
In 2006, it became mandatory for all women aged 40-59 in Uruquay to have a free mammography every two years, despite its National Cancer Registry showing a sustained decrease in breast cancer mortality since 1990 [1]. President Tabaré Vázquez, an oncologist by profession, instigated this. But, as previously reported in The BMJ: “It’s the only country […]
A mixed public-private healthcare system reduces the effectiveness of healthcare for everyone […]
In just six months since the end of April, Yemen has identified over 845,000 suspected cholera cases, quickly surpassing the count in Haiti’s cholera outbreak from 2010 to 2017. But despite the bleak big numbers, recent data has suggested that the epidemic has started to slow down with numbers averaging around 29,000 per week, down […]
The WHO published a report earlier this year on the global tobacco epidemic in which it reported that comprehensive smoke-free legislation is in place to protect approximately 1.5 billion people in 55 countries. [1] Currently, as many as 168 countries—including Japan—have signed the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). [2] However, Japan’s tobacco policy […]
For my next job application, ask me how I make people feel, because that’s what you really need to know […]
To place all of the blame on the individual is to completely ignore the very real power of our surroundings […]
When revising for medical school finals I used lists. Lists and lists of conditions, many of them rare, and many of which I hadn’t seen in practice yet. One such condition was Churg-Strauss syndrome, also known as eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA). Four years on from finals my memory only stretches as far as remembering […]
Richard Lehman unpicks the problems of so much modern medicine […]