The case of Aruna Ramachandra Shanbaug was a landmark moment for the euthanasia debate in India. Aruna was a nurse working in the King Edward Memorial Hospital (KEM) in Mumbai. On the evening of 27 November 1973, Aruna was brutally raped. She survived, but asphyxiation had cut the blood and oxygen supply to parts of […]
Johanna Hanefeld and Richard Smith: Charging for non-EEA migrants’ access to the NHS—who will follow?
The UK government recently announced that it will in future charge migrants from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) and foreign visitors a 150% fee for service when using the NHS. This is to recoup the estimated costs incurred when patients from abroad use services without entitlement. Justification for the additional surcharge is to incentivise […]
The BMJ Today: Feet and fudge
A calcaneal fracture can mean a two year recovery, with a stiff, painful, deformed foot that will not fit into a normal shoe. How does operative and non-operative treatment for intra-articular fractures compare? A research team led by Damian Griffin, professor of trauma and orthopaedic surgery at Warwick University Medical School, conclude in their randomised […]
Lavanya Malhotra: Tackling obesity with gold
The Dubai municipality has come up with a novel way to promote a balanced diet and exercise in the city: slim down, and the reward will be worth your weight in gold. Or rather, you will receive 1 g of gold for every kg shed. Earlier this week it was estimated that more than 15 000 people had […]
The BMJ Today: More on transparency
In recent years, The BMJ has campaigned on transparency—the focus of our Open Data campaign, and an issue of vital importance if modern medicine is to retain the trust of doctors and the public, writes Trevor Jackson in this week’s Editor’s Choice. Dabigatran was the first of the new oral anticoagulants licensed to prevent stroke in […]
Billy Boland: Life after the NHS Leadership Academy
Is it nearly over? Putting the final touches to my portfolio seems all wrong somehow. The outcome of my time at the NHS Leadership Academy depends on this submission, and while it’s now due, I feel I’ve only just started. Come to think of it, this experience has been one of the key features of […]
The BMJ Today: Time to rethink your assumptions about sepsis, Minerva
When I first arrived at the University of Bath, to study history and philosophy of science, our first lecture was about Sulis-Minerva: the combination of Minerva, Roman goddess of wisdom, and Sulis, the Celtic goddess who lived in the hot springs that gave the city its name. Sulis-Minerva became the goddess of health in Roman Britain, […]
Aser Garcia Rada: The resurgence of HIV/ AIDS in Europe—let’s focus on priorities
I was recently invited to a meeting on HIV/AIDS that was hosted in Athens by the European Commission. Although the grass is greener on the EU side, the epidemic still poses relevant challenges. Contrary to the overall global decline in new HIV infections, 29 381 people were newly diagnosed across the EU in 2012, 1% more […]
The BMJ Today: A good idea gone wrong?
At the 2008 World Economic Forum in Davos, Bill Gates highlighted a new US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) law that rewarded sponsors of drugs for tropical diseases with a voucher that entitles the bearer to a “priority review” of another new drug application. It was intended to encourage for-profit companies to invest in treating […]
Bijal Chheda-Varma: Bariatric surgery is unsustainable
Obesity is widely recognised as one of the greatest health threats of the 21st century across the developed world, with about a third of the global population now obese or overweight. While the evidence of the problem is undisputed, there is little agreement as to how to solve it. Many solutions are being brandished about […]