Regenerative medicine. I did not know it existed until I began working with the Marine Corps. Even writing “regenerative medicine” reminds me that I am not in Bangladesh anymore, trying to produce miracles by scaling up a 20 cent zinc intervention aimed at every child under the age of 5 with diarrhea, or figuring out […]
The BMJ Today: Helping GPs make better decisions
After being one year out of clinical practice, and working full time in medical editing at The BMJ, I decided to take some time off from work and return this week to the trenches of the healthcare system as a locum GP in my native Portugal, where I remain licensed to practice. I personally feel […]
Richard Smith: Three myths blocking progress against NCD
The church at the House of St Barnabas was standing room only to hear Professor Robert Lustig, a paediatric endocrinologist from San Francisco, castigate our current attempts to counter the global pandemic of NCD. (I judge that we’ve reached the stage where NCD, like AIDS, no longer needs to be spelt out.) Lustig, who has […]
Gitau Mburu: Why communities should care about WHO’s antiretroviral guidelines
A year ago, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued revised and consolidated guidelines on the use of antiretroviral drugs for treating and preventing HIV infection. These guidelines included a key recommendation to initiate HIV treatment earlier (at 500 CD4 cells/mm³ or less) in order to ensure that people with HIV live longer, healthier lives, and […]
The BMJ Today: Laws on money and sex
Being a doctor can sometimes feel glamorous. Soon after graduating from medical school, I found myself on a high floor of a fancy hotel in downtown Chicago, waking up to the sun rising over Lake Michigan, a perfect view through a glass wall. Yes, not a window, a wall. Plush carpets, marble bathroom, you know—the […]
Shalini: India needs those vaccines
India has just introduced three new paediatric vaccines to its Universal Immunization Program (UIP), extending protection to its children against deadly and crippling diseases (rotavirus, rubella, and polio through an injectable polio vaccine). With an estimated 27 million children born in India each year, this is an unprecedented policy leap by the new government, which is flexing its muscles. […]
The BMJ Today: Explaining telomeres
Telomeres are getting a lot of attention at the moment. At the 64th Nobel laureate meeting in Lindau two weeks ago, Elizabeth Blackburn (who won the 2009 Nobel prize in medicine) drew my attention to the role of telomeres in the cellular aging process. […]
Jane Parry: What radiation risk? I’m going to Japan for the clean air
Chatting to fellow parents about summer holiday plans at a recent school event, I was asked by a mother whether I was worried about radiation levels in Japan. Both her family and mine are travelling to Japan this summer, although neither party are travelling anywhere near Fukushima. I told her that I was actually looking […]
Jack Johnson: My week as a medical journalist
I arrived at the offices of The BMJ on Monday 7 July, expecting to spend the day at a desk reading scholarly articles, which I had little chance of making sense of. I am a sixth form student and spent a week at The BMJ on work experience. My previous encounter with work experience was at […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review—14 July 2014
NEJM 10 July 2014 Vol 371 107 I was very confused by this paper. It describes two trials of three drugs for premenopausal breast cancer with various permutations, and the bottom line is that all the interventions give the same result. Or, if you are a sponsor of the trial, you can report: “In premenopausal […]