As a mother and a doctor, I am often asked medical questions by my non-medical friends. Most of the time this has nothing to do with my specialty (radiology), and I am probably not as helpful as my friends had hoped. Several months ago, a pregnant friend asked me if she should have the “flu […]
Julian Sheather: Public health and social power
It’s hard not to brood from time to time on some of the intractable public health problems that entangle us. Take obesity. Swimming with my boys over the weekend, I was again struck by how much the food that should sustain us is killing us. It’s hard as well not to wonder where change might […]
The BMJ Today: The challenges of foodborne illness, HIV, tuberculosis, and scorpion stings
Being a GP myself, one of the first things I did when I arrived in London last year to work at The BMJ was register with a GP. In London, for a certain catchment area, a resident is free to choose to register in one of a number of NHS GP practices, assuming that they […]
Michael West: Collective leadership—fundamental to creating the cultures we need in the NHS
Positivity, compassion, respect, dignity, engagement, and high quality care are key to creating the cultures we need in the NHS. And, just as importantly, we must deal decisively, consistently, and quickly with behaviours that are inconsistent with these values—regardless of the seniority of people exhibiting them. Yet in the King’s Fund’s most recent survey of NHS […]
The BMJ Today: Screening for lung cancer, treating warts, and prescribing the polypill
At the end of last year, the US Preventive Services Task Force launched guidelines recommending screening for lung cancer in those at high risk. These were greeted with applause by some and dismay by others. In yesterday’s State of the Art Review, Canadian authors Tammemagi and Lam discuss the evidence for and against. Yes, there […]
Jane Parry: How many cases will it take for policymakers to realize there is a HIV problem in Hong Kong?
Announcing the most recent HIV statistics for Hong Kong yesterday, the Department of Health’s Centre for Health Protection reported 154 new cases from January to March this year. In effect, almost every day two more people became infected with a preventable disease that requires lifelong adherence to a drug regimen in order to stay alive. […]
Jim Murray: Volte-face by the European Medicines Agency?
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has recently published to a targeted audience final consultation draft papers on its new “proactive” transparency policy on clinical trial results. As reported, information published under the draft policy would be on a screen-read only basis, would not include commercially confidential information (CCI) as defined by the EMA, would be subject […]
K M Venkat Narayan: Letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi—please make the nation’s health an urgent priority
Dear Prime Minister Modi: Congratulations on your impressive victory in the world’s largest election, and best wishes as you take office. Talking to people in my native city of Bangalore, I can sense the palpable excitement and optimism that your win has brought to the youth in India. People are longing for a decisive government […]
The BMJ Today: Sham surgery and the placebo effect
Imagine you have severe gastro-oesophageal reflux. You are taking the maximum dose of your antacids and guzzling your way through bottles of Gaviscon, yet you’re still plagued by heartburn. It wakes you up in the middle of the night, prevents you from enjoying the odd glass of wine, and as for eating anything spicy— forget […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review—27 May 2014
NEJM 15-22 May 2014 Vol 370 1944 The introduction of pay for performance in the NHS attracted great interest in the USA, which is still trying to come up with similar schemes of its own. Martin Roland and Stephen Campbell both helped the UK government to set up the Quality and Outcomes Framework for primary […]