Burping, bloating, rumblings, and tummy pains. Patients with dyspepsia have crowded my GP days of late. I have turned my computer screen around for patients to deliver my familiar online show and tell of NICE guidelines, patient information leaflets, and google images of where your gullet, stomach, and guts are. Then I’ve printed off their […]
Nick Rose: Severe mental illness after a natural disaster—notes from the Typhoon Haiyan area of the Philippines
The occurrence of severe mental illness doubles in the months following a mass disaster (1). But few international agencies provide the specialist help needed at this time. And too often in resource poor countries, where disasters tend to occur, local mental health services are either non-existent or completely overwhelmed. So, although basic medical care, psychological […]
Tom Jefferson et al: EMA’s data sharing policy—towards peeping tom based medicine?
Tom Jefferson and Peter Doshi are two of the guys who battled for four years to access clinical study reports on antivirals for influenza for their Cochrane review. Here they muse on the possible arrival of look-but-don’t-touch research. Trudo Lemmens is a law professor. He has been working on the promotion of data transparency for […]
The BMJ Today: E-reefers and cannabis gummi bears
Everybody must get stoned! Sang Bob Dylan back in the lazy hazy days of the mid 1960s. In that respect, it was clear from walking around Amsterdam last week, where I was covering a research conference on addiction, that not much has changed. And yet, as my Feature on bmj.com finds, there is suddenly so […]
Rhys Davies: Reinventing the Watch—The Longitude Prize 2014
“Relax! It’s not calculating longitude at sea.” In the 18th century, before the advent of either rocket science or brain surgery, this is what folk would say to put the difficult and complicated problems of their peers in perspective. Described as the great scientific challenge of that century, the problem of knowing longitude at sea, and […]
Kristy Kruithof and Mafalda Pardal: Are we entering a new era of cannabis regulation?
Throughout the world, cannabis legalisation advocates and opponents have been following the recent debates and developments in the United States (Colorado and Washington state) and Uruguay with great interest. Although international drug treaties prohibit the production, distribution, and possession of cannabis for non-medical and non-scientific purposes, several jurisdictions have implemented new laws and policies, including […]
MSF Scientific Day 2014: The role of evidence in humanitarian aid
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, in which between 500 000 and a million people were brutally killed. The international community failed to act and MSF concluded that “you can’t stop genocide with doctors.” The aftermath of the genocide included analysis of the failures of humanitarian aid, and led to moves […]
Jim Murray: Who cares about the European Parliament?
Many people across Europe regard the European Parliament as irrelevant, or worse. Personally I find this sad but they are entitled to their view. I wrote a blog here a few months ago to illustrate the important work done by many MEPs, taking the example of clinical trials. You can find it here. I thought […]
Joe Collier: Pfizer go home
Our house guest’s question came out of the blue. Anne, who has known me for years, suddenly asked why I had stopped railing against the pharmaceutical industry. Were the companies suddenly behaving themselves? I replied with some inner satisfaction that since my retirement I was a changed man. Instead of living science and medicine, and […]
Anujeet Panesar on playing the patient
Having the fortune of being a healthy person so far, I have rarely needed to see my GP. Hence I already suspected my own experience as a patient would be different from that of many others who go to see their GP. I recently had an unexpected opportunity to compare my own and another person’s […]