Schools should teach students not only academic knowledge and cognitive skills, but also the knowledge and skills they will need to promote their own mental and physical health, and successfully navigate the world of work, argued an Editorial published on bmj.com last week. It seems a no-brainer, and many schools may already be doing this, […]
Jocalyn Clark: Global health in medical journals
Last week in London we had a lively and enjoyable reunion of The BMJ’s editorial registrars. In 2002 I was registrar number 13 of the now 25 year old scheme (editor in chief Fiona Godlee was number two), and wanted to reflect on my editorial career and to provide a view of The BMJ from […]
The BMJ Today: Smoking, nicotine, e-cigarettes, and corruption
Should smokers be advised to cut down as well as to quit? This is the debate captured in our latest Head to Head article, just published on bmj.com. The cost effectiveness body for England and Wales, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), last year changed its guidance to recommend that smokers are […]
Azeem Majeed: Three obstacles to increasing the use of statins for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease
Statistics from the OECD show that the per person use of statins in the UK is the highest in Europe and the second highest among all OECD countries. There are a number of reasons for the very high use of statins in the UK, which include the emphasis on evidence based medicine in the training of […]
Judith Hibbard: How do people become good managers of their own health?
Within the general population some people actively focus on reaching and maintaining good health, while others are more passive about the whole thing. So what makes the difference? Is learning to manage your health like learning a country’s geography—where all you probably need are a list of facts and a good reference guide? Or is […]
Steve Isaacs: Do adolescents take more risks than other age groups?
Aidan McFarlane recently gave the third Ann McPherson Lecture at Green Templeton College, Oxford. It was entitled: “Adolescent behaviours: learning from experimentation, a risky business.” McPherson and McFarlane had formerly collaborated on The Diary Of A Teenage Health Freak, a doyen of Adrian Molar humour. The experimentation of the title referred to risks that adolescents […]
The BMJ Today: Statins and The BMJ
Even those whose daily diet does not include the pages of the national press could not have missed the furore over The BMJ’s very public correction of an error in two articles this week. In an Analysis article, John Abramson and colleagues questioned the merits of extending the routine use of statins to people at low […]
Tiago Villanueva: Should we “own” our health?
I don’t often have the chance to meet people like Ron Dembo, who have a vision and ideas that could change the world, or at least the world of healthcare. Dembo is the CEO and Founder of Zerofootprint, a software and services company that makes environmental impact measurable, visible, and manageable to businesses, governments, institutions, […]
Mary E Black: Look at me
I was a bit of a star in my early 30s at Harvard’s School of Public Health. On a fully funded and prestigious Harkness Fellowship (so a treasured person in the Harvard lexicon), I was bubbly, thin, well dressed, elected to student government, volunteering for just about everything, and winner of the competition to represent […]
Tessa Richards: The right to be supported to self manage disease
On the eve of the EU elections, reports and manifestos aimed at attracting the attention of newly elected MEPs and commission officials have been flowing thick and fast. A new one shortly to be added to their list has the working title, “Empowered patients are a resource not a cost.” It will set out recommendations […]