A lunar landscape, cracked earth, and scorching heat. 4,000 rudimentary tents made from wooden poles and plastic sheeting. And people everywhere, 95% of them women and children, according to camp authorities, and a few men, hoping at least to find safety and security, and perhaps even to make a first step towards a new life. […]
The BMJ Today: The good and the bad news for doctors and patients
When it comes to interacting with patients, most doctors’ working days, regardless of the setting, include a combination of breaking both good and bad news. It is extremely rewarding when, for instance, we can tell patients in hospital wards that they have fully recovered and will be going home soon or, on the other hand, […]
Trish Groves: How bloggers responded to the updated Cochrane reviews on Tamiflu and Relenza
My earlier blog outlined BMJ reader feedback to the two updated Cochrane reviews on the benefits and harms in influenza of the neuraminidase inhibitors oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza). But the two research articles also attracted a great deal of attention in the blogosphere. […]
Sean Roche: Is excessive bureaucracy unethical?
In subjecting the bureaucratic machine underpinning the NHS to ethical scrutiny, I suggest that we adhere to a basic premise: that it is ethically incumbent on a public health service to maximise the health and wellbeing of the population, within the constraints of the finite resources at its disposal. In my view we currently fall […]
The BMJ Today: Reporting patient safety concerns and prescribing cannabinoids
How would you raise concerns if you felt that clinical practice was below standard in your hospital or surgery and patient safety was being compromised? Do you and your teams have clearly defined ways to report any concerns? The BMJ news reports on a whistleblower who has finally been acquitted of unfair dismissal in a […]
Trish Groves: Reader responses to updated Cochrane reviews on Tamiflu and Relenza
It’s nearly two weeks since The BMJ published two updated Cochrane reviews on the benefits and harms in influenza of the neuraminidase inhibitors oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza). These research articles were accompanied by The BMJ’s peer review comments and other supplementary files and appendices and several commissioned articles. […]
The BMJ Today: Consent, discrimination, and the liver
What’s the matter with care.data? “It’s consent, stupid,” says Margaret McCartney in her latest No Holds Barred column. A leaflet is not sufficient to convey the complex issues around data extraction and potential re-identification. The same applies for screening, where leaflets are often posted to inform people about the benefits and harms of breast and […]
Desmond O’Neill: Expanding the imaginarium of ageing
My most formative experience in gerontology was a student gap year in Marseille. A volunteer with Les Petits Frères des Pauvres, a charmingly radical organisation dedicated to improving life for older people, I was fascinated by their motto—les fleurs avant le pain. At first sight, the focus on flowers ahead of bread seemed twee. […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review—22 April 2014
NEJM 17 Apr 2014 Vol 370 1494 Back in the 1970s, people used to say that we had entered an era of safe surgery and dangerous medicine. I find it odd that people are now trying to make surgery safer by using a variety of moderately dangerous drugs on healthy people about to have operations. […]
The BMJ Today: Respect for international doctors
A cluster of recent articles on bmj.com concern the educational performance of international medical graduates compared with UK graduates. The subject has been hotly debated since the 1980s when it emerged that international medical graduates and doctors from ethnic minorities had disproportionately high failure rates in membership exams compared with UK graduates. […]