Why would one ever consider cycling from Glasgow to London when there is a perfectly good train? Particularly if you choose a really hilly route, with 20 percent climbs through the Lake District and twice over the Pennines. This question was on our minds as we got colder and wetter and our legs struggled up […]
B L Himabindu and N S Prashanth: Can we count on our counting systems?
Basic demographic information forms the basis of policy, planning, and public discourse. The system through which governments record vital events such as births and deaths is the civil registration system. Defined by the United Nations as “the continuous, permanent, compulsory, and universal recording of the occurrence and characteristics of vital events,” it forms the basis […]
Ravi Murugesan: Open access and academic blogging
I’m not a social scientist, so it was with some anxiety that I travelled halfway across the world to attend the World Social Science Forum. The theme, “social transformations and the digital age,” gave me some hope. I teach online and I’m a telecommuter, so I thought as a person of the digital age I […]
Jim Murray: The EMA’s efforts to widen access to clinical trial results
The European Medicines Agency is trying to widen access to clinical trial results for medicines that have been authorised. Its efforts have been blocked, at least temporarily, by a legal challenge in the European Courts from AbbVie, in a case involving the medicine Humira. AbbVie is in effect the former medicines division of Abbot Laboratories. […]
Christian Duncan and Rakhee Chawla: The growing problem of dog bite injuries—a surgeon’s perspective
Over the past 10 years, dog bite related admissions in all age groups have risen, with children under the age of 10 being most commonly afflicted. A year long audit at our plastic surgery units in Liverpool have revealed that there are three times the number of admissions in children than in adults with, on […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review—28 October 2013
NEJM 24 Oct 2013 Vol 369 1577 Two years ago I unexpectedly found myself in the USA amongst good and great people who were determined to open up hidden data about human trials. It was an odd position for a retired British country town GP to be in, and I concluded that my most useful […]
Richard Smith: Am I behind the times in expecting to die?
Until last weekend it never crossed my mind that I wouldn’t die. Now after conversations with my brilliant friend Alex Jadad I fear that I might be hopelessly out of step with modern thinking and way behind the times. Three weeks ago Time magazine asked “Can Google solve death?” The provisional answer is “if anybody […]
William Cayley: The patient’s story comes first
Once upon a time, there was a pain, a positive test, and “a possibly abnormal x-ray requiring clinical correlation.” As they travelled the world, no one could figure out where they came from. Many physicians racked their brains, but they remained a mystery, until one wise person said, “tell me your story.” Our three travelers […]
Tiago Villanueva: Should medical students spend time in resource poor settings?
I believe firmly in the importance of medical students and doctors engaging in international experiences, and in the international mobility of doctors. So I decided to go along to a conference on the 11 October, organised by the Medical Schools Council entitled, “Working together for ethical, educational, and safe placements at home and abroad.” In […]
Barbara Peters: When does a hospital’s duty of care end?
When does a hospital’s duty of care end? Great care is placed in patient pathways, but little recognition given to what happens after a patient dies. The challenge is that death has something of an image problem and so, by association, do mortuaries. As a result, our work is often misunderstood by the public and […]