“You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test.” One of the most enjoyable things about listening to George W Bush torturing the English language is that no matter how confused his sentences get you can still understand almost exactly what he means. Widely derided as […]
Readers’ editor: What do US physicians think of the BMJ?
This blog is the first in a series about you, our readers. Fiona Godlee, the BMJ’s editor in chief, suggested I write a regular blog explaining some of our policies and procedures. Many of them have been in place for decades, but our readership of practising physicians and academic researchers may not be aware of […]
Sharon Davies: Why we’re reluctant to remove rapid responses from bmj.com
We are reluctant to remove rapid responses from bmj.com because they are part of the BMJ’s record—and hence science’s record. We believe that there are few good grounds for tampering with it. To date, over 88 500 rapid responses have been posted on our website since 1998, each with its own URL and each retrievable […]
Richard Smith: A jolly afternoon with Dying Matters
Dying Matters is an organisation that aims to raise awareness of dying, death, and bereavement, and this is Dying Awareness Week. The organisation exists because of the mass denial of death in our society that leaves people ill prepared for dying and death and contributes to so many people dying badly. I’ve joined Dying Matters […]
Sophie Petit-Zeman on UK DUETs: uncertainties as opportunities
“Our failure to confront uncertainty about the effects of treatment has resulted in the suffering and death of patients, sometimes on a massive scale.” This chilling statement comes from Iain Chalmers’ 2008 BMJ editorial, Confronting therapeutic ignorance, that heralded the start of the BMJ‘s Uncertainties page. In the same article, Chalmers referred to a then […]
Domhnall MacAuley: The silent cost of caring
As he hung up his coat at the end of the morning, he stunned his nursing and junior colleagues: “I will be glad when I don’t have to do that clinic anymore.” It was a cancer clinic in a non cancer speciality. Everyone in outpatients thought he was wonderful; a caring clinician, a good listener […]
Richard Smith: Buggered about by the NHS Sustainable Development Unit: a story with a moral
I’m an enthusiastic follower of the NHS Sustainable Development Unit, its director, David Pencheon, and its important mission of reducing NHS carbon emissions by 80% by 2050, but like all organisations it needs to pay attention to small as well as big things to succeed. That’s why I tell this (not very) sad story. I […]
Krishna Chinthapalli: The danger of sugar
Millions of years ago, plants were making fruits to disperse seeds. Once the seeds were ready to travel in animal stomachs, fruits concentrated more sugar and ripened. They became an important and safe source of energy. Consequently, our ancestors perceived fruit to be “sweet” and pleasurable. Meanwhile bees were busy making a much sweeter food, […]
Jonny Martell: What they don’t teach at medical school
Tomorrow I’ll go to work and among other things, prescribe drugs. I’ve been told that they work and that they’re mostly safe. There’s plenty to encourage me in believing this: whether enshrined in official guidelines or treatment protocols (or not), lots of other doctors prescribe these drugs in the same or similar patients, for the […]
Rej Bhumbra: Global surgery—global wellness
The Chinese phrase, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime,” is widely used, but its principles hold true, especially if you are working in the field of global surgery. A meeting organised at the Royal College of Surgeons […]