The Guardian is well known for being at the forefront of journalism and for pushing forward ever more innovative ways of covering the news. A talk at King’s Place on Friday 14 September looked at how journalism is changing and how social media, particularly Twitter, are changing the way news is reported and read. The […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review—24 September 2012
JAMA 19 Sep 2012 Vol 308 1122 This week’s JAMA is devoted to obesity. It’s a bit like global warming: we can see it happening around us, we can foresee terrible consequences, we pretend to ourselves we’re doing something about it, but we know that in the end only drastic solutions will work, and these […]
Kieran Walsh: Free medical education would deliver savings in the long term
“Even in comparatively poor countries we find scientific knowledge and trained intellects regarded as sound public investments, and the popular voice applauding a liberal application of public money to secure them.” Isambard Owen, 1904 […]
Joseph Malone: Bhopal—a constant reminder
In the summer of 2010, fresh from my 3rd year of medical school, myself and another student chose to take a six week elective in Bhopal, India. Our motivation to choose the capital of India’s most central state? An opportunity to learn first hand about an ongoing industrial disaster—the biggest in history. This came about […]
Domhnall MacAuley: Top ten sports medicine publications in the last year
The top ten publications of the last year in sport and exercise medicine? It is inevitably, a personal choice and I selected these papers because they challenge, educate, and question current practice. Some papers—great papers—that didn’t quite make my top ten: Sudden deaths among competitors in big city marathons always prompt media soul searching. It […]
Desmond O’Neill: Nowhere to hide
The large gilded hall of the Musikverein in Vienna is instantly recognisable to most people from the annual New Year’s concert dedicated to the Strauss family and their contemporaries. In real life it is no less magnificent, although it feels smaller than the images projected by the televised event. Endowed with a crystal clear acoustic […]
Richard Smith: Is the BMJ too sensitive about libel?
I must begin by making clear that I think the BMJ magnificent, much improved from when I was the editor. I particularly applaud the introduction of indepth investigative journalism. I’m also extremely grateful to the journal for publishing my blogs, some of which seem to push close to the edge of sanity. But I want […]
Jega Aravinthan on the Mental Health (Discrimination) Bill
“Those that the gods would destroy they first make mad” is a quotation misattributed to Eupirides and is a historical example of the negative connotations and stigma experienced by individuals with mental health problems. These have been perpetuated through the centuries and continue to be enshrined in current UK legislation, which restricts the ability of […]
Elizabeth Loder: Why can’t a headache clinic be more like a Cheesecake Factory restaurant?
I hate to think of myself as prejudiced, but a night out at a Cheesecake Factory chain restaurant is not my idea of fine dining. I’ll go there if I have to, of course, and in the end I did. Once a month, the doctors from the Graham Headache Center (where I work when not […]
Tessa Richards: Forget fashion—go for value
How much of the care patients receive is determined by their doctor’s decision to provide it as opposed to their need and preference for it? And how much money might be saved if investigations and treatments of limited or no value to patients were stopped? These questions were debated at two recent meetings on practice […]