My mobile rings in the middle of a busy day, “Hi Rachael, its Brigitte from MSF UK, I’ve had a call from Paris, they were wondering if by any chance you could be free to go to Syria next week?” A week later—Chris and Elaine from the anaesthetic department having worked wonders with the rota—I […]
Tiago Villanueva: Time for an overhaul of reproductive health in the Philippines
Population control in the developing world is a major public health issue, as large families and overcrowding perpetuate cycles of poverty. The dire situation in the Philippines is considerably overlooked, even though it is extremely serious and the country has one of the highest birth rates outside Africa. The Philippines is the 12th most populated […]
Peter Bailey: Own up and ask for help
When I was twelve, I had a splendid bicycle. I cleaned and oiled and polished it. I looked for ways to improve it. One day, I thought I would take the Sturmey Archer three speed gear hub apart to oil it and make it work better, faster, and more smoothly for less effort. I knew […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review – 10 September 2012
JAMA 5 Sep 2012 Vol 308 869 Cancer, multiple sclerosis, stroke: do you want your patients to get the benefit of new drugs for these conditions as soon as possible? It’s pretty hard to say no to a question like that, but if you follow the flow of this rhetoric you can easily ignore poor […]
Penny Campling: Thoughts on a healthcare culture—part 4
An important aspect of my job as a clinical director was acting as a buffer between the ever increasing number of new policy initiatives gathering in the system at large and the clinical staff I managed. I took the view that front line staff do work that is demanding—intellectually and emotionally—and need to be distracted […]
Pritpal S Tamber: GP Ratings—why all doctors must have this app
There are more and more mobile phone apps for wellness and health, so many in fact that it’s already impossible to stay abreast of them. However, I recently came across one for the iPhone that I think all doctors simply must have. It’s called GP Ratings and it presents data from the 2010/11 GP patient […]
Tony Saunders: Stroke survivor
One afternoon, 12 years ago, I was doing some gentle exercises in the local gym. I was adjusting the rowing machine when, suddenly, my vision blurred and I fell sideways hitting my head on the floor. The woman on the machine next to me shouted “don’t move.” “Stupid idea,” I thought “I must get up,” […]
Richard Smith: Choosing among sorrows
“We live in a world of competing sorrows,” said Daniel Moynihan, the American senator. How can policy makers choose among sorrows? One way is with the help of the Copenhagen Consensus, which asks four Nobel laureates in economics and one other distinguished economist to decide how to spend $75 billion in overseas aid over four […]
Liz Wager: Guidelines for misconduct?
I’m generally a big fan of guidelines—in fact, I’ve written a few myself, but a recent conversation with a wise Indian researcher made me ponder their darker side. We were talking about research integrity and he explained how he endeavours to embed this into every stage of the research process at his institution, from the […]
Desmond O’Neill: Combating gerontological illiteracy
St Gallen is a fascinating small city in the north-eastern corner of Switzerland. Famed for its fabulous rococo monastic library (including the earliest extant manuscript of the Nibelung legend), the manufacture of sophisticated textiles, and one of the leading business schools in Europe, it is also the home to an intriguing initiative on ageing. For […]