My list of anaesthetists who are famous for the wrong reasons currently has two categories and four entries. The first category, “Anaesthetists convicted of killing Michael Jackson,” would have just one entry and is something of a misnomer, since Conrad Murray wasn’t actually an anaesthetist, though the anaesthetic propofol was very much involved. The second […]
Tessa Richards: Personal information empowers and its shift to the people makes sense
Given that health is our most precious commodity it is odd that many of us know so little about it. Part of the reason is that we are not used to seeing and thinking about our own health information, for most us don’t get much of it. But things are changing. The NHS has pledged […]
Kailash Chand on Tony Nicklinson and the right to die
As Tony Nicklinson’s case illustrates, there is clearly a desire among some patients with debilitating and incurable diseases, to end their suffering with the support of their doctor and relatives. To deny this right is to prolong the suffering of individuals and families—something I cannot condone. Nicklinson’s is the latest case in which appeals for […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review—20 August 2012
JAMA 15 Aug 2012 Vol 308 681 From time to time, most of the medical journals are seized with a worthy impulse to discuss violence. One of its commonest and most ubiquitous forms is intimate partner violence, most of which goes undetected. Occasionally it is first disclosed in the course of a medical consultation, and […]
Sophie Reshamwalla: Move aside Doc Martin—a day in the life of a real village doctor
I sit and type this in my lounge, with the men’s Olympic football final on the TV in the background (Mexico are 1-0 up against Brazil can you believe), and look forward to my final shift as an emergency care doctor at the London 2012 Olympics starting early the next day at 6.30am. I reflect […]
Emma Rourke: Superhuman at the Wellcome Collection
Are you superhuman? Most people’s innate reaction would be to refute such a claim. “Superhuman” evokes images of superheroes, creations of human fantasy, and imagination, but what if we took the view that everyday objects such as glasses, hearing aids, and lipstick constituted forms of human enhancement? This insightful and thought-provoking exhibition of over 100 […]
Domhnall MacAuley: Some Olympic reflections
It’s the smile that gives it away. The Olympic smile. Couch potatoes, academic nerds, fashionistas, computer geeks, and sporty types united. All bewitched. With life on hold for the last two weeks, its now back to the real world, but almost everyone one seems touched by a little bit of Olympic magic. So, what about […]
Julian Sheather: Doping in sport—thoughts on another Olympic legacy
Every once in a while I dust off my old road bike and head out onto the North Downs to take in a few hills. Panting up a short sharp rise is about as close to elite athleticism as I get—and it is not unusual for me to get off and push. It is from […]
Richard Smith and Nataly Kelly: Global attempts to avoid talking directly about death and dying
English speakers have been very inventive in finding words and phrases that allow them to avoid the words death and dying, and so we have discovered are people who speak other languages. This seems to be a global phenomenon. We are the kind of people who when we hear somebody say “X has passed away” […]
Ruby Siddiqui: Emergency epidemiology—what does this mean?
“Mortality rates in a refugee camp in South Sudan are nearly double the threshold for an emergency, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has warned” said a BBC report on 6 July 2012. “In Yida camp, [MSF data show] at least five children dying each day, most from diarrhoea and severe infections,” 2 August, MSF press release. […]