A substantial body of evidence exists to answer many of the questions asked by policymakers and development partners in low and middle income countries (LMIC). However, evidence is often scattered, inaccessible, and rarely presented in a form that provides an indication of the quality of evidence. Systematic reviews in all sectors have the potential to […]
Richard Smith: Doctors are not interested in health or prevention
“Doctors are not interested in health” is one of my many wild generalisations. My evidence is my experience, a 40 year collection of anecdotes, and the observation that a thousand page medical textbook usually comprises five desultory pages on health and 995 pages detailing disease. Now I have further evidence. I’ve just attended the World […]
Gabriel Scally on the 13th World Congress on Public Health
This is a tough time for public health internationally. The global financial crisis has had a deleterious effect on the social determinants of health as some governments have pursued austerity programmes differentially, which has had the greatest effect on some of the least well off in society. Organisations of public health professionals have suffered as […]
Frank Boulton on the role of medics in preventing torture
“Brits don’t torture….and if they did medics would find out.” This naïve view is widely shared by members of the public and medical professionals alike. The role of some medics as bystanders in torture and the prejudice to asylum seekers and refugees that is rife in Britain today were discussed at a meeting hosted by […]
Frederick Stourton: No miracle diet for athletes
In a quiet house in Soho, where Charles Dickens reputedly wrote “A Tale of Two Cities,” C3 Collaborating for Health hosted a breakfast meeting last week on the importance of nutrition in athletics; a hot topic with the London 2012 games fast approaching. Breakfast reflected the theme, with not a bacon rasher or greasy pastry […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review – 23 April 2012
JAMA 18 Apr 2012 Vol 307 1583 George Orwell predicted a nightmare world where soothing words would mean their opposites, and gave his dystopia the date of 1984. It was about that year that the term patient centred first appeared in the medical literature, coinciding with the time when the medical-industrial complex went totally out […]
Grania Brigden: Time to make TB the enemy that can’t hide
As the Kony 2012 campaign continues to sear the image of Joseph Kony—head of the Ugandan guerilla group, the Lord’s Resistance Army— into the world’s consciousness, it’s worth remembering that there is another, more deadly killer at loose on the African continent. This killer is tuberculosis. The two have much in common. They have no […]
Domhnall MacAuley: Patient safety and sports performance
Eighty thousand spectators hold their breath as they watch the penalty. Hushed anticipation. Fearful will he hold his nerve, handle the pressure, cope with the stress. But, is it that important? Nobody dies. Not like the decisions you make every day. For a surgeon or anaesthetist, fatal outcomes can be immediate. For others their mistakes […]
Tiago Villanueva: Austerity eroding Portuguese healthcare
In 1960, Portugal’s infant mortality rate was 77.5 deaths per 1000 live births, which is comparable to that of many Sub Saharan African countries today. In 2010, Portugal’s infant mortality rate was 2.5 deaths per 1000 live births, one of the lowest in Europe and in the world. […]
Martin McShane: 80:20
We are working through trying to understand exactly how commissioning support (CSS) will work with Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs). At a recent time out the lead manager for the CSS presented on the progress being made with Greater East Midlands CSS (GEM). They highlighted the scale of work that is required with the 277 tasks […]