On 23 March the Spanish cabinet passed a new draft bill on transparency in public administration, which in other countries is called the Freedom of Information Act. So far Spain remains the only European country with more than one million inhabitants that doesn’t have this law. The healthcare sector lacks information on how healthcare budgets […]
Elizabeth Gargon: 2194 visits and 180 days—a challenge and a milestone are hit by the COMET database
Inconsistencies in health research are well documented, affecting anyone trying to use this information to make a choice about healthcare or to cope with the abundance of data generated by researchers. Differences in how outcomes are defined and measured are common make it difficult, sometimes impossible, to synthesise research results and apply them in a […]
Richard Smith: More than a food bank
Food banks in the United States are busy. The Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona, which I visited last week as part of the University of Arizona’s conference on global health leadership, is helping more than 225 500 people every month. The numbers have grown dramatically with the recession. Some 16% of people in Southern […]
Tiago Villanueva: Taking a renewed look at shoulder injuries
I did something very unusual for a GP last weekend, which was to attend a conference on a highly specific topic, namely shoulder injuries. GP’s in Europe usually have a well defined mainstream circuit of national and international conferences, but this event was completely outside my comfort zone. None of the speakers were primary care […]
Richard Smith: A people—to fade or flourish?
The symbol of the Tohono O’odham, a native American tribe, is a man in a maze (see below). All of us, they believe, are born into a maze. We have to make our journey through the maze to try and reach the centre of peace and serenity. Often we are lost, and when we are […]
David Kerr: The French Connection—one solution to social care?
Old age is not so bad when you consider the alternative wrote the French actor and singer, Maurice Chevalier. In the UK this week, the government announced a forthcoming White paper on social care will be published in June detailing a new system for looking after the elderly in care homes and through improved home […]
Edzard Ernst: I don’t care how treatment works, as long as it helps my patients.
During the last two decades, many doctor’s attitudes towards alternative medicine have become more liberal. The general attitude seems to be: “I don’t care how it works, as long as it helps my patients.” At first glance, this argument seems correct—after all, clinicians have a duty to do all they can to alleviate the suffering […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review – 2 April 2012
JAMA 28 Mar 2012 Vol 307 1257 Medical conferences exist to affirm everything that hinders the progress of medicine as a compassionate and honest enterprise. They are a showcase for authority figures, pharma-funded research, half-completed work in the form of abstracts and late-breaking sessions; they use up prodigious amounts of money and carbon fuels; they […]
Susannah Baron: On education and economics
There are many differences between healthcare and medical education in Tanzania and in the UK, but the concept I find hardest to understand is “attendance or sitting allowance.” This allowance is paid to all staff who attend courses for their healthcare education and it seems that staff will not attend educational events unless they are […]
Andrew Moscrop: Leishmaniasis in Pakistan
Dust has blown up around the Kuchlak health centre near Quetta. A gritty wind that hurts the eyes, matts the hair, and coarsens the teeth. Dust clouds have utterly concealed the nearby mountains and obscured even the sun. This is an unfamiliar meteorological phenomenon for me: “a rain of mud” one of the health workers […]