It was not of course in relation to the NHS that Tony Blair famously said “I only know what I believe.” His assertion was in defence of military action in Iraq despite the millions on the streets saying “Not in my name.” It is however a convenient method of ignoring the troublesome masses who disagree […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review – 20 February 2012
JAMA 15 Feb 2012 Vol 306 669 This week’s star Viewpoint piece is about The Unintended Consequences of Conflict of Interest Disclosure. It seems to me that twenty-first century medicine operates on roughly the same principle as the court of the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire – prestige is judged by the number of […]
David Kerr: Saving the world–pharma dips a toe into social media gaming for health
“I’m afraid I’m currently out of the office right now on the never-ending mission to restore world health—I am very interested in your message and will endeavour to reply to it as soon as I am back.” This rather immodest response to my request to sign up to a new soon-to-be launched on-line game (http://www.syrum-game.com) […]
Tiago Villanueva: What is a neurohospitalist?
When I first met Andrew Wilner, an American physician, a few years ago, it was the first time I had heard of the word “neurohospitalist.” I obviously knew what a neurologist or a neurosurgeon are, but a neurohospitalist was an absolute novelty, and I have a feeling it is not a well known role in […]
Martin McShane: Does commissioning need an incentive?
I became interested in commissioning through Fundholding. Like the majority of GP practices that got involved we did so because we wanted to improve the experience and the services our patients received. We used the influence which holding a budget gave us to address quality. For example, we improved the safety of anticoagulation management, we […]
Tracey Koehlmoos: Capturing equity in systematic reviews
Systematic reviews have something of an image problem. To the uninitiated, they can be considered too effete because they run on for hundreds of pages, with lots of forest plots and risk of bias calculations. And what is a GRADE table? I know that I generally head straight for the conclusion section of the abstract—does […]
Richard Smith: You have a duty to complain
Have you made a complaint recently? I don’t mean moaning to your partner about the weather or your neighbour’s barking dog but a written, formal complaint. If you haven’t you should—because we are relying on sharp elbowed, middle class people like you to keep up and even improve the performance of everything—the NHS, the BMA, […]
Greg Elder: Hippocrates: a casualty of the war in Syria
A doctor’s protest Principles Four months ago en route to work I read an article about how the blood transfusion services in Syria had been taken over by the Ministry of Defence as a means to target patients injured in demonstrations against the government. I found this deeply disturbing and described it as a “violation […]
Peter Lapsley: Dignifying death
Were I to develop motor neurone disease, or some comparably progressive, incurable, and terminal condition, I would wish to be informed of the diagnosis, perhaps to have the opportunity of a second opinion, to be given a carefully considered and evidence-based prognosis with timelines, however approximate, and then, having put my affairs in order and […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review – 13 February 2012
JAMA 8 Feb 2012 Vol 307 565 There are signs that JAMA is gradually improving under its new editor, although moving its perspective pieces to the beginning of the journal doesn’t really count as progress. The BMJ has also tinkered with its order of contents, almost as if to hide the fact that they are […]