Is our increasing life expectancy something to celebrate or despair of? It’s a question that’s exercising several sectors right now and it’s not hard to see why. All societies are ageing, but the fastest population increase is among the “oldest old,” and their projected need for health and long term care is daunting. Currently around […]
Richard Smith: Are alcohol companies doomed to cause harm?
Tobacco companies clearly cause harm, and we will always need food companies. But what about alcohol companies? Can they produce net benefit? I’ve been pondering this question for three decades, but it’s a live issue for governments who must decide whether to include alcohol companies in programmes to reduce harm from alcohol and also for organisations, like […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review – 8 August 2011
JAMA 3 Aug 2011 Vol 306 493 This issue of JAMA is devoted to war and violence, things that most of us have not experienced. Those who do experience them, like most of the population of Europe in the generation before mine, are never unscathed. The study here discovers that military veterans with post-traumatic stress […]
Domhnall MacAuley: GMC and the Olympics
Ever wonder what it would be like to be a team doctor at a major sporting event like the Olympic Games? Drama and excitement; giving vital medical support to bring the team or athlete to victory, pushing you into media spotlight, basking in the reflected glory, the envy of your colleagues. Think again. Most team […]
Research highlights – 5 August 2011
“Research highlights” is a weekly round-up of research papers appearing in the print BMJ. We start off with this week’s research questions, before providing more detail on some individual research papers and accompanying articles. […]
Bob Roehr on Mila Means – a physician at the centre of the US abortion wars
Demonstrations for and against the question of abortion are going on all this week outside a clinic in Germantown, Maryland, in the suburbs of Washington, DC. Opponents of abortion have also broadened their attack to seek greater restrictions on sex education and reproductive health. They have particularly targeted government funding and services contracts for the medical charity […]
Philip Wilson: The dangers of science by press release
Imagine you’ve just completed a groundbreaking piece of research. Do you: a) go and tell your mates down the pub; b) publish in a peer reviewed journal; or c) rush out a press release? According to legend, Crick and Watson stylishly chose “a” after they discovered the structure of DNA, strolling into The Eagle in […]
Fiona Pathiraja: Putting a price on safety
It’s the first week of August and in the NHS that can only mean one thing. Changeover has arrived and thousands of newly qualified doctors are let loose on the wards. For decades, patients and doctors alike have joked that it is best to avoid a hospital stay in August. Lately, this myth has been […]
Gary Collins: Opening up multivariable prediction models
Consensus-based guidelines for transparent reporting Prediction models can provide reliable estimates of a patient’s risk (or probability) of having a specific underlying condition or of developing some condition in the future. Prediction models have consistently outperformed estimates made by individual doctors. Familiar examples include the Framingham Risk Score for cardiovascular disease, the APACHE score for […]
David Payne: Homoeopathy and the Royals
At a recent BMJ planning meeting we talked of commissioning an article about how the Murdoch family business had shaped public policy in countries where its newspapers and broadcast channels are major players. But after reading Edzard Ernst’s interview in Saturday’s Guardian newspaper, which recounts a well publicised disagreement with Prince Charles over homoeopathy, I wonder if we should turn […]