The medical school sausage factory is fattening me up and rolling me into shape. Another year has passed. I am gaining knowledge and growing in experience. And losing my empathy. Apparently I shouldn’t beat myself up over this. It’s par for the course, a common side effect of the rites of passage journey into medicine. The journal […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review – 18 July 2011
JAMA 13 July 2011 Vol 306 Unusually, I couldn’t find anything to report on from JAMA this week. Last week, its new editor, Howard Bauchner, promised us a new vision for the journal. I liked the old journal very much but it was becoming like an old jumper *– full of comfortable associations but saggy […]
Research highlights – 15 July 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. […]
Tiago Villanueva: My early thoughts on professional development after vocational training
One of the purposes of vocational training is to develop good professional development habits and skills that will hopefully be sustained and honed throughout the rest of a doctor’s professional life. The great thing about completing vocational training and entering the ranks of seniority is not having to feel forced to study periodically and carry […]
Domhnall MacAuley: Public health summer school
Does your research really matter? Most VIP introductions are bland and unchallenging. Not this time. When (Professor Sir) Peter Gregson, vice chancellor at Queen’s University Belfast, introduced the joint summer school of the UK Clinical Research Collaboration’s centres of public health and Health Research Board (Ireland), he pointed out how universities often fail to show the […]
Philipp du Cros: The personal experiences of patients living with MDR-TB
What goes through a person’s mind when they are told they have multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and face at least eight months of injections and nearly two years of medication? What are they thinking when they find out that the drugs they have to take will make them feel sick, and the side effects they […]
Richard Smith: A short history of patient power
I urge you to read Michael Millenson’s article on “Spock, Feminists, and the Fight for Participatory Medicine: a History.” It’s a fascinating and very readable account of how patient power has steadily increased in the US, and it would be very good to have a similar history in Britain. Most of what follows in this […]
Martin McShane: Thought for the day
I enjoy Rabbi Lionel Blue’s thought for the day and one I caught recently seemed pertinent to the turmoil which the NHS is going through. He started his talk with, “Monday it’s kidneys, Tuesday heart, Thursday joints, and Friday blood and brains.” It wasn’t a recipe, he said, but the hospital appointments in his diary […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review – 11 July 2011
JAMA 6 July 2011 Vol 305 45 Of all the great writers, only Chekhov captures exactly the balance of good and evil in rural life. Before his fame as a writer, he worked in a rural hospital, making the best of what support staff he had and what competencies he had acquired as a medical […]
Research highlights – 8 July 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. […]