Now that I no longer have an axe to grind (recovery from the revision surgery on last year’s failed whole hip replacement appears to be going well), I would be interested in doctors’ reactions to the argument for the introduction of temporary disabled badges. During the six months I waited for surgery, I was in […]
David Kerr: Geoenvironmental medicine and technology
The world did not end last month after all. Harold Camping, the founder of the Family Radio Network purchased space on 1,200 billboards across the United States proclaiming doomsday for May 21st. This is the third time he has been caught offside in his predictions for the end of the world. However, around that time an […]
Research highlights – 10 June 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. […]
Desmond O’Neill: A rare scientific hiccough at the science gallery
Despite a surprisingly large scientific heritage [1] , the Republic of Ireland has no science museum. Nature abhorring a vacuum, an innovative avenue for celebrating science was created by the opening of the Science Gallery in Trinity College Dublin in 2008. This flexible if modest space has been a runaway success under its gifted director, Michael […]
Edward Davies: NHS Reforms – be careful what you wish for
David Cameron’s speech on NHS reform this week should have marked a substantial victory for doctors’ leaders. In recent months they have been even more outspoken than usual in their opposition to whatever it is the government’s saying this week and David Cameron let them know he was all ears. “I’ve heard the passion of […]
Tony Delamothe – Falling sperm count saga: an update
Very few BMJ original research articles are cited by 1600 other publications, so it’s dispiriting to discover that the message of one of our citation classics may have been wrong. A meta-analysis by Neils Skakkebaek and colleagues reported in 1992 that sperm counts had halved over the preceding 50 years. It became big news, no doubt […]
Kate Chapman: Black women and fibroids
I didn’t know what to expect when I was asked to attend the “black women and fibroids” seminar. What I got was an evening with a group of empowered women for whom history is not always in the past. The event at the Science Museum’s Dana Centre was organised by Black History Walks, a group […]
Domhnall MacAuley: Barefoot runners, Western habits, and GP records – more from ACSM
Should we abandon running shoes? Running shoes are a relatively new phenomenon – primitive man did not wear shoes when hunting in the savannah and would look in wonder at modern running shoes with their huge wedges, motion support, and cushioned soles. They have changed the way we run and, in spite of all the […]
Richard Smith: Surgical editor loses job through overselling semen
I’ve a collection of stories editors of medical publications coming unstuck, often in bizarre ways, but the story of Lazar Greenfield departing Surgery News and causing a whole issue to disappear will be the Mona Lisa of my collection. Surgery News is published by Elsevier and is the official newspaper of the American College of […]
Peter Davies: Is it time to scrap the primary-secondary care divide?
Suppose a pathologist was to say, “Because I am not a GP I do not belong here.” Or a GP was to say, “Because I am not a cardio-thoracic surgeon I do not belong here.” No, (paraphrasing St Paul) we are all parts of one body of medical enterprise, and the patients need different doctors […]