The health situation in the Yemeni city of Taiz is dire. The people there are suffering as a result of a brutal military offensive and siege that is cutting the city off from the outside world. Taiz city lies 256 km south of the capital Sana’a, and it is the most heavily populated city in […]
Sarah Welsh: Academic shortage threatens medical education and research
The pressures upon medical academia mean that our medical education and research is under great threat. This is down to the new Health and Social Care Bill, changes to university fees, and modifications to the funding of clinical teaching. Students are being deterred from entering academic medicine. […]
Tiago Villanueva: Critical appraisal of medical schools around the world
Apart from universities as a whole, the recently released QS World University Rankings also include a list of their selection of the top 200 medical and life sciences schools in the world. In theory, rankings seem like a good idea. After all, parents of budding doctors-to-be will be reassured that their offspring will benefit from […]
Andrew Burd on the globalisation of medical education
I have just returned from Shantou in Southern China where I was attending an international conference on medical education. The conference was hosted by Shantou University and was attended by delegates from 10 of the world’s leading medical schools, all of whom have benefited from the wonderful philanthropy of Sir Li Ka-Shing. Shantou University Medical […]
Richard Smith: A thousand year old village in China
My first inkling that this wasn’t going to be a routine village visit was when I noticed that our coach had a police escort. Then when we arrived at the village of Lianghu in Shanxi province in China I saw the huge, highly decorated arch that is the entry to the road to the village. […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review – 6 June 2011
JAMA 1 June 2011 Vol 305 2184 Diabetes is a state of increased risk for many things, including fractures. The most striking thing I learnt from this study is that a man on insulin treatment has double the fracture risk for any given level of bone mineral density. The additional risk is less dramatic in […]
Domhnall MacAuley: From the American College of Sports Medicine annual meeting (Denver)
The next big thing in physical activity research: sitting doing nothing. Steve Blair (University of South Carolina), a major player in the physical activity research world, suggests that the pattern of inactivity is important. Sedentary behaviour, irrespective of the overall level of activity is itself a risk factor- sitting doing nothing may be harmful, even […]
Martin McShane: Toffee popcorn
I went to see a film with my son. He bought a packet of toffee popcorn. I love toffee popcorn but it has little nutritional value and in excess would be bad for you, but as it was available I couldn’t resist it! For some reason the experience came to mind when I read a […]
Sandy Goldbeck-Wood: Poetry, humanity and the prize
Why do some doctors write poems? I asked this once in a BMJ book review of poetry by doctors. 12 years on, gamekeeper-turned-poacher, it’s still Miroslav Holub’s answer I like best: “a poem arises when there’s nothing else to be done, as a last attempt at order when one can’t stand disorder any longer.” (1) […]
Research highlights – 3 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. […]