The Great War changed the world forever and burnt itself into our language, memory, consciousness, and understanding of life. That’s the argument of Paul Fussell’s marvelous book “The Great War and Modern Memory,” which was first published in 1975 and won the National Book Award. Before the war we had Tennyson, Kipling, Trollope, Conrad, and […]
NEJM 10 Mar 2011 Vol 364 907 “Microalbuminuria is an early predictor of diabetic nephropathy and premature cardiovascular disease.” That’s the opening message of the ROADMAP trial, and it will just about do. What it does not mean is that any agent that reduces the appearance of tiny amounts of albumin in the urine will […]
Elizabeth Loder reports on a panel discussion held at the International Publication Planning Association meeting in St Louis, Missouri. […]
South Africa is a country scarred by apartheid, and during my week in Cape Town I had a chance to get a sense in my own small and idiosyncratic way of how far healing has progressed. My first experiences were discouraging. I stayed in the Vineyard Hotel at the foot of Table Mountain. It’s as […]
Studies of biological rhythms used to be very popular. A quick check on Medline showed me that in 1964-1973, 2/10 000 publications were related to biorhythm studies and in 2001-2010 there were more – 8/10 000. The spectrum of publications is slowly changing in the collection reflected in Medline, but the number of studies of […]
Here in United States, the latest must have app contains software that blocks any mention of the actor, Charlie Sheen. Until recently, Sheen was the highest paid television star in the world but was fired last week after making caustic comments about his employers in public. Subsequently, he has just been awarded the Guinness World […]
“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. Is ethnicity related to academic performance in doctors and medical students trained in the UK? Does weekly ultrasound treatment improve hard […]
When choosing a specialty, many prospective trainees will thoroughly consider the location and the institution. This is self evident. If you can’t fare without the big city perks and comforts, you’re probably better off in London than in the Orkney islands. If living close to your family and friends is extremely important for you, perhaps […]
South Africa suffers from a “quadruple burden” of disease—infectious disease, particularly AIDS and TB; trauma from road traffic injuries and violence; perinatal and maternal health problems; and non-communicable disease. I thought of this burden as we visited the community clinic in Khayelitsha, the largest “township” in Cape Town. […]
The film “The King’s Speech” which portrays King George VI of England’s life long struggle with a stammer and his relationship with Lionel Logue, his speech therapist, has raised the profile of stammering and possibly dispelled some myths on the nature of this enigmatic condition. The problem of stammering can seem straightforward to the fluent […]