This is about the 13th reorganisation I’ve seen in my 3 decades as a GP. Up until now I’ve put it all down to the fact that politicians can’t resist “fiddling,” and if we called all managers administrators instead, they’d administer rather than think they too have to introduce change for change’s sake or to […]
Aser García Rada: The value of one minute and delivery practices in Spain
It is a common Spanish tradition to play the “Christmas lottery” on December 22 — it is the most important draw of the year. Those that don’t win still keep some hope for the second lottery — the “kid’s lottery” on January 6th. But this year, as the front page headline of the Spanish journal […]
Research highlights, 30 December 2010
“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. […]
James Raftery: Value based pricing – the consultation paper
The publication of the Department of Health’s consultation paper on value based pricing and the ongoing consultation on the Cancer Drugs Fund plus each consultation’s accompanying impact assessment mean that it is now possible to see what is being proposed. This blog looks at the essentials of value based pricing; later blogs will deal with […]
Elizabeth Loder on making publication ethics matter to authors
These are heady times for the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Its membership has broadened considerably in recent years. It now boasts over 6000 member journals and is no longer mainly biomedical. The attendance roster for the second US COPE seminar, held in late November in Washington, D.C., reflected this diversity. It listed editors from […]
Andrew Burd on Nigel Gray
Nigel Gray is an author of children’s books who lives in Perth, Australia. I recently had the pleasure of meeting Nigel and his wife Yasmin in Hong Kong. In the most karmic way I have to say that Nigel is the single living person who has most influenced my professional life and how this came […]
Richard Smith: Medicine’s need for the humanities
I spoke as well at the meeting on valuing the humanities at the London School of Economics (see blog below), and I argued that medicine needs the humanities badly. The NHS and overseas aid are the only budgets that have been protected by the coalition government, and universities, particularly the teaching of humanities, have been […]
Franz Porzsolt : The Y nurse – pain in the neck or blessing for the team?
Grand rounds were the highlight of the week on the ward when the head of our department himself conducted them. They were fun, all bets were open, and the teacher would give youngsters in the team as well as the most experienced senior doctors a piece of his mind in equal measures. Although his tone […]
Richard Smith: Battling the assault on the humanities
Having decided that higher education is no longer a public good, the coalition government has cut completely the funding for teaching the humanities. This is a desperately short sighted move, and at a meeting at the London School of Economics just before Christmas speakers spelt out the value of the humanities. Some training in the […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review – 29 December 2010
JAMA 22-29 Dec 2010 Vol 304 2732 “Professionalism may not be sufficient to drive the profound and far-reaching changes needed in the care system, but without it, the health care enterprise is lost.” Britons, take heed! This “special communication” was written by a social scientist and five doctors to inform the debate about American health […]