I have a weekly teleconference with GPs from our emergent consortia. We set this up a while back to try and keep up with events, nix rumours and misconceptions and, collectively, try and make sense of what is going on. Over the last few weeks a lot of work has gone into developing a draft […]
Helen Macdonald: Light reading over the festive season for the e-portfolio
I was considering what I might learn (if anything) over the Christmas period on a chilly cycle home last night. It has been an intermittent and nagging thought for some weeks. Most of my non-doctor friends would find the idea of Christmas learning ridiculous. But the end of my genitourinary medicine placement looms. There are […]
Vasiliy Vlassov: In the name of Pirogov
Recently Russia celebrated the 200th birthday of Nikolay Pirogov. He is one of Russia’s most esteemed physicians, famous for his surgical skills and teaching, research in clinical anatomy, and especially for using “ice anatomy” — sections of frozen cadavers. He is also well known for carrying out experiments with ether anaesthesia, at the same time […]
Des O’Neill: Christmas, South Park, health, and pluralism
When the largest teaching hospital in Dublin removed the Christmas crib from its atrium a few years ago, the response to the resulting public outcry suggested a timorous confusion about the difference between pluralism and secularism that is not uncommon in medicine. As artists are ever to the fore in illuminating societal dilemmas, South Park […]
Trish Groves: IDEAL innovation in surgery
No two operations are the same, not least because the surgeon starts each new one with some additional experience and knowledge gained during the previous one. But what counts as innovation in surgery, and how should it be appraised and regulated? […]
Tony Delamothe: Illustrating the Christmas issue
Articles almost select themselves for the Christmas issue. The ones with any chance of publication get externally peer reviewed, and the survivors get discussed by our five person editorial committee. Our hope is that the cream finds its way to the top. […]
Rahij Anwar and Nitish Gogi: Fractures in snow: Are we better equipped this time?
Earlier this year, I (RA) slipped on ice on my rather steep drive. The result was an electric shock like sensation from head to toe and a sore neck. I conducted a quick “self examination” and couldn’t come to a diagnosis that could qualify me to be “off sick.” I therefore, disappointingly proceeded to work […]
Harriet Vickers on assisted dying in the theatre: A review of Bea
Assisted death is a very visible issue right now. As parliaments struggle with the dilemma about whether or not to legalise helping someone to die, more and more individuals are stepping into the public spotlight to describe or explore the issue. Terry Pratchett, in his Dimbleby lecture, and John Zaritsky, with his film A right to […]
Tracey Koehlmoos: Arrive alive – road traffic fatalities in Bangladesh
Two weeks ago, while travelling outside of Dhaka, I passed the remnants of an accident that had left a man dead on the road. It was a jarring sight and like most events in Bangladesh, there was an enormous crowd. However, this was not the first such accident that I have seen. […]
Sandra Lako: Journal club
Today was the launch of the journal club at the Ola During Children’s Hospital. Two professors, seven national doctors and three expatriate doctors sat together in an office for the first meeting of its kind. […]