I must confess that I am at a meeting…again. This time I am at the long awaited First Global Symposium on Health Systems Research. I am in Montreux with more than a thousand people from around the globe who do what I do, which is try to figure out how societies can best organise themselves […]
Domhnall MacAuley: Tops docs at NAPCRG
Britain’s top doctors. The headline caught my attention in the supplement to last Saturday’s “Times.” At a time when doctors seem under almost daily attack, it was good to see a UK national newspaper list some positives. Excellent doctors. Medicine in the headlines for the best reasons. But where were the general practitioners? There was […]
Peter Lapsley: From minor to major
It is good to be able to report good news from time to time, doubly so when it is two pieces of good news rolled into one. The government’s decision not to proceed with Automatic Generic Substitution (AGS) is a case in point. […]
Sandra Lako on the prospects and challenges of a functioning x ray department
The Ola During Children’s Hospital is close to having the x ray unit up and running. This is very exciting especially since it has been 6 years since the last x ray was taken at Ola During Children’s Hospital. Can you imagine a hospital without x ray services? […]
Helen Jaques: Radiation – good or bad?
Radiation has received a mixed press since the discovery of x rays 115 years ago. Wilhelm Roentgen’s exciting new finding was initially thought to be beneficial for health and was quickly embraced by scientists as well as the public, who went crazy for the “medicine” radithor – radium 226 and radium 228 in distilled water […]
Hamish Meldrum on the health white paper
It’s four months since the Department of Health published its Health White Paper for England, during which time seven additional consultations have emerged, and hundreds of organisations have responded. But despite the growing volume of White Paper-related material, not to mention the ambitious timescale set out to “liberate the NHS”, much of the picture is […]
Richard Smith: A week in a schloss
As I arrived in Salzburg at Schloss Leopoldskron, globally prominent because of is role in the “Sound of Music,” I wondered if it would be possible for people from 29 countries, ranging from Uganda to the USA, to hold mutually useful conversations on health system reform. In particular, would a hard boiled, cynical, globe trotting […]
David Pencheon: Learning to learn comfortably
I have had two distinctly different learning experiences this week. First, for 48 hours in a summit of NHS managers, clinical leaders, and others in a posh hotel, and secondly, this morning, lying in the bath, listening to podcasts of Chris Ham, Muir Gray, and other visionaries. Both were rewarding and from both I learnt a lot. […]
Domhnall MacAuley on editors, journals, and Harry Potter
Paddington Bear was at the end of the platform. And, he is still there 15 years later as I travel through London on my way to the BMJ office – still a children’s favourite. But, medical publishing has changed dramatically. Working with Pippa Smart on a training course for medical editors highlighted the transformation. When I first […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review – 15 November 2010
JAMA 10 Nov 2010 Vol 304 It’s not often that you see a paper in JAMA written by a real working British GP – so congratulations to Louis Levene from Leicester for an excellent study that seeks to inform US practice by showing what happens to coronary heart disease mortality in relation to the recorded […]