Further on in this blog, columnist Douglas Kamerow focuses on the seeming competition for funding among US health prevention programs (“Smoking versus obesity: must we target only one?”). But individuals can make a contribution too, rather than relying exclusively on politicians and government reforms to support public health measures. Elizabeth Loder, the BMJ’s US based […]
Research highlights – 27 August 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. […]
Siddhartha Yadav: I am an international medical graduate (IMG)
The term international medical graduate or IMG, here in the United States (US), applies to those who are applying for a higher medical training in the US but did not graduate from a US medical school. I am an IMG. After completing my medical school from Nepal, I am now in the US with the […]
Emily Spry on what motivates healthcare workers
Yes, I’m still in shock. After a year at the Children’s Hospital, I am now safely ensconced in a north London suburb, doing my final year of GP training. Gone is the stifling heat, the dust, the endless parade of near-dead toddlers. Instead I am working in a friendly, well-ordered practice. I only need hit […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review 23 August 2010
JAMA 18 Aug 2010 Vol 304 763 Some time ago I suggested that the best time and place to have a myocardial infarct was at about 10 am on a Thursday morning in October in a large city. That way you would get your primary percutaneous intervention as quickly as possible performed by a team […]
Elizabeth Loder on making fresh, local food available to all – one tomato at a time
“Only two things that money can’t buy, and that’s true love and homegrown tomatoes.” So sings Guy Clark in his cult country-western song. He was right about that last year, when the tomatoes in much of Massachusetts (including those in the backyard garden of yours truly) were hit with late blight. That’s the same fungus […]
Richard Smith: A flare up of burnout
The German speaking world is having a flare up of burnout. The media are full of stories on burnout, and 150 000 school pupils in Austria are said to be burnt out together with “every second doctor.” The annual cost to Austria is supposedly 2.7 billion Euros, and, said Anita Rieder, professor of social medicine […]
Chris Ellis on the strike in South Africa
A nationwide strike of government employees started last week here in South Africa and looks to have serious repercussions for the health care sector. I am a semi-retired general practitioner but have sessions looking after three of the psychogeriatric wards at our local psychiatric hospital. The patients are mostly very vulnerable elderly patients on long term medication. […]
Domhnall MacAuley on the “back then” brigade
Reading the Times (Wed 11 August), it was clear I was mistaken in thinking they had gone away. The “back then” brigade are back; hankering over the good old days when doctors were trained properly. Not this namby pamby part time medicine where junior doctors clock off early. Not like in our day. […]
US highlights – 20 August 2010
The BMJ has a new policy of asking authors of eligible research articles to pay a publication fee. It only applies when the funder has already pledged to pay for open access publication and when authors can claim from their funder, the BMJ fee, in full, for that specific piece of research. The move does […]