“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. […]
Richard Smith: contemplating my deathbed
Through Twitter from my friend Martin I have received a list of the five things that people most commonly regret when dying. This is enormously useful information, much more so than a delicious recipe, a good joke or a great quote—my usual favourites. I could be on my deathbed in the next five minutes, but […]
Muza Gondwe: glorious nutritious red earth
I watched her from the kitchen window. Clawing away at the crusty anthill in the backyard. She cupped the red earth in her hand and threw it into the back of her mouth. She chewed, sucked, and then swallowed, satisfied. I was twelve years old and growing up in Zambia. I had a western upbringing […]
Chris Ham: The first 100 days of the coalition government
The coalition government has moved quickly in its first 100 days to set out its plans for the NHS in England. Although ministers have stressed that these plans build on Labour’s health reforms, in reality they are much more radical. Tony Blair’s policies may have paved the way for choice and competition to play a […]
Sandra Lako on the nurses’ workshop in Freetown.
Recently the Welbodi Partnership was privileged to have a paediatric nurse from the United Kingdom volunteering at the children’s hospital for two months. The volunteer nurse spent the first month assessing the nurses on the wards and working alongside them in a mentorship capacity. This provided an opportunity to work with the Sierra Leonean nurses […]
Douglas Noble on healthcare public health
The recent move to transfer the balance of commissioning power within the NHS to GPs, although laudable, raises a number of serious questions. Perhaps they are best summed up by a comment made to me recently by a GP colleague. In exasperation he declared: “I only get seven minutes to see a patient, so where […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review – 16 August 2010
JAMA 11 Aug 2010 Vol 304 641 All this week the media has (sic) been proclaiming the end of the antibiotic era, on the basis of data which shows (sic) that new multi-resistant plasmids can cross from one bacteria (sic) to another in Indian hospitals. Give or take a few plurals, you get my gist. […]
Domhnall MacAuley on Lance Armstrong
Lance Armstrong in the news again. The world is divided. Those who read his book are struck by his bravery coping with illness and the incredible drama of his surgery for metastatic testicular cancer and return to fitness. Unbelievable. But, unfortunately, the same word is sometimes used to describe his cycling career. To win the […]
David Payne on Florence Nightingale
Today, 100 years ago, Florence Nightingale died aged 90. Much has been written about the Lady with the Lamp, who left behind her aristocratic life to nurse wounded soldiers in the Crimea, returning to London to help found the modern nursing profession, campaign for sanitary reform and hospital design, and hone her skills as a […]
Martin McShane: Is there such a thing as evidence based management?
I grew up as a clinician during an era when evidence-based medicine, as a concept, penetrated the consciousness of the professions. Nowadays, one of my favourite meetings, which I chair, is PACEF (a pan health community Prescribing and Clinical Effectiveness Forum). It is regularly attended by clinicians, including GPs and consultants, to dissect, debate and […]