The focus at our daily planning meetings this week has not been the UK, nor indeed the US, but the natural disasters engulfing the world. Smog in Russia, flooding and fears of a cholera outbreak in Pakistan, the murder of aid agency workers in Afghanistan, including British doctor Karen Woo. Visit bmj.com for the regular […]
This week’s research highlights – 13 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. […]
Richard Smith: Intercepted correspondence
I must start this blog with a competing interest. I’m the chair of Patients Know Best, a start up that aims to use information technology to enhance the relationship between patients and clinicians. In the long run we want to promote personal health records, where patients own all their records and can share them with […]
Vasiliy Vlassov on the heatwave in Russia
The hot weather in central Russia this year has been unprecedented. It has been the hottest summer since records began in 1890, and as a result hundreds of forest fires have swept across woodland areas. Moscow, the most visible part of the country to the outside world, has been covered in a blanket of smog […]
Bushra Azam on doctors fasting over Ramadan
This year the holy month of Ramadan starts on the 11 August. It’s a challenging time of the year for many Muslims, particularly doctors in the NHS. I have been fasting for many years since a young age, but the fast became very challenging when I started my career as a doctor and the challenge […]
Liz Wager on falling in love with email again
There are days when I curse the existence of email. I curse it when I have been training all day yet feel obliged to sit up half the night to plough through the 50 messages that have popped uninvited into my in-box. I grind my teeth when people in meetings check their Blackberries every 5 […]
David Payne asks: Should forensic medicine be female-led?
Since 2000 the Havens centres in London have helped more than 11 000 people of both sexes who have been raped or sexually assaulted. Like many sexual assault referral centres (SARCs), the Havens doesn’t employ male doctors. All of its examiners are female, so if you want a male doctor at a follow up appoinment, […]
Tracey Koehlmoos: The rationale against ORS fortified with zinc
The SUZY Project aims to introduce dispersible zinc tablets as a treatment for diarrhoea in young children in Bangladesh. Due to my role in the project, I frequently receive questions from people embarking on a zinc scale up in their own country or catchment area. […]
Martin McShane on boundaries
“How much does the PCT spend on healthcare for people over the age of 65?” the telephone caller enquired. An impossible question to answer accurately, but after a moment’s reflection I suggested applying the Pareto principle. Most of our money is now consumed by long-term conditions management or, is it fair to say, mis-management. A […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review – 9 August 2010
JAMA 4 Aug 2010 Vol 304 This week’s JAMA is about the health consequences of violence. These are bad, and these articles just act as gloomy reminders of how bad they are, and how little medicine can do about them. I suppose it’s worth trying a brief intervention to reduce violence and alcohol abuse in […]