British doctors worrying about the impact of the chilly financial climate should spare a thought for their European colleagues. In Greece, the Baltic states, Spain, and Ireland, doctors, along with other public sector workers, have had their salaries and pensions cut by up to 15%, drug budgets have been reduced, and some services put on […]
Domhnall MacAuley: Memories of the RCGP at Princes Gate
The floors creaked and groaned, the doors wheezed closed and the windows didn’t shut properly. The rooms wore the tired look of times past and few were en suite. Hidden behind a curved door in the hallway was a very small and ancient lift that struggled with every ascent. But, staying on the top floor […]
This week’s research highlights – 6 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: Enter the “liquid journal”
It may be what epidemiologists call “ascertainment bias” (seeing what you want to see), but I detect the beginning of the end of prepublication peer review. The latest death knell is the appearance of a “liquid journal” where scientists can post papers without peer review and papers in evolution, data sets, pieces of computer code, […]
Rachel Palmer: Dedication and inspiration in Niger
During the last eight weeks, while I’ve been in Niger, I’ve often been overwhelmed by the scale of the problems people face here. It’s not just the current food crisis and the number of people who are going hungry (7.9 million) now but also what the future has in store. […]
Sandra Lako on progress at the Ola During Children’s Hospital
During my time in Sierra Leone from 2005-2009, I often visited the Children’s Hospital in Freetown. At the time I was working in a paediatric outpatient clinic and frequently saw patients who needed to be referred for in-patient care. I had two options at the time: either the emergency surgical centre or Ola During Children’s […]
Martin McShane on volcanology
I set off on holiday in early July. Part of the trip included a visit to a volcanic island. It is awe-inspiring to see how central eruptions from the volcanic crater would, intermittently, over the years send out huge streams of lava which completely reshaped the landscape. Trying to predict what will happen when an […]
Richard Lehman’s journal blog 2 August 2010
JAMA 21 July 2010 Vol 235 JAMA 28 July 2010 Vol 469 469 It is a solemn sight to see the great medical journals gathering to pronounce that rosiglitazone is dead. Like the bird of loudest lay in Shakespeare’s The Phoenix and the Turtle, JAMA leads the troop of mourners with this big observational comparison […]
Julian Sheather: Are doctors better people?
It’s an odd question I know, but bear with me. It was prompted by a book I picked up again recently, “Open Skies,” a collection of Somerset landscapes by the war photographer Don McCullin. McCullin is arguably the best known war photographer of his generation, and has taken some of that generation’s most iconic war […]
Tony Waterston: Going against the grain in Gaza
At a time when the news coming out from Gaza is deeply depressing, it is good to report some entirely positive developments in relation to paediatric teaching. Ten years ago, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health tried to establish its teaching programme in the occupied Palestinian territories. This was due to commence in […]