The avalanche danger level was the second highest possible this week in most parts of the Alps. But the warning did not help: six alpinists died in avalanches within 24 hours in Austria. Although the scientific knowledge about the pathophysiology of being buried under an avalanche has improved, and the number of hospitals with technical equipment […]
Domhnall MacAuley: Lasting memories
Memory is short. I learned this early when, as a junior doctor, my consultant retired. He was a legend, irreplaceable, the backbone of the hospital. But, it takes less than a year to be forgotten. You soon become that nameless old buffer at the cocktail party- remembered only by former colleagues and a few senior […]
Richard Smith: Reducing chronic disease in Pakistan
Pakistan, like most developing countries, is experiencing rapidly rising rates of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and it has developed a draft national plan for countering chronic disease. It’s an impressive and elaborate plan, as I discovered when I discussed the plan last week with people from the health ministry in […]
What we’re reading 5 February 2010
In the BMJ editorial office, we often come across interesting articles, blogs, and web pages. We thought we would share these with you. Some are medical, some techie, and some just general. […]
Richard Smith: The power of women in Pakistan
I’ve been in Pakistan teaching around 30 young women on the day that the Taliban has bombed a girls’ school in north west Pakistan killing three girls and injuring another 62. For the Taliban it’s a crime to educate women. For me the women I taught were an inspiration. The conventional view of women in […]
Muza Gondwe: Risky media sensationalizations and my African death risk
What do risky media sensationalizations and my African death risk have in common? They are the remaining mental imprints of the two lectures I have attended so far in the Darwin Risk series at the University of Cambridge. In the first lecture titled, “Trying to quantify our uncertainty” by Professor David Spiegelhalter, I learnt a […]
Tony Delamothe asks: Are public schools a blight on British society?
Compared with 7% of the population who went to private school (in the UK known as “public” schools, for historical reasons), 50% of doctors did, with the proportion not budging these past 20 years. Does it matter? Couldn’t private school attendance just be a marker for academic ability, with potential medical students needing high grades to […]
Julian Sheather: In praise of minor ailments
I have just been ill. Not very ill. Not ‘under the doctor’. Just a lingering cold, a touch of manflu. In the end I took a day off. I woke in the morning from an uneasy sleep and thought no, not today, today I’ll struggle no more. My wife took the children to school and […]
Laura James on performing medicine
A fellow medical student held onto my arm and marched me across the seminar room, first in one direction and then another. Dragged and tripped all over the place, I felt utterly out of control. The whole thing was to be repeated again. But this time I had to imagine I had long tree roots […]
Emily Spry: Managing or management?
Hospital management. In my various hospital jobs in the UK, I have had very little direct contact with the practitioners of this dark art. Missives to my compulsory trust email address were the main evidence that “the Managers” existed. Tales of targets and other woe from disgruntled A&E staff seeded doubts about their intentions. […]