With the World Food Summit happening this week in Rome, and thinking about my experience of working in the field of malnutrition, two very strong images came to mind. […]
Andrew Rouse and Tom Marshall: Informed consent, the doctor and H1N1 immunisation
How does a doctor obtain informed consent for H1N1 immunisation consistent with General Medical Council guidance? The Department of Health’s guidance does not provide sufficient information for this. This is our attempt to rectify this omission, providing information required for informed consent consistent with good professional practice. We outline the main principles of General Medical […]
Domhnall MacAuley on unexpected outcomes
You have got to do something. Young mothers and their babies living in socially deprived areas do poorly. Isolated, unprepared, and hard to reach; the obvious way to help is through their peers. Why bother with research. It’s obvious. Just implement it. […]
Vidhya Alakeson on Medicaid
Medicaid is typically thought of as the health insurance program for the poor. But when it was created in the 1960s, it was designed to cover only three low income groups: parents and children, older adults and individuals with disabilities. Single adults without a disability and without dependent children were left out. What this means […]
David Payne on hypoxia, Everest-style
Dan Martin undresses in 20-knot winds beneath the Everest summit to prepare for a femoral artery blood sample and muscle biopsy while a team of sherpas look on, entertained by what they see. The critical care anaesthetist and his three colleagues ended up on the top of the world’s highest peak two years ago as […]
Harry Brown on electronic communications with patients
Patient and doctor interactions are one of the cornerstones of medical care and with the advent of modern technology, there is now more than one way for doctors and patients to communicate with each other. With the rise of the mobile phone, instant two way communication has become even easier. I have found that having a […]
Mary E Black on flu suits and holy water dispensers
Plagues create business opportunities and the worried well in any era present a commercial opportunity. In the Middle Ages, the Black Death and the Great Plague saw brisk sales in fumigators, herbal remedies, and the plague suit – predecessor of the DuPont TK555T HazMat suit, and equally unsettling for nervous patients. Quacks (from the old […]
Peter Lapsley: Degrees of care
There have been mixed messages from the Patients Association in response to the announcement of plans for nursing in England to become an all-graduate profession. Writing in The Times on 12 November, the Association’s director, Katherine Murphy, said the move had “sent out all the wrong messages, as it has become more important to write […]
Frances Dixon on medical professionalism
I was flicking through my Student BMJ the other day when I came across an article on Medical Professionalism. This is a subject that I have been thinking about recently, mainly as we have just had the first of our “Personal & Professional Development” sessions at medical school. […]
Andrew Potter on not taking the swine flu vaccine
Increasing numbers of clinical staff at the hospital where I work declined invitations to be vaccinated against pandemic “swine” influenza. I think this is a worrying trend for both public health reasons and for the doctor’s integrity as a medical practitioner. There have also been reports in the popular press of doctors refusing the jab. […]