Last week I fell onto an outstretched hand and clinically had an obvious fracture on the ulnar side of my left wrist. Interestingly, the very diligent nurse practitioner who examined me became fixated on my scaphoid – having pushed extraordinarily hard in the anatomical snuffbox and eliciting pain. Scaphoid views were requested and no fracture […]
Paul Hodgkin: It’s a two way street now
Medicine has always been a pretty one-way business. We know, they don’t. It is us that ask the questions, their bodies that slip under our knives. Patients of course have always had their own opinions, told their side of the story to families and friends in the pub, kept their own counsel around the factory […]
Til Wykes on the Declaration on Mental Health Research
Last Wednesday was the launch of the Declaration on Mental Health Research. This initiative is aimed at drawing attention to the imbalance of resources devoted to research on mental illnesses as compared to other disabling conditions (see http://www.researchmentalhealth.org.uk/). Mental health problems account for 15% of disability and yet only receive 5% of the research resources, […]
Georg Röggla: Evidence and quality in intensive care medicine
‘The H1N1 pandemic-are we prepared?’ was the first hot topic at the 22nd congress of the European society of intensive care medicine (ESICM) in Vienna from 11th to 14th October 2009. The question of whether there will there be enough intensive care facilities for critically ill patients in a second wave of the pandemic was […]
Vidhya Alakeson on the US Finance Committee bill
Few people outside of Washington have heard of Olympia Snowe, the senator from Maine. But on Tuesday, she became the most important person in healthcare reform. Her vote in the Senate Finance Committee gave the Obama Administration its first bipartisan victory on healthcare. […]
Julian Sheather on the trouble with Darwin
As this is a scientific journal, I imagine its readers will have more than a passing interest in Darwin. It is hardly surprising. Darwinism is a scientific hypothesis of such revelatory brilliance, of such simplicity and such reach, of such sheer explanatory power that it is difficult to remain unmoved by it. […]
Elizabeth Loder on neurologic controversies discussed at the 3rd World Congress on Controversies in Neurology
Anticoagulation in patients with microbleeds and TPA for stroke beyond 3 hours The 3rd World Congress on Controversies in Neurology, held in Prague October 8-11, used an all-debate format to highlight areas of uncertainty and disagreement in current neurological practice. With three concurrent sessions to choose from, I wasn’t able to attend everything of interest, […]
Richard Smith at last has access to his medical records online
At last I have online access to my medical records. I wrote a blog some six months ago about how a talk by Harold Shipman’s successor had convinced me that I should get access. I do most of my work online, complete my tax return online, make all my travel arrangements online, bank online, and […]
Tony Waterston on an inspirational lunch
Can a book launch set the mind afire? Unlikely – sounds more a chance to get cheap copies and the author’s autograph and maybe some nice canapés. But the launch I attended this week for the ‘Health practitioners’ guide to climate change’ (Jenny Griffiths et al, published by Earthscan) was indeed inspirational. It was partly […]
Oliver Ellis on ivory towers and elevator music
I had the good fortune to attend the Don and Dusted debate at the British Library on Wednesday (9 October). Up for debate was whether traditional scholarly work, where dons have wide academic freedom to do more or less as they please, is being replaced with impact measured and outcome driven research, and whether this […]