England’s chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson can sound gloomy and pessimistic but he sounded very upbeat in this week’s swine flu update, saying: “We may have got a lucky break in how the virus has behaved at the start of our flu season and we may be able to get the vaccine out there […]
Louise Kenny: Flying solo
After the blow to my confidence last week with obstetrics patients, I have developed a healthy fear of the uterus and have understandably been reluctant to see ante-natal, labouring, or post-natal patients. Any organ that bleeds 500ml a minute is a thing to be feared in my book. Of course the problem with my reluctance […]
Georg Röggla at the 45th meeting of the EASD
The 45th annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) took place in Vienna, Austria, from September 30th to October 2nd The town centre and all places of interest were flooded with the bright red congress-rucksacks. […]
Tessa Richards: Jobs for health
As UK participants returned from last week’s European Health Forum in Gastein (read more), Austria, newspaper headlines calling for “Cuts in wasteful NHS bureaucracy” and “Pay freezes for high earners” will have reinforced the messages they heard. Debate focused on the impact of the financial crisis on health and what governments should do about it. […]
Joe Collier says good riddance to old-fashioned respect
I have never liked the idea of showing respect for people simply because of their social standing. I am in favour of treating people with respect in a general sort of way, so being polite and considerate. I respect nature or property, so protecting or nurturing rather than damaging or destroying. I respect people for […]
Julian Sheather: Our daily bread
A few days ago I was reading an account by a journalist of a visit he had made to the refugee camps on the Nord pas de Calais coast just days before they were destroyed by the French police. Known collectively as “the jungle”, these camps are – or were – home to a floating […]
Sheila McLean on advance directives and the case of Kerrie Wooltorton
The inquest into the death of Kerrie Wooltorton in 2007 has focused some media attention on advance decisions (directives), or so-called ‘living wills’. While undoubtedly a tragic case, however, it is worth unpicking what we can actually learn from it. […]
Louise Kenny’s longest night
Before I arrived here, I was concerned about quite how bad my first on-call could be given the new environment, the language, and the vastly different presentations that I could see. I’d done my homework, I knew that Guatemala ranked highly in both maternal and infant mortality rates, but I’m not sure I’d taken the […]
Domhnall MacAuley on a cure for cancer found (again)
If every media report of a cure for cancer were true, we should live forever. But, the media like a headline health story, and we cannot really blame the journalists. It is largely the fault of epidemiologists, according to Joe McLaughlin (International Epidemiology Institute, Maryland USA), who laments the change in culture. He feels that […]
Trish Groves: Let SPIRIT take you … towards much clearer trial protocols
Reporting statements like the CONSORT and STROBE statements are making an important and demonstrable difference to the quality of research papers by helping authors report exactly what happened in their studies. But these statements can’t fix studies that were inadequately designed or poorly conducted. They’re the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, rather than […]