I remember as a medical student, which was some time ago (over 25 years ago to be truthful), that if I wanted to find a journal citation as part of a literature search, then I had to search by hand, a collection of tomes called Index Medicus (ring a bell anyone?). It was published monthly […]
Keith J Petrie and Kate Faasse: Monitoring public anxiety about flu
Greater monitoring of the web could provide a guide to public anxiety about flu outbreaks and social media could be used more intensively to provide relevant public health information to younger groups. […]
Julian Sheather on once upon a time in the west
Audiences can be fickle things. Last week I clambered down from my ivory tower and emerged, blinking, onto a brilliantly-lit podium at the Cheltenham Science Festival. The theme of the evening: Playing God – Risk in Surgery. I was on a panel with two surgeons, but my job was to do the ethics. I figured […]
Domhnall MacAuley on public health in Hong Kong
When your fellow passengers wear surgical masks, you complete a health declaration with your landing card and, pass through a line of heat detectors before passport control, you know public health is taken seriously. Travelling to the WONCA 2009 (World Organization of National Colleges, Academies) Asia Pacific conference in Hong Kong was always going to be […]
Liz Wager asks: Anyone for an algorithm?
I have a fondness for flowcharts. I also attempt to teach doctors to prefer short words when they are writing. So, when I found myself exchanging emails with an American doctor who insisted on referring to the COPE flowcharts as algorithms, I was determined to teach him the error of his ways. But first, I […]
Richard Lehman’s journal blog, 8 June 2009
Newborn babies feature in Richard’s blog this week, as he finds out how extremely premature babies fare with modern neonatal care, and how a baby’s weight in its first three months can affect its weight in the future. Tuberculosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are among the other things that Richard tells us about, as […]
Tony Waterston returns to Ramallah
To Ramallah for the twice yearly contact with the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health teaching programme in the West Bank, the first time I have visited since the Gaza war. How would this have affected our programme? What are the prospects for expansion and can we start up in Gaza? How did the […]
Stephen Ginn on complementary therapy and disenfranchisement
I went to a debate on complementary medicine recently, hosted by the KCL Social Medicine Society. Despite being held on Guy’s Hospital Campus, a supposed stronghold of conventional medicine, the lecture theatre was awash with complementary therapists and when the pre-debate votes were taken the numbers were two to one against critics -like me – […]
Tracey Koehlmoos: The Colonel arrives with a bang in Bangladesh
On my way home from the centre where I work in Dhaka, Bangladesh, I drive through an area with four closely located private universities. Yesterday I was stuck in rush hour traffic. Students were swarming on their way out of class. Suddenly I could hear music behind me. […]
Richard Lehman’s journal blog, 31 May 2009
In his school days, Richard says, he would often walk down Beech Hill Road in Sheffield thinking of chemical explosives, or girls, or Beethoven, but never of age, neuropathology, and dementia. It’s all of those, and much else besides, this week…. […]