Someone less than familiar with Israel might wonder how during this crisis we handle Israeli Arab patients who walk around the hospital in a bright red kaffieh and use the helicopter pad as a place to pray. After all, we are in the midst of a war just a few miles from the hospital involving […]
Philipp du Cros on drug resistant tuberculosis
My name is Philipp du Cros and I work in the Manson Unit of Médecins Sans Frontières UK, providing assistance to our programmes treating tuberculosis (TB). This year I have worked in five countries in Africa and Asia, with a particular focus on trying to improve care for patients with drug resistant TB. I wanted […]
Birte Twisselmann on BMJ in the news
Although the medical myths from the BMJ‘s Christmas issue are still making headlines, it’s difficult teenagers that have caught the media’s attention this week. A research paper (with accompanying podcast) on outcomes of conduct problems in adolescence – a 40 year follow-up of the British 1946 birth cohort has been widely cited. […]
Liz Wager’s 15th century wisdom on PowerPoint
I use PowerPoint when I’m giving a presentation, and still believe that it’s a helpful tool if used carefully. I agree with other critics such as Trisha Greenhalgh, that slides packed with verbiage are ghastly and sleep-inducing but strong images can help make your message stick. […]
Peter Lapsley opens up with closing down
I make no apology for beginning with a sad but salutary tale. Governments are charged with spending their health budgets wisely and to best advantage. The prevention of illness – call it “health education” – is a very wise way in which to spend some of the money; far better both for the public and […]
Ohad Oren wants to preserve the beauty of medicine
The news item was embedded in the margin of the paper. “100 Years Ago – In Our Pages,” subtitled “1908: Fraud Beauty Doctor” would have attracted the attention of anyone at least minimally concerned about charlatans, quacks, or fakes in medicine. Originally published on November 6, 1908, the piece in the International Herald Tribune tells […]
Mark Clarfield on a hospital under rocket fire
My hospital, the main institution serving southern Israel, has come under rocket fire since the very first day of the war. As a result, there have been far reaching changes in its functioning. Extra staff: doctors, nurses and orderlies have been added to the emergency room on every shift. All leave has been cancelled. […]
Mike Gill on climate change: the time for non-violent direct action has come
December was an important month in the struggle to avert human-induced climate change. First, Ed Miliband, the UK energy and climate change minister, called for mass action to pressure governments into signing a meaningful deal to battle global warming at critical UN talks in Copenhagen in December 2009. Second, fifty seven activists obstructed Stansted Airport […]
Mark Clarfield at the southern Israeli front
Despite all of the problems working as a doctor in southern Israel during these trying times, life must go on. For example, I really had to get my car serviced today. So despite all the pressure on me to get to work, on my way in I stopped at the Honda garage just a few blocks from […]
Liz Wager’s X and Y confusion
Oxford University Press has produced new materials for primary schools aimed at encouraging boys to read. I’m not qualified even to start pondering the biosocial reasons why young boys apparently read less well than girls in British schools – but I was amused by the name of this initiative. It’s called Project X …. […]