What makes you feel good? Richard Smith asks Anna Donald in his last response to her blog about living with a life-threatening illness as a doctor. Anna will no doubt post on this very soon, and I look forward, as always, to reading her response. But Richard’s question/challenge struck a chord. Last week I returned […]
Anna Donald: Who are we?
I’m in the middle of an exciting and depressing thought. Basically, that with the demise in the West of theology we have no valid way of talking coherently about existence. I know this is true from a practical point of view because writing this blog is difficult. I am forever stumbling over words and concepts […]
Anna Donald: What’s maddening about living with advanced cancer
It’s time to tackle Richard Smith’s third request for information about living with advanced cancer: what’s maddening about it? Hmmm … where to start? There are so many maddening things about cancer. Some are obvious: not being able to control your destiny in the illusory way you are used to. Not being able to work. […]
Aliya Razaaq: Blaming it on the stereotype
The recent research study published in the BMJ entitled “Ethnic stereotypes and the underachievement of UK medical students from ethnic minorities: qualitative study” discussed the underperformance of (presumably South) Asian medical students. It suggested that stereotypes of Asian students may damage their relationships with clinical teachers, resulting in their relatively poor performance in exams. […]
Juliet Walker: Free v. Open Access
Recent changes to the BMJ’s copyright licence and the information it includes in research articles means that they can be formally listed as open access articles in PubMed Central and other repositories. So should we change the labels of open access research articles on our website from “free” to “open access”? […]
Helen Barratt: Talking the talk
I wasn’t a bit surprised to read the report cited in this week’s journal about the use of jargon in public health. In fact, I rather wish I’d come up with the idea for the study myself. […]
Liz Wager: Romanian ramblings
I’m just back from a week’s holiday in Romania. If your idea of a relaxing break is designer shopping, things that run on time and predictability, then I recommend you stick to Switzerland but for unspoilt mountain scenery, delicious milk still warm from the cow* and an even warmer welcome from spontaneously hospitable and generous […]
Simon Chapman and Becky Freeman: A light and mild settlement?
On July 31, two of Canada’s biggest tobacco companies, Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd and Rothmans Benson and Hedges Inc, agreed to pay $300 million in fines and an additional $815 million in civil damages over the next 15 years for their admission that both companies aided persons to sell and be in possession of tobacco […]
Nicholas Christakis: Email bankruptcy
Lightning struck my home recently and the power surge resulted in my computer crashing. I lost a small file that kept track of several dozen emails (out of the well over 4000) that i had received in the last two months and that were still awaiting a reply from me. These emails were ones that […]
Julian Sheather: Worshipping the sun
I am forty-four. Even allowing for the decade or so that modern medicine has added to our Biblical three score years and ten, I am, statistically, over half way through the journey. There are times when I feel it. Not so much physically: never having been much of an athlete the decline of my body […]