Last week I attended the 29th Asian Medical Students’ Conference (AMSC) in Tokyo along with 450 other medical students like me from 20 countries in Asia and Pacific. Our aim: to fight non-communicable diseases and promote a healthy lifestyle in the Asia and Pacific. […]
Richard Smith: Medpedia – inspired by the counterculture of the 60s
Medpedia, a medical version of Wikipedia, had to happen, and now it has. The full site will launch later in 2008, but a preview is already available. The founders—James Currier and Mitch Kapor, both serial entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley—aim to create “the most comprehensive and collaborative medical resource in the world.” I see no reason […]
Elizabeth Loder: The sex lives of older people
A recently published BMJ paper on sex at 70 attracted the attention of the medical columnist for the New York Times. It also caught the attention of NYT readers, as evidenced by the 100+ responses to the article that have so far been posted online. The Swedish study reported on the results of four surveys […]
Richard Smith: Are we all Thatcherites now?
A friend, possibly drunk, recently sent me a message on Facebook to ask if I was a Thatcherite. Thatcher was in the news because of the debate about her state funeral. Hours later my friend sent a second message hoping that she hadn’t offended me. Eventually the next morning she rang me, desperate to be […]
Harvey Marcovitch: Being an expert witness
I must have written more than 500 expert witness reports over the last 30 years; on a score of occasions I have given expert evidence in a family, civil, or criminal court. I have read thousands of reports by other “experts”, some supporting and some opposing what I have stated. In court, I have heard […]
David Payne: It’s the economy, mum and dad
Should doctors advise people to limit the number of children they have for the sake of the environment, asks the latest bmj.com poll. Our decision to ask this question was triggered by a huge amount of weekend coverage of the editorial by John Guillebaud and Pip Hayes: Population growth and climate change. Scotsman columnist Gerald Warner […]
Helen Barratt: Another round of paperwork
I’ve spent most of the last two weeks compiling paperwork for my ARCP (annual review of competency progression), which replaced the old SpR RITAs [records of in-training assessments] when MMC [Modernising Medical Careers] was implemented. ARCP not only doesn’t roll off the tongue like RITA, but the new process has brought with it even more […]
Anna Donald starts unpacking
We moved. We are now living between piles of boxes and unpacked, random items: spoons; piles of sports socks; a wooden statue made from a tree in Oxford; the iron; a huge Herend teapot. The first day was totally chaotic. It took me an hour to get dressed. I put on my socks. Then realised […]
Deborah Cohen: I want great care
We’re used to checking out the internet for the lowdown on our holiday destinations or theatre review, but what about finding yourself a good doc? Tapping into the government’s Choice agenda (see Michael Cross’ BMJ feature), the website www.iwantgreatcare.org is the brainchild of doctors.net founder and former hospital doctor, Dr Neil Bacon. According to Bacon, […]
Trevor Jackson: Is there an unbiased doctor in the house?
It was perhaps inevitable that a list of up to 100 experts untainted by drug industry money might get people talking. Questions such as why is so-and-so on it or so-and-so not on it, how do you get on it, and isn’t it all just a bit po-faced anyway, might well be asked. […]