Violence against doctors in China is a continuing trend and one that many doctors are increasingly unhappy about. A White Paper about violence directed against medical personnel in China says that medical violence includes verbal and physical abuse. Nearly 59.8% of the medical personnel say that they have experienced verbal violence, and 13.1% reported physical harm. [1] According to the Chinese […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review—5 December 2016
NEJM 1 Dec 2016 Vol 375 Can genes prove how drugs work? Medicine is the application of neat science to a messy world. We love it when it works simply: for example, when a single gene controls a single biochemical process, which we can then block with a single chemical. Statins are often cited as […]
Elizabeth Anderson and Simon Bennett: Are we serious about changing culture?
Healthcare education has enormous capacity to equip future practitioners with the right mindset to promote supportive team-based cultures within the NHS. By this we mean that during training all practitioners should develop skills needed to work in a community that is then manifest when working in clinical and other care situations. They should know how […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Gross negligence
The charge of gross negligence manslaughter, a criminal offence, is rarely invoked in medical cases. In the most recent, a surgeon, Mr David Sellu, was convicted but released after serving half of a 30 month sentence, the judge having failed to instruct the jury on the difference between gross and simple negligence. Liam Donaldson, Clare […]
Gareth Iacobucci: Jeremy’s firm hand casts a shadow
Jeremy Hunt caught a few people off guard at this week’s NHS Providers conference when he unexpectedly announced a flurry of new policies. Those who have heard the health secretary give dozens of speeches over the past four years had their usual game of “Jeremy Hunt bingo” (key watchwords: patient safety, technology, Virginia Mason [The award […]
Jonathan Glass: Irrational numbers in surgical training
I enjoy numbers. I enjoy the accuracy they provide; the guidance they give in the practise of clinical medicine; and, though very far from being a mathematician, I like reading of their discovery throughout history, their quirkiness, and I like being shown their logic even though I know I won’t be able to remember or […]
James Raftery: Changes to how NICE appraises drugs and other health technologies
The recent proposals by NICE and NHS England to change arrangements for evaluating and funding drugs and other health technologies not only tidy up the processes, but introduce some important new elements. The four proposed elements are to: Introduce a “fast track” NICE technology appraisal process for the most promising new technologies, which fall below an […]
Students are the key to addressing the gap between academia and action in global health
The last decade has seen an unprecedented growth in the number of students from England, the United States, and other high-income countries involved in global health and development projects in emerging economies around the world. The barriers that traditionally created significant separation between the classroom and the field in global health and development, such as […]
Paul Buchanan: On being the token patient
Healthcare systems have been built with hierarchies, processes, and models of engagement that are designed to distill policy, research, therapy, diagnostics, treatment, and support down to the patient. The patient and their treatment is the “end-game.“ But how well does the system work? Let’s take a look from a patient’s perspective. Several recent examples weeks […]
Daniel Whitney: Mental health has still not achieved “parity of esteem”—even among some medical professionals
It’s late morning; little piles of lists and notes from assessments carried out in the past 24 hours are littered between me and the PC. The assorted paraphernalia that seems to accumulate around me after a night on-call clutters my surroundings: a dictaphone, the British National Formulary, Maudsley guidelines, and the semi-completed audit I glance at […]