Hospitals can be dangerous places. Two things happen to everyone admitted to hospital for more than a few hours—they are put to bed and are fed. Over half a century ago Richard Asher highlighted the obsession hospitals have with beds and the dangers of being confined to bed (BMJ 1947; doi: 10.1136/bmj.2.4536.967). Asher’s description of […]
Tag: Diabetes
Richard Lehman’s journal review – 10 April 2012
JAMA 4 Apr 2012 Vol 307 1394 A special dread settles on me this week as I know I am going to have to write about breast cancer screening. But let’s leave the dread question of whole-population mammography for later, and consider the add-on benefit of annual ultrasound or single-screening MRI in selected high-risk women. […]
David Kerr: 2012, technology and all that
January is the month that heralds the end of procrastination. The New Year is traditionally the time that individuals and organisations look ahead and plan for the future. Among the usual resolutions to do more, eat less, and be more productive, there is also the ubiquitous past-time of predicting the near future. For healthcare the […]
David Kerr: Consumerism and the lost tribe in diabetes
Bad news makes good press. Last week the main medical news item was the release of the National Diabetes Audit figures for England and it made grim reading. The audit collected data from 152 Primary Care Trusts covering almost 70% of the population of people living with diabetes. The bottom line was that there are an […]
Richard Smith: Hauling the private sector onboard to combat diabetes
The golden phrase for countering non-communicable disease (NCD) is that we need a “whole of government and whole of society approach.” An important step on that path is obviously for all parties to talk together, and that’s why the International Diabetes Federation for the first time started its biannual conference with a “global diabetes forum,” […]
Rebecca Coombes: UN summit in New York – a view from the sidelines
What’s the mood among delegates on the eve of the UN summit on non-communicable diseases as they gather in hotel bars and the confusion of side events in New York City? Well, earlier in the day I went on a hike through Central Park with about 50 others in an event organised by the NCD […]
David Kerr: The dark side of insulin
It has been a strange few weeks for insulin. This year is the 90th anniversary of its discovery and in everyday clinical practice, insulin still remains “a force of magical activity” as described in a letter to the Times shortly after it was first used in humans. Nowadays, despite a bewildering array of therapies for […]
Richard Smith: Prevention of diabetes – from impossible to widely available in 30 years
In the 1980s it was conventional wisdom that type 2 diabetes couldn’t be prevented, said Michael Engelgau of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, when I chatted to him in Changzhi, China last week. The condition was treatable but not preventable. Dr Engelgau went onto to tell me about the thinking that led […]
Siddhartha Yadav: Diagnosing and treating the “Nepalese” microbes
A large portion of my work as a doctor in Nepal is to treat infections. Even in chronic conditions – COPD, diabetes, malignancy – I find that infectious micro-organisms take the toll more rapidly than the disease itself. It is fascinating how these minute beings have the power to bring human life to a standstill. Fever […]
Richard Smith: Adding treatment of hypertension to HIV programmes in rural Kenya
The biggest problem with treating hypertension in rural Kenya is lack of drugs. Health workers are plentiful, and there is an impressive health system—but drugs are scarce. I learnt this when I visited the hospital in Eldoret, a small city in the West of Kenya, and a close by community clinic. My colleagues and I […]