NEJM 25 June 2015 Vol 372 2533 The research articles in this week’s print NEJM are all about arcane stuff I’ve covered previously. The Clinical Practice article takes us back to the real world—the one we’d rather not think about, where there is a smell of urine and random cries from rooms down the corridor. […]
What do you say when giving a talk at a university where you once worked? To speak about publishing, research, and the BMJ would be quite straightforward. It was a privilege to be invited and great to catch up with old friends but, did I have any additional messages for those setting out on a […]
JAMA 10 Oct 2012 Vol 308 1433 A Viewpoint piece by three Dutch radiologists explores the possible added benefits that could arise if developed countries introduced lung cancer screening using computed tomography (CT) in high risk groups. You will remember that the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) demonstrated a reduction in lung cancer–specific mortality of […]
JAMA 3 Oct 2012 Vol 308 1333 Can vitamin D prevent the common cold? The answer is almost certainly yes, depending on baseline levels. If you run a trial in a place where the sun shines, good dairy products are abundant, and the ocean teems with oily fish, you might get a negative result. Such […]
Arch Intern Med 24 Sep 2012 Vol 172 Of Exercise I sing, and that benignant sweat Which from six thousand diabetic brows Exudes. My pen, Hygeia, speed! To save That honey-urined tribe from mortal pains Which Indolence doth breed, and glut of food: That to the treadmill they may go, or healthful jog, Or bicycle […]
JAMA 19 Sep 2012 Vol 308 1122 This week’s JAMA is devoted to obesity. It’s a bit like global warming: we can see it happening around us, we can foresee terrible consequences, we pretend to ourselves we’re doing something about it, but we know that in the end only drastic solutions will work, and these […]
The top ten publications of the last year in sport and exercise medicine? It is inevitably, a personal choice and I selected these papers because they challenge, educate, and question current practice. Some papers—great papers—that didn’t quite make my top ten: Sudden deaths among competitors in big city marathons always prompt media soul searching. It […]
JAMA 12 Sep 2012 Vol 308 981 “Considering the cost, invasiveness, inpatient requirement, and morbidity of bariatric surgery, a truly intensive nonsurgical comparison group is not only justifiable but also necessary to avoid scientific bias. A suitably intensive lifestyle intervention should include multiple components, such as residential treatment for several weeks to initiate rapid weight […]
JAMA 5 Sep 2012 Vol 308 869 Cancer, multiple sclerosis, stroke: do you want your patients to get the benefit of new drugs for these conditions as soon as possible? It’s pretty hard to say no to a question like that, but if you follow the flow of this rhetoric you can easily ignore poor […]
Arch Intern Med 25 June 2012 Vol 172 909 The Archives are about to mutate into JAMA Internal Medicine, but I generally find them a better read than JAMA proper. One reason is the abundance of lively comment—and in the case of this paper on sex differences in the protective effect of statins, I find […]