I’ve recently returned from a medical mission in the Philippines. Despite the frequency of natural disasters striking the country (typhoons, earthquakes, floods) and the reputation for being an extremely unsafe […]
Month: March 2012
Martin McShane: A new dynamic?
The political ambiguity is, mostly, resolved. Very shortly, appointments will be made to Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs). At the same time appointments will be made to the local arm of […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review – 26 March 2012
JAMA 21 Mar 2012 Vol 307 1161 When in Japan, do not attempt to drop down dead. In 800 fire stations around the Islands of the Sun, teams of emergency […]
Marge Berer: Another anti-abortion missionary
Punch-drunk on power after his success at sticking up two fingers to the entire health profession at the passage of the Health & Social Care bill in Parliament last week, […]
Ken Taylor: Why the NHS Health and Social Care Bill is bad for patients
The prime reason that this legislation will prove a disaster for patients is obvious. If you are relying on the NHS for care it is your GP who will be […]
Bern-Thomas Nyang’wa and Kartik Chandaria: Zero MDR-TB deaths in children in our lifetime?
Global aspirations This year’s STOP TB partnership World TB Day campaign approach is ambitious, but inspirational. We hope to see zero drug-resistant TB deaths in children in our lifetime. As […]
Grania Brigden: A spotlight on children with tuberculosis
Of the 9.4 million new tuberculosis (TB) cases diagnosed each year, approximately 5% are multidrug resistant (MDR). This World TB Day there is an emphasis on children, which is long […]
Richard Smith: Optimism in mental health
Last year I attended a meeting in Heidelberg on treatment of mental health problems and came away with a bleak view of the lack of progress. This week in another […]
Richard Smith: Can polio be eradicated or will it flare again?
In 1988 the World Health Assembly passed a resolution calling for the eradication of polio by 2000. There were 350 000 cases in 1988, and by 2000 the number had […]
Ivan Gayton on geeks and primitive fieldworkers: a tale of two cultures
As a project manager for MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders), a medical emergency humanitarian agency, I attended this year’s South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas, in the […]