The unemployment rate in Portugal is at an all time high of 16,3%, and 2013 is looking even bleaker, due to announced tax hikes that will see people’s net income […]
Month: December 2012
Domhnall MacAuley on being a GP on Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve. Its a Monday. It will be dark leaving home but, with no morning traffic, the drive to the surgery should take just a few minutes. Few people around—a […]
Seye Abimbola on what Nigeria could learn from China’s healthcare system
The look of surprise, bordering on cynical incredulity, was still there on the face of my fellow Nigerian “emerging voice” as our Chinese counterpart finished up his presentation introducing the […]
Paul Glasziou: Santa, could you take some things away instead?
Dear Santa, This year, instead of presents I wondered if instead you might take some things away? Maybe you could start with unnecessary tests, unhelpful diagnoses, and over treatment? These […]
Richard Smith: Selling your personal data
“The government wants to sell our personal data to the highest bidder, and it stinks,” said somebody, making her position very clear, at a meeting at the House of Commons […]
Gethin Morgan on being red green colour blind
It wasn’t until I was a 16 year old sixth former in school that I discovered my problem with colour vision. When I experienced difficulties in practical biology and chemistry […]
Lifebox Q and A: Togo—facing the facts and making a difference
When people talk about the crisis of unsafe anaesthesia worldwide, there’s one particular publication that is frequently referenced—it’s too shocking to ignore. “Deaths associated with anaesthesia in Togo, West Africa,” […]
Kieran Walsh: “Fortunately…education produces no effect whatsoever”
One of the latest thoughts to emanate from authorities in medical education is that investments in education will produce a tangible return on investment. The theory goes a bit like […]
Richard Smith: The case for slow medicine
The characteristics of health systems are complexity, uncertainty, opacity, poor measurement, variability in decision making, asymmetry of information, conflict of interest, and corruption. They are thus largely a black box […]
Martin McKee: How should the United States respond to gun crime?
A few days ago a disturbed young man in Newtown, Connecticut, shot his mother before going to the primary school where she worked to murder 20 children, aged between six […]