“If you want to get on in life, dear boy, don’t be too original. Originality is a curse. People won’t understand you. They’ll feel threatened. You may end up burnt […]
Month: January 2013
Desmond O’Neill: A grave beauty
When visiting a city for the first time, graveyards rarely feature high on my agenda. So, little did I suspect that a very beautiful graveyard would be one of the […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review—28 January 2013
JAMA 23-30 Jan 2013 Vol 309 355 From time to time I like to shock my GP colleagues by saying that the most important part of any health system is […]
Iain H Wilson: Why pulse oximeters from Lifebox make such a difference
The first person I saw die accidentally from an anaesthetic accident was a kind, distinguished man in his sixties, scheduled for surgery to a large leg tumour. During anaesthesia his […]
Sophie Cook: Home visits in the snow
Even in the most auspicious weather conditions, urgent home visits are time consuming and on days when snow falls this creates another obstacle to negotiate in an already stressful on-call […]
Christopher Exeter on the Global Burden of Disease study
Mid December saw the launch of the decennial Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study at the Royal Society in London. The study is the global rating of mortality, morbidity, and […]
Suchita Shah: Everywhere, but not a drop to drink: water shortage in Santiago, Chile
“Water is another matter, has no direction but its own bright grace” [from “Water” by Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet]. I turn on the kitchen tap but no water flows. Surprised, […]
Amir Attaran and Marvin Shepherd: Denialism and India’s risky medicine
Governments that lie are dangerous to public health [1]. South Africa’s shameless denial that HIV causes AIDS delayed treatment for millions, and many needlessly died. Now India’s government is doing […]
Jeremy Sare: The cannabis reclassification saga began shortly after 9/11
Although it may seem initially bathetic to put these events together, David Blunkett’s appearance before the Home Affairs Select Committee in October 2001 actually set in motion a dozen years […]
Julian Sheather: Medicine, Strasbourg, and conscientious objection
The media made quite a fuss recently about the European Court of Human Rights finding that British Airways had unfairly discriminated against an employee, Mrs Eweida, in refusing to let […]