Just seven months ago, GP commissioners were poised to lead a clinically driven revolution in the NHS. Their deep understanding of the needs of patients and ability to eyeball hospital […]
Month: October 2013
Trish Groves: Postpublication review—what role should journals play?
The National Center for Biotechnology Information of the US National Library of Medicine has emerged from the US shutdown with a new service: PubMed Commons. It’s a system for commenting […]
Mary E Black: Save our national statistics
That old chestnut about “lies, damned lies and statistics” always raises a laugh. But something is about to happen that is not funny at all. The Office for National Statistics […]
Ellen Collins on funder priorities for open access
In the last two years, UK policy has taken a clear turn towards open access. With the aim of making published, peer-reviewed research outputs available to anybody who wants to […]
Unni Karunakara and Jean-Christophe Dollé: The limits of humanitarian aid—MSF and TB in Somalia
On 14 August 2013, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) took one of the most difficult decisions in our history and closed all of our medical humanitarian aid operations in Somalia after […]
Khaled E Emam: Anonymisation and creepy analytics
When health data is shared for secondary purposes, such as for research, there is always the concern about patient privacy. Data custodians want to at least meet the requirements in […]
Edward Davies: Obamacare—it’s time to stop rooting for failure
“Obamacare” is much in the headlines right now and not for the right reasons. Having been the bargaining chip of choice for Republicans during this month’s shutdown, the “health exchanges,” […]
Leana Wen: Announcing the total transparency manifesto
Our healthcare system is broken and in dire need of reform. We all know the statistics: the US spends $2.7 trillion on healthcare, 30% of which is waste in the […]
Richard Smith on John Munro: odd shoes and charisma
How when you are a 20 year old medical student with almost no clinical experience and no experience at all of death do you talk to a dying patient? What […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review—21 October 2013
NEJM 17 Oct 2013 Vol 369 1491 “Tiotropium (Spiriva, Boehringer Ingelheim), a long-acting inhaled anticholinergic bronchodilator, improves lung function, quality of life, and exercise endurance and reduces exacerbations in patients […]