In India, where at least 50% of the population is undernourished and anaemic, any comprehensive strategy to address the problem requires every possible intervention, including the most logical, but elusive […]
Month: October 2013
Susan Cookson et al: Success with disease surveillance in Somalia
Photo: Children receiving the polio vaccine in Somalia. Despite violence and abuse in Somalia, we wish to report some successes with disease surveillance. […]
Sophie Reshamwalla: The bomb blast injury boys of Pakistan
My mobile rings. It is a nurse from the Emergency Room (ER): “Dr Sophie, we have a boy whose legs have come off. Please could you come to help?” I […]
Richard Smith: The day I kissed 500 women
On Christmas Day 1976 I kissed 500 women. All of them were over 70 and institutionalised, and one was either dead or killed by my kiss. I was a houseman, […]
Billy Boland on joining the NHS leadership academy
Back in June, I was putting the finishing touches to my application for the NHS Leadership Academy. A new and ambitious venture, it aims to bring leadership and management development […]
Annabel Ferriman: Which doctor was happiest on 26 May, 1989?
Never let it be said that doctors are a homogeneous group. Quizzing doctors over the last few months about their hopes, fears, inspirations, and aspirations, the BMJ discovered an infinite […]
Desmond O’Neill: Four helicopters and a string quartet
Unlike last year, there was not a formal cultural event at this year’s European geriatric medicine congress. The organising committee may rightly have considered this superfluous with the glories of […]
Richard Smith: Kissing the hand that Hitler kissed
In the early 80s I kissed a hand that Hitler had kissed. Once I realised what I’d done I felt like spitting, but I didn’t. This is how my physical […]
Vijaya Nath: Making revalidation work—what have we learnt so far?
Revalidation—the process by which licensed doctors demonstrate that they are up to date and fit to practise—was greeted with cynicism by some in the medical profession when it was introduced […]
Tara Lamont: A female Dr Finlay for the 21st century
My weekly run with a GP friend has become a breathless litany of the ways in which she feels she and her practice are failing patients. Last week, she resigned […]