US hospitals annually discard millions of dollars of clean, unused medical equipment due to procedural excess or federal regulations. [1,2] Many health professional students do not recognise the magnitude of […]
Month: April 2014
The BMJ Today: Is medicine marching towards an era of greater openness?
In the latest Endgames picture quiz, a 41 year old man presents to the emergency department with a two week history of worsening shortness of breath, productive cough, intermittent fever, […]
Jonathon Tomlinson: Moral luck, agent regret and the doctor as drug
“You saved my life, doctor. I can’t thank you enough.” Letter from Tom 2011 “Our mother is dead … because of you.” Bereaved daughter. Poplar coroner’s court 2010 “What is […]
The BMJ Today: Paying people to live healthier lives and tackling climate change
This week, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its Fifth Assessment Report. The scientists who wrote it warn of the serious impact that climate change—unequivocally influenced by human […]
Nathan Sivagananathan: Trail—improving cancer care in Sri Lanka
In 2011 Nathan Sivagananathan and Sarinda Unamboowe set out to transform the lives of patients with cancer in the northern region of Sri Lanka. For over three decades the northern […]
The BMJ Today: Vitamin D, probiotics, and polio
We have been longing for a final word on whether vitamin D supplements improve health. An umbrella review published today included 107 systematic literature reviews and 74 meta-analyses of observational […]
Gavin Yamey: Soldiers, academics, and an unusual health initiative
It’s not every day that you find yourself at a work meeting chatting to a soldier who led the Counterinsurgency Advisory and Assistance Team in Afghanistan and the doctor who […]
The BMJ Today: Selective decontamination revisited and healthcare reform in Massachusetts
Richard Price and co-workers published a network meta analysis evaluating the effect on mortality of selective digestive decontamination (SDD), selective oropharyngeal decontamination (SOD), and topical oropharyngeal chlorhexidine in patients in […]