At the 2008 World Economic Forum in Davos, Bill Gates highlighted a new US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) law that rewarded sponsors of drugs for tropical diseases with a […]
Month: July 2014
Bijal Chheda-Varma: Bariatric surgery is unsustainable
Obesity is widely recognised as one of the greatest health threats of the 21st century across the developed world, with about a third of the global population now obese or […]
Sarah Woznick: A nurse’s account of working in Gaza
Sarah Woznick is a specialist intensive care nurse working with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF/ Doctors Without Borders). She arrived in Gaza six months ago from Denver, Colorado. She was due […]
Vijaya Nath: Medical engagement—change or die
More than a year since Robert Francis’s recommendations, and after reports by Don Berwick, Sir Bruce Keogh, and the new Care Quality Commission inspection regime, we are still being challenged to […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review—21 July 2014
NEJM 17 July 2014 Vol 371 203 Niacin is an abundant natural B vitamin, which lowers bad cholesterol and raises good cholesterol. What’s not to like? Well, niacin, unfortunately. In […]
The BMJ Today: Talking shit again
By the end of next month rural India could have an extra 5.2m toilets as part of a pre-election pledge by Narendra Modi, now prime minister, to build “toilets first […]
Readers’ editor: A website needing more soft fruit
We like it when readers take the time and trouble to give us feedback. We’ve been particularly appreciative in the last two weeks as The BMJ’s new website beds down following […]
Richard Smith: Misunderstanding conflict of interest
In Britain we have had a row over whether a judge, Elizabeth Butler Sloss, should chair an inquiry into child abuse. Everybody agrees that she has the necessary skills and […]
Tessa Richards: Go with the flow
Legend has it that the Anglo-Saxon king Canute believed his command could hold back the tide. Last week, Financial Times columnist Robert Shrimsley conjured up Canute’s image, as he describes how […]
Ike Anya: What can mobile phone polling tell us about population health?
One Friday afternoon in May, I sat in my local library in London, surrounded by young men and women, who looked mostly like students studying for examinations. As they buried […]