We have just seen another report from a London based “think tank,” suggesting profound changes to the way the NHS works. These reports seem to turn up with annoying regularity […]
Month: October 2014
William Cayley: Social history on the back roads
Social context and relationships may shape what drives our patients, but sometimes the best way to ponder these is on a drive! En route to a home visit today, I […]
Mary E Black: Inside the mind of a Member of Parliament
I had the opportunity to listen to a number of MPs explain how they think during the excellent Westminster experience organized by Cumberlege Eden & Partners as part of my […]
The BMJ Today: Clinical challenges
When my patients with acute stroke develop a urinary tract infection, I often prescribe a course of co-trimoxazole (trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole). Many of these patients have hypertension and are also taking an […]
Cordelia Galgut: Emotional support through breast cancer
Before being diagnosed with primary breast cancer myself, aged 49 in 2004, I would offer emotional support to women with this diagnosis, and arrogantly assume I understood pretty well what […]
Suzie Bailey: Strategy development – starring role or chorus line?
Is “transformation” one of the most overused words in relation to the NHS and the issues it faces? Just last week, I heard a NHS deputy CEO joke that the […]
The BMJ Today: Leapfrogging—the new buzzword in healthcare
It is easy to take universal health coverage for granted if you were born and raised in a European country, for example. But in low and middle income countries, people […]
Sarah Knowles et al: Hacking into health research
Patients get called a lot of things these days. Simon Stevens, for example, referred to them as the “renewable energy” of health services. The NHS White Paper called them “the […]
William Cayley: Overdiagnosis, uncertainty, and epistemology
Many thanks to Anita Jain for reporting on the “Overdiagnosis” session at the Cochrane Colloquium—I wish I could have been there. The suspicion that overdiagnosis (or at least over testing) […]
The BMJ Today: Is milk good for you?
America’s iconic “Got Milk?” campaign was pulled this year after a successful run of over 20 years. Graced by the likes of Bill Clinton, Naomi Campbell, Elton John, David Beckham, […]