What should we eat? And to what extent can doctors influence the diet of their patients? Last week, NICE recommended that doctors send their overweight patients to Weight Watchers or […]
Year: 2014
Florence Smith: NCDs and HIV—where’s the intersection?
At first glance, NCDs (non-communicable diseases) and HIV/AIDS seem to have little in common. However, a recent symposium, organised by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and FHI360, […]
Liliana Gomes: How dirty is your QWERTY?
It all started a few weeks ago in my communicable diseases module at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. During a group brainstorming session we realised how “unclean” […]
David Zigmond: Is it time to renationalise the NHS?
Recently the media has told us that the Labour Party is considering a long journeyed return: back to the nationalisation of rail services. Some claim that this will offer better […]
Jane Feinmann: Is the current system of publishing clinical trials fit for purpose?
This question was the title of a meeting of the Medical Journalists’ Association last week, and, perhaps surprisingly for an audience made up almost exclusively of medical journalists, the response was […]
The BMJ Today: Flu jabs during pregnancy
As a mother and a doctor, I am often asked medical questions by my non-medical friends. Most of the time this has nothing to do with my specialty (radiology), and […]
Julian Sheather: Public health and social power
It’s hard not to brood from time to time on some of the intractable public health problems that entangle us. Take obesity. Swimming with my boys over the weekend, I […]
The BMJ Today: The challenges of foodborne illness, HIV, tuberculosis, and scorpion stings
Being a GP myself, one of the first things I did when I arrived in London last year to work at The BMJ was register with a GP. In London, […]
Michael West: Collective leadership—fundamental to creating the cultures we need in the NHS
Positivity, compassion, respect, dignity, engagement, and high quality care are key to creating the cultures we need in the NHS. And, just as importantly, we must deal decisively, consistently, and […]
The BMJ Today: Screening for lung cancer, treating warts, and prescribing the polypill
At the end of last year, the US Preventive Services Task Force launched guidelines recommending screening for lung cancer in those at high risk. These were greeted with applause by […]