In April 2016, representatives of the world’s nations will gather to evaluate drug policy in a United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS). While prohibitionist policies are still the norm, […]
Month: February 2015
The BMJ Today: FGM, GULP, and #NoMoreGames
ANALYSIS Too much technology: The BMJ’s overdiagnosis theme begins today with Bjørn Morten Hofmann, who argues that we are medicalising ordinary human conditions, and we need to rethink our reflex […]
Tushar Garg: India needs to teach its doctors more about the care in healthcare
I was taking a patient’s blood pressure in a clinic when I heard one woman—who was poor, uneducated, and a first time attendee there—being asked a question by a resident […]
Richard Smith: Learning about alcohol problems from a taxi driver
When journalists arrive in a country at war their learning usually starts with taxi drivers. They see and hear a lot. They know the dark side of life, particularly those […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review—16 February 2015
NEJM 12 Feb 2015 Vol 372 601 A couple of months ago I went all Edgar Allen Poe about clones in the bone marrow—clones, bones and groans in fact. Watching […]
The BMJ Today: Sugar, HRT, and a neonate with a rash
• There are a number of responses to The BMJ’s latest investigation into links between public health scientists and food companies. Michelle Harvie and Louise Gorman say, “Industry funding is […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Say “Aaaaaaah”
We may not know what the first spoken word was, but we can be pretty sure that the first uttered sound (Greek φώνημα) was a phoneme, a unit of sound […]
Neel Sharma: Personality traits—a neglected area of research in medical education
My first admission whilst writing this correspondence is that I am no expert in the field of psychology. I undertook training in psychiatry during my junior years but this only […]
The BMJ Today: Sugar—a bittersweet topic
To paraphrase Forrest Gump, writing this blog is like a box of chocolates: you never know what you’re going to get. This Friday the 13th, I get sugar, a bitter […]
John Appleby: The cost of reform
Asked in 1972 whether the French Revolution had been good or bad, the then Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai said that it was “too early to say.” As it turns out […]