Once again, after waiting with bated breath, hope, and anxiety, medical students and residency programs alike have received the results of the annual residency “match.” After months of seemingly endless […]
Month: March 2016
Daniel Sokol: The messiness of medicine
Last week I attended a conference for surgeons. In the hall, a poster described the case of a neurology patient who had, literally, inhaled a chicken sandwich. The surgeon, with […]
Aeesha NJ Malik: Teaching surgery in rural China—who are we benefitting?
I recently bumped into a colleague I hadn’t seen for a while at a conference. He started asking me about a short trip I had made with a Chinese charity […]
Doctors, The BMJ, and Ireland’s Easter Rising
Earlier this year Ireland’s national broadcaster RTE screened a three part documentary to mark the 100th anniversary of the six day Easter Rising, the rebellion against British rule that led […]
Shakir Mustafa: A return to Nepal after the earthquake
In the immediate aftermath of last year’s earthquake in Nepal I took part in an emergency mission. A few weeks later we returned for an aid and education mission. And […]
Vector-borne diseases in Europe: far more than Zika virus
Certain emerging vector-borne diseases are entering high income countries’ attention in an unprecedented way. Two years ago we wrote about chikungunya, a disease that most Spaniards—including doctors—had not even heard […]
Richard Smith: Is the NHS finally going to start taking patient safety seriously?
Jeremy Hunt, secretary of state for health, is embroiled in battles with junior doctors, GPs, and consultants over contracts and patient safety. He thinks that he will improve safety by […]
Mags Portman: The PrEP debate gains momentum
This blog was originally written for BMJ Clinical Evidence and posted on blogs.bmj.com/ce/ Last week saw a landmark shift in the pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV debate in England. After 18 months of […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review—29 March 2016
NEJM 24 Mar 2016 Vol 374 Flinty problem, leaden response 1101 John Snow, the arch-hero of epidemiology, died in 1858 a disappointed man. It was only after he had died […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Naming biologics—principles and practice
Last week I discussed how drugs get their International Nonproprietary Names (INNs). The World Health Organization’s expert panel that assigns INNs has nine principles to guide its decisions, two primary […]