The road to Donetsk from Kramatorsk, the last city in mainland Ukraine before the internal border, is beautifully lined with frosted trees. But its beauty belies the harsh reality of […]
Month: March 2016
The sugar tax: “Was it The BMJ wot won it?”
“Get something out on social?” urged a colleague in response to UK Chancellor George Osborne’s sugar tax announcement in his Budget speech last week. “I think you can claim that […]
Elizabeth Atherton and Josephine Head: How environmentally sustainable are the UK’s new dietary guidelines?
Last week saw the launch of the Eatwell Guide—the UK’s official food guide to healthy diets. Astonishingly, despite major changes in eating habits and advances in nutrition science, this is the […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review—21 March 2016
NEJM 17 Mar 2016 Vol 374 Unnecessary pessary 1044 “This randomized trial showed that placement of a pessary in girls and women who were pregnant with singletons and who had […]
Jeff Aronson: When I Use a Word … Naming biologics—rINNs and pINNs
This week I went to Harrogate to take part in the Royal College of Physicians’ (RCP’s) annual conference “Medicine 2016”, to contribute to a session on biological medicines (biologics). It […]
Junior doctor strike: Angels need to eat and pay their bills
The junior doctor strike in England triggered an Oxford Union debate last month about the extent to which patient safety is compromised when public sector workers take industrial action. But […]
Andy Cowper: How to march your troops back down again
As another bout of industrial action concludes in the junior doctors’ dispute, the BMA junior doctors’ committee leadership has won outright. Their leaders were carried in triumph down Whitehall, celebrating […]
Pratheeshaa Varuni Nageswaran: The fictional narrative
I entered medical school armed with a large collection of my favourite fiction, a boxset of Friends, and excitement for this new phase of my life. Although getting lost in […]
Neville Goodman’s Metaphor Watch: Time to come off the gold standard
This blog started with epidemic proportions. There are nearly 1800 PubMed articles written in English that have epidemic proportions in the title or abstract. Of the other metaphors I’ve dealt […]
Lindsey Hines and Elle Wadsworth: Would the UK benefit from a regulated cannabis market?
The Liberal Democrats have announced a proposal for cannabis law reform in the UK. It is not without precedent, coming at a time of […]