What difference makes a difference? We often encourage patients to make small behavioral changes, in the hope that even one step in the right direction is at least small progress. […]
Month: October 2016
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . A word about empathy
Empathy is becoming a 21st century biomedical fashion, judging by the number of papers on the subject (figure). But the concept is not new. The word is first recorded in […]
Paul Aylin: Weekend Gravity Waves
On 15th September 2016, a letter appeared in The Guardian with an unlikely collection of signatories including Lords, an MP, a number of medics, a leader in evidence based medicine […]
Tiago Villanueva: Family medicine and private health insurance in Portugal
I read with interest some recent articles about the interplay between private healthcare insurance and state provided healthcare. [1][2][3] A substantial proportion of the population has private health insurance in […]
Rammya Mathew and James McGowan: The role of shared decision making in a value based NHS
Last month a controversial proposal was made by Vale of York clinical commissioning group (CCG) to deny obese patients access to elective surgery for up to a year. The headlines […]
Richard Smith: Is flexible working good or bad for health?
Australia, like Britain, pushed hard for more flexible working in the labour market in the 80s, and all political parties and trade unions supported it because they assumed that it […]
Anna Miller: Asking all pregnant women for a passport before giving birth is simply wrong
St George’s University Hospitals Foundation trust is reportedly devising a pilot scheme to ask all pregnant women to show a passport to prove their right to NHS care before giving […]
Laurence Gerlis: Is private medical practice that bad?
During my 30 years as a private GP I have become used to being insulted by other doctors. Some see us as mercenary quacks, with little genuine interest in patients’ […]
Nicholas S Hopkinson reviews “The state of medicine”
“I am furious, sad, and scared for the NHS” —Margaret McCartney’s opening words in the introduction to her latest, timely book, The State of Medicine (Pinter and Martin 2016). Understandable sentiments, […]
Helen Macdonald: Fixing evidence based medicine
Love it or hate it—we must all consume evidence. Now is your chance to have your say on what its future should be like. Yesterday the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine at Oxford […]