I pinch my patient’s abdomen with toothed forceps to check his spinal anaesthesia has worked and I feel I should pinch myself. I am about to start an inguinal hernia […]
Month: November 2016
Dan Smyth: The European Lung Foundation’s patient organisation day
This year the European Lung Foundation (ELF) decided to do things a bit differently for the patient organisations attending the European Respiratory Society (ERS) International Congress in London in early […]
Richard Smith: Death and the inescapable logic of greed
Martin Shkreli is the man who became infamous through buying the rights to Darapim (pyrethamine) and raising the price by 5000% from $13.50 to $750 per pill. There is, I […]
Seema Biswas: Conflict is a global health challenge
“The first principle of health is life. War is a direct threat to life. For millions of people worldwide, surviving war is the predominant objective in their daily existence. Ending […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Presidential rhetoric
The main current meaning of rhetoric is “the art of using language effectively so as to persuade or influence others” (OED). But in ancient Greece and Rome rhetoric was an […]
Mary Higgins: Improving maternity care in partnership
When you start working in maternity care, whatever your job, people often think how happy it must be. Compared to other specialties, we are very privileged to have the joy […]
Ceinwen Giles: Self-management? I need a PA!
Patient activation, self-management, shared decision-making….all of these sound great in practice. I, personally, would be very happy to self-manage myself. If I could figure out how. I never set out […]
Claire Copeland: Opening ourselves up to Patient Opinion
On 25 October Patient Opinion invited me to a “learning and sharing event for clinicians” in Edinburgh. It was an opportunity to hear from those who have made this feedback […]
Pauline Castres: A coal free future on the horizon
UK Government pledge to end coal use by 2025 With the media abuzz with e-cigarettes and sugary drinks it is easy to overlook the health risks of coal plants. The […]
William Seligman and Mataroria Lyndon: Making American healthcare great again?
After eighteen months of breakneck campaigning, there are few who would have predicted the results we saw in the United States presidential election last night. Donald J. Trump, described by […]