At the end of last year JAMA Internal Medicine published a study that showed that the authors of two highly influential papers published in the New England Journal of Medicine […]
Month: August 2017
Stephen Bradley: The grade that dare not speak its name
Attempts to ban the term “SHO” seem heavy handed and out of touch […]
Nancy Krieger: Are hate crimes a public health issue?
It is critical to identify structural racism is a key determinant of population health […]
Kieran Walsh: “Tests ain’t fair. Those that study have an unfair advantage.”
Assessment is a core component of medical education. Medical students must undergo continual examinations. Postgraduate trainees must pass their annual assessments. And fully qualified doctors must overcome the twin hurdles […]
Simon Wessely: Stephen Hawking and his love letter to the NHS
Walking into the Royal Society of Medicine last Saturday (19 August) for my first official duty as the incoming President, two things suggested that this was not going to be the […]
Rachel Clarke: The professor, the politician, and the advent of “Huntsplaining”
If this seems like a silly season Twitter spat, it isn’t. It’s deadly serious […]
Richard Smith: Journals, surgeons, and sexist language
Much to my amusement and countering the stereotype of surgeons, the Annals of Surgery has “following an uproar” retracted a paper that used only male pronouns to describe surgeons. It’s counter to […]
Johann Malawana: Exception reporting—It’s not just a right but a duty
We must not stay silent while staff are being stretched and departments are falling apart […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Judgement or algorithm? Head or formula?
As I discussed last week, Paul Meehl showed, in 1954, in a book called Clinical Versus Statistical Prediction: A Theoretical Analysis and a Review of the Evidence, that various algorithms […]
Charlotte Ralston: Medical students would benefit from working as healthcare assistants
Charlotte Ralston and Ciaran Walsh You can always spot the new medical students on a hospital ward. They look unsure—intelligent, but professionally gangly and ill at ease with their surroundings […]