In the column about icebergs (qv), I mentioned repertoire used instead of number: “expanding repertoire of targets for immune inhibition in bladder cancer”. Repertoire and repertory are two similar words […]
Year: 2018
Avril Danczak: Is “early cancer diagnosis” a meaningless concept?
I often see articles, posters, and advertisements stating that early diagnosis of cancer “saves lives.” An implication that general practitioners are not “doing enough” or that people “ignore symptoms” usually […]
Richard Smith: Little global progress in countering non-communicable disease
In 2011 the United Nations held a high level meeting on preventing and controlling non-communicable disease (NCD) and produced a declaration on what countries should do. In 2018 it will […]
Annette McKinnon: Patients need equal access to information
I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in the days before the internet, so I had to rely on magazines and newspaper articles as a back-up to the sparse information that […]
Adrian Boyle and Ian Higginson: This A+E crisis was entirely predictable and partly preventable
The current situation represents a failure of political and central NHS leadership, the lack of an effective response represents a failure of duty […]
Veena Raleigh: Uses of the Mental Health Act—is the data fit for purpose?
How reliable is the data collected about detentions under the Mental Health Act? Veena Raleigh looks at the data quality issues and their implications. […]
Richard Lehman: Sharing medicine—negative capability
It’s just over a year ago that an essay called “Tolerating Uncertainty” appeared in the NEJM, headed by a quotation from Keats: “At once it struck me what quality went […]
Chris Moulton: A+E and the winter that never ends
We need more staff, more acute hospital beds, and more space and facilities in social care […]
Chris Simms: CDC’s word ban—the placement of politics over science is part of a larger pattern
The words we use matter and can influence what we think and how we act […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I Use a Word . . . Alpha, beta, gamma . . . zeta
In the Christmas issue of The BMJ, recently out, you can read about my exploration of nonexistent authors listed in citations in PubMed, a never ending source of general amusement […]