I’ve become somewhat of a Quality Improvement #QI geek in the last year or so. Since first getting my head around the concept, I’m now an enthusiast and have witnessed […]
Columnists
Richard Smith: Putting the H back into the NHS
The H in NHS stands not for hospital or healthcare but health, and the NHS needs to do better at promoting health, said Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . A penicillin anniversary
Today, 12 February, is the 75th anniversary of the first clinical use of penicillin in Oxford in 1941 (picture). Image: A plaque commemorating the first administration of purified penicillin to […]
Desmond O’Neill: Combating bar stool gerontology
One of the greatest challenges for us as we age is “bar stool gerontology.” For most complex subjects—nuclear physics, molecular biology, or philosophy—most of us recognise that some learning and […]
Richard Smith: Doctors using safety and evidence for political ends
In my 40 years of messing around with medical journals I’ve tried to contribute to promoting patient safety and the use of evidence. Generally things seem better from a time […]
William Cayley: Complexity and care
Words that sound wonderful can come back to haunt you. As a case in point, I recently responded to Elizabeth Wortley’s eloquent blog “Please refrain from using that kind of […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Contemptuous
As I have previously described, delaying tactics in a conflict are known as Fabian tactics, after Quintus Fabius Maximus, who used them against Hannibal’s Carthaginians during the Second Punic War, […]
Richard Smith: Commissioning needs to be about all public services not just health
Parliament has three times relegislated the commissioner provider split—in 1990, 2002, and 2012, said Stephen Dorrell, secretary of state for health from 1995-97, in a talk to the Imperial College […]
Neville Goodman’s Metaphor Watch: Guns and needles
Sometimes research goes badly, and red herrings lead to a blind alley (qv), but sometimes there’s a smoking gun: conclusive evidence just a little bit short of being caught in […]
William Cayley: Out with the old (and practical) and in with the new (and techie)?
Out with the old and in with the new? Improvements in the quality and portability of electronic diagnostic equipment have led to increasing discussion of late over the possible demise […]