So David Cameron does not know the meaning of the phrase Magna Carta (The Great Charter) or who composed the music to Rule Britannia (Thomas Arne). The prime minister was […]
Columnists
Richard Smith: Polypill summit hears of slow progress
The idea of combining antihypertensive drugs, a statin, and sometimes aspirin into a polypill to prevent heart attacks and strokes is now a dozen years old, but still no drug […]
Muir Gray: Meeting the Trish Greenhalgh challenge
In the debate about the NHS reforms that occupied so much Twitter space before the Health and Social Care Bill was passed, Trish Greenhalgh quite properly challenged me to use […]
Pritpal S Tamber: Only trust will make the future model of care work
There is increasing acceptance that the current model of healthcare is wrong. Rather than episodic care triggered by acute events and delivered in hospitals, there needs to be continuous care […]
Kieran Walsh: Free medical education would deliver savings in the long term
“Even in comparatively poor countries we find scientific knowledge and trained intellects regarded as sound public investments, and the popular voice applauding a liberal application of public money to secure […]
Desmond O’Neill: Nowhere to hide
The large gilded hall of the Musikverein in Vienna is instantly recognisable to most people from the annual New Year’s concert dedicated to the Strauss family and their contemporaries. In […]
Richard Smith: Is the BMJ too sensitive about libel?
I must begin by making clear that I think the BMJ magnificent, much improved from when I was the editor. I particularly applaud the introduction of indepth investigative journalism. I’m […]
Richard Smith: How to start the day
It is a bold and foolish person who advises others how to live, but I can’t resist a little advice. I’m not going to tell you how to be smarter, […]
Richard Smith: Non-communicable disease in the Eastern Mediterranean Region
The Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) of WHO has some of the highest rates of non-communicable disease (NCD) in the world. Six of the countries with the highest rates of diabetes […]
Julian Sheather: What’s wrong with moral enhancement?
The question of whether biotechnology should be deployed to improve human beings morally is starting to climb out of the pages of recondite publications and dip a quizzical toe in […]