With almost every endeavour participants have many more ideas on what might be done that than there are resources to get them done. Prioritisation is thus essential, but, my goodness, […]
Columnists
James Raftery: NICE changes its position on Alzheimer’s disease drugs
The provisional guidance from NICE on drugs for Alzheimers’ disease – donepezil, galantamine, rivastigmine, and memantine – marks a dramatic shift from restricting access to those with moderate disease to […]
Richard Smith: Important study points towards a different future
In what I think is a very important BMJ paper, John Ioannidis and Fotini Karassa have shown that systematic reviews, the highest level of evidence, may be highly deceptive. We did, […]
Richard Smith: Medical schools to close?
Until now medical schools have had it easy. They have lots of high quality applicants, most students graduate, and all of them can find jobs. Suddenly, as for many others […]
Julian Sheather: When patients become the enemy
I was out with a friend recently, a GP. He works in an inner-city practice. By all accounts he is a good GP. As a mate I know him to […]
Desmond O’Neill: Social networking, telemedicine, and stroke
Some medical technologies creep up on you, some arrive with a bang. In internal medicine much of the change – electronic laboratory reporting, digital imaging – is gradualist and steered […]
Martin McShane: Yes Minister
I used to love Yes Minister. The civil service is full of very clever and erudite people who are hugely creative. Their brilliance shines through in the guidance just issued […]
Sandra Lako on a night check at the hospital
It’s 1:00 am. My colleague and I have just returned from a surprise visit to the hospital. Three times a month we do spot checks on the wards; periodically we […]
Richard Smith: Will cuts lead to radical change?
One response to a deep financial cut is to change radically, to do things in a wholly different way. An alternative response is to shrink back to old ways on […]
Tracey Koehlmoos: Systematic reviews of health systems and policy research – where do they belong?
Just as some people proudly announce that they are alcoholics, I’m proud to tell the world that I am a Cochrane reviewer. There cannot be many BMJ readers who don’t […]