In my early twenties I was felled by a bout of mental illness. It started with a panic attack. I was standing on the station at Leamington Spa waiting for […]
Columnists
Richard Smith on questioning doctors on their future
I have just come back from a gathering of the “big dogs of British medicine” at Highclere Castle, home of Lord Carnarvon, who participated in the discovery of the tomb […]
Julian Sheather: Where’s the harm in it?
It is often said of military planners that they spend their time preparing to fight the last battle, not the next one. The same could be said of regulators. Take […]
Richard Smith’s HealthCamp for innovators
I associate camps with wood smoke, burnt sausages, and filled latrines marked with crosses, but HealthCamp is different. It’s about innovation, and I attended my first one last week—at the […]
Richard Smith’s first days as a doctor
The Student BMJ is asking, via Twitter, for accounts of people’s first days as a doctor, and their request has for me brought back painful and partially suppressed memories. I […]
Richard Smith on how to improve your interaction with patients by 50%
If there was a pill that would improve your interaction with patients by 50% would you take it? I imagine you would. Well, I don’t know of such pill […]
Siddhartha Yadav on optimism in South Asia for health research
Last week was a research-filled week for me. Two biomedical papers to review in the early part of the week and the South Asian Forum for Health Research (SAFHeR) meeting […]
Julian Sheather on once upon a time in the west
Audiences can be fickle things. Last week I clambered down from my ivory tower and emerged, blinking, onto a brilliantly-lit podium at the Cheltenham Science Festival. The theme of the […]
Liz Wager asks: Anyone for an algorithm?
I have a fondness for flowcharts. I also attempt to teach doctors to prefer short words when they are writing. So, when I found myself exchanging emails with an American […]
Tracey Koehlmoos: The Colonel arrives with a bang in Bangladesh
On my way home from the centre where I work in Dhaka, Bangladesh, I drive through an area with four closely located private universities. Yesterday I was stuck in rush […]