The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) not only defines words. It gives variant spellings, etymologies, and instances of their uses in quotations from printed texts. And it does so, as the […]
Columnists
Kieran Walsh: Supporting shared decision making
Shared decision making is a process in which patients and healthcare professionals make decisions together. It is now widely accepted that all decisions related to an individual’s healthcare should be […]
Harlan M. Krumholz: What can we learn from the ISCHEMIA Trial?
It may be useful for trialists who present their results without a peer-reviewed publication to simultaneously archive their study on a preprint server […]
Richard Smith: Time to scrap offices (and reduce face-to-face consultations) to reduce carbon consumption
I’m pleased to see from Twitter that most people agree with my recent assertion that most meetings could be held virtually rather than face-to-face, saving tonnes of carbon (and time). […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I Use a Word . . . Medical anniversaries in 2020
As last year, my list of medical anniversaries in 2020 is restricted to multiples of 50 years (i.e. years ending in 20 and 70). Thus, I have not included, for […]
Richard Smith: Most meetings can happen electronically, saving tonnes of carbon
I’d better start with a confession. I must have flown the Atlantic 300 times. I’ve been multiple times to New Zealand and Australia and have flown often to Japan, China, […]
Daniel Sokol: William Osler’s lasting influence on medical ethics
One hundred years ago, on 29 December 1919, Sir William Osler died in Oxford from a haemorrhage following an operation to treat his empyema. He was 70. In his obituary of […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I Use a Word . . . Medical sentinels
On 13 March 2006, six healthy volunteers were given a medication that had only a code name, TGN1412, (now TAB08) in a first-in-human study; two others received placebo. TGN1412 was […]
Richard Smith: The struggle to create a new craft of dying—what is medicine’s role?
“Lyn Lofland’s The Craft of Dying (1978) is one of the most important books on post WWII death and dying practices that almost no one has read,” writes John Troyer, […]
Mary E Black: Koalas are not just for Christmas
I hang the last tiny-koala-in-a-Santa-hat on our family Christmas tree when the call from Sydney comes in. My colleagues are coughing. They are also sneezing blood. Their local coffee shop […]