To begin with, flex your mental muscles. To flex (Latin flectere) means to bend; a flex is easily bent. Reflection is bending back, of objects, light (as in the retinal […]
Columnists
Richard Smith: Angry at the delay, waste, and inefficiency caused by medical journals
A friend from a middle income country writes to me in despair about the way he and his colleagues have been treated by medical journals. His story made me angry […]
Kieran Walsh: How to avoid an F in your medical exams
The first time I read Richard Benson’s book on how to get an F in your exams, I was seriously worried about the future of civilization. When asked for an […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Intro and outro: exnovation and outroduction
Last week I discussed the use of the word “de-adoption” in the title of a paper recently published in The BMJ: “De-adoption and exnovation in the use of carotid revascularisation”. […]
Sharon Roman: Including patients should not mean excluding doctors
Patient inclusion is rightly becoming more accepted, but a doctor’s opinion is often valued […]
Billy Boland: Clinical audit is not dead
While Quality Improvement (QI) is enjoying a surge in popularity in health services, it can also suffer from an image problem. I’ve been told that it’s a fad, a management […]
Richard Smith: How might artificial intelligence improve healthcare?
Artificial intelligence, which few of us understand, might apocalyptically enslave humanity or release it from death. Some prominent scientists believe that robots blessed with artificial intelligence will soon be more […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Intro and outro: De-adoption
A study published in The BMJ attracted my attention when I saw it in the print issue of 11 November: “De-adoption and exnovation in the use of carotid revascularisation”. Neither […]
Martin McKee: The devil is in the detail—why retaining the European Health Insurance Card may be an impossible dream
The European Health Insurance Card symbolises the many benefits that the European Union brings to its citizens. It allows tourists to obtain healthcare when they are visiting another member state […]
Matt Morgan: WhatsApp Doc?
Restricting the use of WhatsApp is fine, but there must be a viable alternative provided […]