Dinesh Seemakurty’s idea for a business came to him as he sat by his grandfather’s hospital bed in Kakinada, India. His grandfather had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and had been […]
Columnists
Nick Hopkinson: Chronic breathlessness syndrome—the power of a name
The recognition of a new clinical entity, “chronic breathlessness syndrome” has been proposed, following an international Delphi process to achieve an expert consensus.1 Why does this matter and is it […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Art and science; medical skills and knowledge
To recap, for many years medicine has been regarded as both an art and a science. Is it? As we have already seen, the word “art” has its origin in […]
Matt Morgan: “Just to let you know”—flattened hierarchy brings steep demands
Matt Morgan discusses the gradual increase in volume of mental workload that doctors have to deal with […]
Paul Glasziou and Iain Chalmers: Funders and regulators are more important than journals in fixing the waste in research
Funders and regulators have the principal power to implement most of the solutions needed to reduce research waste […]
Neville Goodman’s metaphor watch: Arctic waters
An iceberg is a useful metaphor. It appears most commonly as the tip of the iceberg, and it is a warning. Nine-tenths of an iceberg is under water, usually extending well […]
Disavowal: the great excuser that may destroy us
By Richard Smith and David Pencheon In 2007 Fiona Godlee, editor of The BMJ and somebody who has been concerned about the environment for at least 30 years, was outed […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Science—the cutting edge
The IndoEuropean root from which the word “science” eventually descends is SEK, or in an extended form SKEI, meaning to cut. In Greek σχίζειν meant to split or rend, giving […]
Richard Smith: A critique of Cyril Chantler’s plan for saving the NHS
Cyril Chantler—paediatric nephrologist, medical school dean, NHS manager, former chair of Great Ormond Street, and much else—is quite possibly the wisest man in the NHS. So we should play close […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Art
Ancient physicians considered medicine to be an art, typified by an aphorism of Hippocrates: Plato repeatedly referred to medicine as an art, for example in the Gorgias and the Symposium, […]