It is no secret that the UK healthcare system is under strain. The percentage of GDP spent on healthcare is projected to fall to 6.6% by 2020/21, back to the same […]
Columnists
Martin McKee: Article 50 has been triggered. Now what?
The sound of ideology slamming into a wall of reality is already echoing throughout Whitehall, says Martin McKee, as he unpicks some of the consequences of Brexit. […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Translational research—an early model
A clear definition of translational research is hard to come by. Typical general definitions include: • the process of transferring, from bench to bedside, findings in basic science into clinical […]
Richard Smith: How would medicine be altered by aunt Léonie’s machine?
“My aunt Léonie,” writes Marcel Proust in In Search of Lost Time, “wished to see invented a machine that would enable the doctor to undergo all the sufferings of his […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Translational research—early developments
Last week I discussed the nonlinear nature of systematic reviews and suggested that many aspects of medical science are also nonlinear. I believe this to be true of translational medicine. […]
Abraar Karan: Revisiting health as a human right—does everyone have the right to be healthy?
Is health a human right? This question has been a point of global contention, and in particular has driven the highly partisan ideological views on health reform in the United […]
Paul Glasziou and Iain Chalmers: Ill informed replications will increase our avoidable waste of research
How does the replicability crisis relate to the estimated 85% waste in medical research? […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Cherry picking and berry picking in systematic reviews
Cherry picking originally meant “the action or practice of harvesting cherries” (Oxford English Dictionary). The term is recorded as having been first used in November 1849, in Godey’s Lady’s Book: […]
Martin McKee: A plan for Brexit? Some hope
Any lingering hope that the government had some master plan for exiting the EU was dispelled this week, says Martin McKee. […]
Richard Smith: Doctors—the case for professional citizenship
Do doctors have extra duties as professional citizens? What are they and do they ever conflict with self-interest? Richard Smith explores […]