We’ve had magic bullets (q.v.) and holy grails (q.v.). Last autumn, another unobtainable appeared on The BMJ’s news pages: “Is Hunt’s plan to expand medical student numbers more than a […]
Columnists
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Juniper
Milton Keynes was established as a “new town”, to relieve housing congestion in London, 50 years ago on 23 January 1967, an event that I did not think worthy of […]
Richard Smith: How do you produce social determinants that promote rather than undermine health?
Health, as we all know but are inclined to forget, is driven not by healthcare but by social determinants. But how do you produce social determinants that promote rather than […]
Kieran Walsh: Finding your way back from the wrong diagnosis
A 40 year old man has a cough—but his GP cannot find out the cause. Eventually the patient is referred to the local hospital where he is diagnosed with asthma. […]
Richard Smith: Dumfries and Galloway NHS 3: Accident and Emergency—meeting targets but “hand to mouth”
Richard Smith visited and wrote about the NHS in Dumfries and Galloway in 1980, 1990, and 1999, and this series of blogs describes what he found in 2016. A feature […]
Richard Smith: Dumfries and Galloway NHS 2—Recruitment is the number one problem
Richard Smith visited and wrote about the NHS in Dumfries and Galloway in 1980, 1990, and 1999, and this series of blogs describes what he found in 2016. A feature […]
Richard Smith: Dumfries and Galloway NHS I—The three priorities of the chief executive
Richard Smith visited and wrote about the NHS in Dumfries and Galloway in 1980, 1990, and 1999, and this series of blogs describes what he found in 2016. A feature […]
Abraar Karan: The success trap of academic medicine and the need for change
The career options available to physicians today are more diversified than they have ever been. Physicians are making their presence known in areas that are not fully clinical, including policy, […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Discovering lithium
There are many ways of discovering effective medicines. One can, for example, investigate herbal remedies, endogenous agents in animals and micro-organisms, or drug metabolites; use applied pharmacology and empirical chemistry; […]
David Kerr: Big pharma in Trumpland
Donald Trump has big pharma in the crosshairs. Using classic #TrumpSpeak, the soon to be 45th President of the United States hinted recently that Medicare, the biggest buyer of drugs […]