Health, says the WHO, is a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. But could it be that some sort […]
Richard Smith
Richard Smith was the editor of The BMJ until 2004.
Richard Smith: A proposal for your retirement
Lots of my friends have recently retired or are retiring. None of them, as far as I know, have been on preretirement courses. They launch into retirement, which may be […]
Richard Smith on Larry Summers: an economist with glamour
I was once in a restaurant in London when Nicole Kidman brushed past my table. Six feet of silver glamour. The effect was very much more intense than shaking hands […]
Richard Smith: Should scientific fraud be a criminal offence?
At Britain’s first and only summit meeting on research misconduct in 2000, Alexander McCall Smith, a professor of medical law and ethics, argued that research misconduct (the gentlemanly phrase for […]
Richard Smith: Can the Grand Convergence replace the MDGs?
The Grand Convergence is the Big Idea of the Lancet Commission on Investing in Health. It is the idea that by 2035 the poor world could have similar mortality to […]
Richard Smith: Why do doctors make great tyrants?
Simon Sebag Montefiore, the son of a doctor, recently argued that doctors make highly effective tyrants. Is he right and if he is why might it be? His article was […]
Richard Smith: Does it take an earthquake to reform healthcare?
Integrating the fractured and fractious components of health and social care systems seems to be everybody’s current favoured “solution” for healthcare problems, but it’s hard to make happen. We now […]
Richard Smith: Am I behind the times in expecting to die?
Until last weekend it never crossed my mind that I wouldn’t die. Now after conversations with my brilliant friend Alex Jadad I fear that I might be hopelessly out of […]
Richard Smith on John Munro: odd shoes and charisma
How when you are a 20 year old medical student with almost no clinical experience and no experience at all of death do you talk to a dying patient? What […]
Richard Smith: The day I kissed 500 women
On Christmas Day 1976 I kissed 500 women. All of them were over 70 and institutionalised, and one was either dead or killed by my kiss. I was a houseman, […]