What should you say to a major food company if asked to speak to its senior managers? A friend of mine, a cardiovascular epidemiologist, received such an invitation and emailed […]
Richard Smith
Richard Smith was the editor of The BMJ until 2004.
Richard Smith: We don’t know how best to communicate the benefits and harms of drugs
Every day hundreds of thousands of doctors and patients around the world discuss the benefits and risks of drugs. You might think therefore that we know how to communicate the […]
Richard Smith: Why is the health service so hopeless with domestic violence?
I’ve always thought that death, although universal, was the great taboo for health services, but now I’ve discovered something that seems to cause even greater difficulty for clinicians – domestic […]
Richard Smith: Reducing chronic disease in Pakistan
Pakistan, like most developing countries, is experiencing rapidly rising rates of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and it has developed a draft national plan for countering […]
Richard Smith: The power of women in Pakistan
I’ve been in Pakistan teaching around 30 young women on the day that the Taliban has bombed a girls’ school in north west Pakistan killing three girls and injuring another […]
Richard Smith asks: Can we create a global network of mentors?
I’m on a plane flying home from Nigeria, where I’ve been participating in a workshop on writing and publishing in journals, reading scientific papers, and encouraging evidence based practice. I […]
Richard Smith on a chance to collaborate on a book on complex chronic disease
Would you like to contribute to a book on complex chronic disease? The book has been written for the Spanish government, which currently has the presidency of the European Union […]
Richard Smith: what use are memory clinics?
The government’s dementia strategy, which promises a memory clinic on every corner rather than a chicken in every pot, is not working. That’s not surprising as it’s the easiest thing […]
Richard Smith: What’s bothering doctors?
The fantasy that doctors are primarily concerned with patients and not much at all with money goes deep and is highly reassuring. Everybody was upset by two health ministers – […]
Richard Smith: A bad case of health
I’ve been puzzling for years over how to define health without making much progress, but I thought I might take a step forward by listening to a discussion on the […]