The American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions have rolled into Dallas this week and the city is awash with two conversations: whether the latest cholesterol guidelines will result in the gross […]
Editors at large
Edward Davies: Open data – are you a great big hypocrite?
During the Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association I spoke to several people and attended a session with several speakers on the importance of open data. On the availability […]
Edward Davies: What’s the point of all this? Existential angst at the AAMC
What’s the point of all this? I ask not as a suicidal prelude or remark of self-indulgent philosophy, but after two days at the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) […]
Trish Groves: Postpublication review—what role should journals play?
The National Center for Biotechnology Information of the US National Library of Medicine has emerged from the US shutdown with a new service: PubMed Commons. It’s a system for commenting […]
Annabel Ferriman: Which doctor was happiest on 26 May, 1989?
Never let it be said that doctors are a homogeneous group. Quizzing doctors over the last few months about their hopes, fears, inspirations, and aspirations, the BMJ discovered an infinite […]
Jett Aislabie: Airport noise and cardiovascular disease
Last week we published a cluster of papers on airport noise and cardiovascular disease. One US based study found a statistically significant association between exposure to aircraft noise and risk […]
Edward Davies: How health is being hit by the US shutdown
The closure of Panda Cam at the Smithsonian National Zoo may be the highest profile casualty of the government shutdown in the US, but with a third week edging ever […]
Tiago Villanueva: The obesity epidemic in Mexico
I recently learned that about 38% of the calories consumed by pregnant women in Mexico comes from the consumption of sugary drinks, like sodas. Mexico also has the highest consumption […]
Sophie Cook: The pitfalls of consultation skills models
Have GPs become too pre-occupied with consultation skills models? According to Roger Neighbour, author of “The inner consultation” a book familiar to most generations of GPs, while consultation models are […]
Edward Davies: Health and politics: time to end the filibuster
The machinations behind the current attempt to defund Obamacare are politically complicated and have a prelude several years long. The evolving story on the federal budget and the rights and […]