The birth of the Cochrane logo Twenty four summers ago I asked David Mostyn to design a logo to illustrate the objectives of the soon-to-be-opened Cochrane Centre. He did a […]
Guest writers
Paul Aylin: Weekend Gravity Waves
On 15th September 2016, a letter appeared in The Guardian with an unlikely collection of signatories including Lords, an MP, a number of medics, a leader in evidence based medicine […]
Laurence Gerlis: Is private medical practice that bad?
During my 30 years as a private GP I have become used to being insulted by other doctors. Some see us as mercenary quacks, with little genuine interest in patients’ […]
Nicholas S Hopkinson reviews “The state of medicine”
“I am furious, sad, and scared for the NHS” —Margaret McCartney’s opening words in the introduction to her latest, timely book, The State of Medicine (Pinter and Martin 2016). Understandable sentiments, […]
Mary Higgins: Breaking bad news in maternity care
There’s one thing I really hate about my job, and that’s a particular phone call. A midwife I respect will ring and ask can I come down straight away. A […]
Chris Packham: The trouble with public health
People think public health is all (lecturing the masses on) sex, drugs, and alcohol. Even fellow clinicians tend to forget about defined roles such as the public health specialist. These individuals focus […]
Mark Mikhail: The unsung hero of the Paralympic games
As the dust settles and we look back on an incredible Olympics followed by an even more successful Paralympics it is impossible to not be filled with admiration. We in […]
Claudia Stein: Europe is embracing the burden of disease approach
As readers of The BMJ, there’s a good chance you are familiar with the burden of disease (BoD) approach. BoD is a systematic scientific effort to quantify the comparative magnitude […]
Jonathan Roos: Let’s hear it for the case report
To date, more than 56 million papers have been published in the scientific literature. Astonishingly, printing out just the first page of each would create a stack almost 6km high—much […]
Derek Summerfield: My NHS Trust insists on face recognition software to be sure of who I really am
The other day my NHS Trust sent me notification that I was due renewal of my Disclosure and Barring (DBS) clearance (previously called CRB). I was asked to bring my […]