Recently junior doctors in the UK have been in the news for taking industrial action in protest at their new contract. A similar situation is happening in Colombia. However it […]
Guest writers
Jeanne Lenzer: The Backstory—Telling the truth about screening
According to various professional guidelines, if we’re the right age and gender, we’re supposed to have our breasts, lungs, prostate gland, cervix, colon, aorta, [1] liver, [2] pancreas, [3] heart and brain [4] […]
Sue Hogston: What little progress has been made for neurological services in England is in danger of slipping away
With more than four million people in England* currently living with a neurological condition—such as motor neurone disease, multiple sclerosis, Huntington’s disease, or Parkinson’s disease—it is very concerning, yet sadly unsurprising, […]
Neel Sharma: Lightening the learning load during junior doctor ward rounds
Educating newly qualified junior doctors to become masters of their trade is not easy. Hospital life is fast paced and typically acute. Rapid patient turnover as well as demands on […]
Jane Wells: Meningitis B vaccine—still learning to deal with uncertainty
Another vaccine controversy rears its head, this time meningitis B. The parents of a two year old who died of the disease posted pictures of their desperately ill child online, […]
Jennifer Rohn: Should the meningitis B vaccine be offered to children older than 1 year old?
The advent of quantitative approaches to understanding the patterns of disease ushered in a golden era for public health. From the link between smoking and lung cancer to HIV and […]
Beryl De Souza: Spirituality and compassion in medicine
Spirituality can be defined as “the aspect of humanity that refers to the way individuals seek and express meaning and purpose, and the way they experience their connectedness to the […]
Peter Buijs and Lode Wigersma on a Dutch medical appeal for nuclear disarmament
In September 2015, on the UN International Day for Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, a medical appeal for nuclear disarmament was presented in Amsterdam (see below). This declaration, signed with […]
Steve Ruffenach: Tech never forgets—does this make patients less keen to share?
The poet Thomas Moore wrote, “The heart that has truly loved never forgets.” Rocker Bob Seeger crooned, “Rock and Roll never forgets.” And indeed it was well over five years […]
Jamie Hartmann-Boyce: Nicotine replacement therapy—the evolution of an evidence base
What is “an evidence base?” And when does it become solid? Though it’s reassuring to think of an evidence base as fixed, in reality it’s a shape shifter—changing as new […]