I enrolled for the Preventing Overdiagnosis conference assuming that the focus would be on cancer screening, but I was thankful that the conference covered every clinical specialty, including paediatrics, psychiatry, […]
Guest writers
Liu Xu et al: Chinese doctors leaving public hospitals—brain drain or emancipation?
Recently the resignation of Yu Ying, a Chinese female doctor from a famous public hospital has provoked heated discussions among the Chinese netizens. Yu Ying was an […]
Alison Spurrier on the demise of the Liverpool care pathway
I would cautiously suggest that these days “death and dying” is no longer the taboo subject it used to be. People are aware of their mortality and seem to be […]
Aser Garcia Rada: The chaos and injustice of excluding migrants from public funded healthcare—lessons from Spain
On 1 September 2012 the conservative Spanish government of the People’s Party ended 26 years of highly valued universal healthcare coverage. The Royal decree 16/2012 on urgent measures to guarantee […]
Richard Cook: Twitter, doctors, and rules
Ever get frustrated during a consultation? How should doctors deal with that? The patient comes first of course—we, as doctors, know that and have that mantra at the centre of […]
Sylviane Gindrat: “At the Doctor’s Side”—a trilogy of documentary films
I presented my documentary trilogy “At the Doctor’s Side” about family doctors in Switzerland at the Wonca World conference 2013 in Prague. Each film portrays two protagonists. In the first […]
Mike Hobday: Understanding our growing cancer population
All areas of healthcare are rich in data, some more so than others. Take intensive care. As patients are constantly monitored; the intensive care unit (ICU) is one of the […]
Gabriel Scally: Crumbs from the table for cycling and walking
These days, I worry occasionally about appearing churlish. I fully understand that when some investment in cycling is announced the expected response is that I should applaud politely and feel […]
Lucien Engelen: Patients not included
We all know that healthcare faces huge challenges—budget cuts, increasing demand, and a shortage of skilled personnel. To help find solutions to this, conferences are set up to discuss the […]
Paul J Rosch: Cholesterol, cancer, and statins
Numerous studies of healthy people show that a low cholesterol concentration that has persisted for a decade or more is associated with an increased risk of cancer, and that elevated […]