Social determinants of health (such as income, social status, educational level, and physical or social environments) are firmly in the mainstream of health policy, exemplified by their inclusion in the […]
Guest writers
Hearfield and Collier: What can we do about internet “misuse”?
We are constantly bombarded with terrifying stories about the internet. Recently, Instagram was implicated in the suicide of a 14 year old girl—her father believes that her death was in […]
I Look Like a First World War Surgeon
In 2015, women surgeons tweeted images of themselves with the hashtag #Ilooklikeasurgeon (pictured). It was a ground-swell attempt to change unconscious gender bias surrounding the way people think about clinicians […]
Ian Leistikow: On being a good regulator
Understanding the challenges that healthcare professionals face is essential for effective regulation, says Ian Leistikow […]
Fiona Gillison: Reflections from a casualty of the food industry research funding debate
Researchers are increasingly being encouraged to seek funding from industry sources to support their work, both by research councils and their own institutions. However, within fields such as obesity and […]
Janine Freeman: UK’s response to Type 2 diabetes impresses West Australian Committee
On a recent visit to the UK, the West Australian Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education and Health was impressed by the shift in focus from the medical treatment of type […]
Laith Al-Rubaiy: First shoots of recovery for Iraq’s beleaguered healthcare system
Eighteen months since the defeat of Daesh—the so-called Islamic State—Iraq appears to be gradually returning to some semblance of normality. Certainly, in my own field, medicine and healthcare, the country […]
Why it is important to make the undergraduate medical curriculum LGBT+ inclusive
There is substantial evidence of disparities in mental and physical health outcomes in the LGBT+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and minority sexual and gender identities) community. [1] This can be […]
We need a renewed focus on primary prevention to tackle youth knife violence in the longer term
We should focus on working with families, schools, communities and other organisations to protect our young people from becoming embroiled in violent crime […]
Holger J. Schünemann: All evidence is real world evidence
Clinical guidelines are often criticized for not paying enough attention to “real world evidence” (RWE) such as big data, patient generated data, data from registries, or electronic health records. Real […]