If you can look into the seeds of time, and say which grain will grow and which will not, speak then to me. – William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act I, Scene […]
Guest writers
Medical trainees should question why they preemptively order “routine” tests and investigations
Medical students from around the world utter the Hippocratic Oath when graduating medical school as an age-old commitment to professionalism. Yet, much of what we are taught during medical school […]
Pathology risks being left behind as conceptual and technological advances accelerate
Back in 2007 a diagnostic biopsy from a patient with lung cancer would frequently yield a one line diagnosis from the reporting pathologist; “This biopsy shows non-small cell carcinoma.” A […]
Elisabeth Ingram-Wallace: Opsnizing Dad
I decided OPSNIZE was for me when Dad lost his trousers on the bus. He threw them out the window. Then he rolled around on the floor, screaming his own […]
Mary Neal: Conscientious objection in the era of “home abortion”
The nature of abortion provision is changing, and professionals must be alert to what any changes might mean for their conscience rights […]
Improving transparency and replicability of healthcare databases to increase credibility of “real world” evidence
Evidence generated from “real world” data (e.g. administrative claims and electronic health record databases), alongside clinical trials, is highly valuable for regulatory, coverage, and clinical decisions. While randomized clinical trials […]
Kate Harding: “I have lost my husband” could not be more accurate—it feels like a carelessness
I have been widowed. It seems surreal to be writing that sentence, and yet it is indisputably true. I was there; I know. My husband, a consultant anaesthetist and intensivist, […]
Theodore Dalrymple: Form filling for suicides in prison
Theodore Dalrymple describes in his new book The Knife Went In the Britain he witnessed as a prison and NHS doctor, psychiatrist, and expert witness in criminal cases around Britain. […]
England must not be left behind in dealing with the scourge of cheap alcohol
The Scottish Government won a resounding victory on 15 November 2017 when the Supreme Court dismissed an appeal from the Scottish Whisky Association intended to block the introduction of a minimum […]
Paul Garrud: How shall we get 1,500 extra doctors a year?
England is going to train an extra 1,500 doctors a year, but where shall we find them and how shall we select them? I believe that we can find them […]