The Duchess of Cambridge’s support for children’s mental health at the beginning of the first Children’s Mental Health Week was welcome, necessary, and urgent. At a time when austerity measures […]
Patient and public perspectives
Karl Swedberg and Inger Ekman on person centred care in Europe
The health systems of the European Union make up a central part of Europe’s social protection. They contribute to social cohesion and social justice as well as to sustainable development. […]
Shanti Vijayaraghavan: Using mobile technology to empower patients
Where I work in Newham, east London, there are some acute challenges to delivering efficient and effective healthcare. We have a young local population with a high prevalence of diabetes […]
Larry Rees: Cancer is the best way to die? You couldn’t be more wrong
As an oesophageal cancer survivor of nine years—and now a terminal pancreatic cancer patient—I was deeply offended by Dr Richard Smith’s recent blog post in The BMJ, in which he stated that […]
Guddi Vijaya Rani Singh: What matters—medicine, culture, and the space in between
My grandfather passed away last year. Surrounded by travel weary loved ones (from an extended family that also extends across continents), this man from rural India was promised a peaceful […]
Aoife Molloy: Where your baby is born—informing mothers about the choices they face
This is not a birth story blog, hear ye! However, as a doctor and a mum who’s gone through the whole process of childbirth twice in the last two years, coupled […]
William Cayley: Meeting our patients in the midst of their chaos
“Not again . . . ” The mom with the troubled teen is late for their appointment . . . “Not again . . . ” The elderly widow needs […]
Helen Morant: How should doctors look at patients?
When health professionals talk about patient engagement, we express ideas of listening to patients’ voices, understanding their priorities, and changing our treatment models and priorities to focus on theirs. We […]
Anne Gulland: Is it okay to cry in front of patients?
This was a question I put to members of doc2doc, The BMJ’s community site. The idea was sparked by an obituary (yet to be published) of a respiratory physician who […]
Alison Cameron: NIHR INVOLVE—changing landscapes
I have been attending a great many healthcare conferences of late—to the extent that they have rather merged into one. A common thread running through all of them has been […]