Funders of research are the one group who have the power to change the slow, inefficient, old-fashioned, wasteful, arbitrary, and, some would say, iniquitous way that we publish science. About […]
Richard Smith
Richard Smith was the editor of The BMJ until 2004.
Richard Smith: Bed management in hospitals—horrible and badly in need of reform
The British public is used to operations being cancelled and to whole hospitals being unable to admit more patients because no beds are available. A recent television programme showed how […]
Richard Smith: Matlab, a centre in Bangladesh that has conducted trials that have changed the world
Matlab, a subdistrict 57 km from Dhaka in Bangladesh, is the site of the oldest demographic surveillance site in a low and middle income country. It’s famous for the world-changing […]
Richard Smith: Amateurism still flourishing in scientific journals
In 1995 Stephen Lock, once editor of The BMJ and effectively the first person in Britain to be seriously concerned about research misconduct, called for an end of amateurism in […]
Richard Smith: Preventing a cholera epidemic among the Rohingya
An outbreak of cholera commonly occurs in humanitarian disasters as with war in Yemen, where some 2000 people have died of cholera, or after the earthquake in Haiti. Usually vaccination […]
Richard Smith: Visiting the camps of the Rohingya
I stand on a hill in the middle of the largest of the Rohingya camps in Bangladesh beside a hospital run by Médecins Sans Frontières and see the huts of […]
Medical professionalism: a key to a better health system and more satisfied doctors
I wonder how many medical students and doctors could confidently define “medical professionalism.” Few, I suspect. Indeed, I don’t think that I could have done until I spent two months […]
Richard Smith: Reducing variation in practice—at last?
Healthcare, says Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, is the world’s largest cottage industry. This is illustrated by the enormous variations in practice that occur all across healthcare. Ten […]
Richard Smith: A case that illustrates why the NHS appointment system needs to move from the 18th to the 21st century
Today the Royal College of Physicians has concluded that the way the NHS runs outpatient appointments is stuck in the 18th century. Many of the appointments are not necessary, and […]
Richard Smith: The hegemony of “health people”
While the NHS is promised another £20 billion (which is still not enough, “health people” say), I listen every day on the radio to teachers, police, prison officers, social workers, […]