“What,” a Finnish journalist asks me, “should a patient ask before entering a clinical trial?” That’s a good question, I think, as on my feet I try to answer the […]
Richard Smith
Richard Smith was the editor of The BMJ until 2004.
Richard Smith: Can the NHS ever manage to analyse data to improve patient care?
In order to improve patient outcomes the NHS badly needs to collect data on all that is happening, analyse it intelligently, and present the information to clinicians and managers in […]
Richard Smith: Is flexible working good or bad for health?
Australia, like Britain, pushed hard for more flexible working in the labour market in the 80s, and all political parties and trade unions supported it because they assumed that it […]
Richard Smith: Epidemiology—big problems and an identity crisis
The Germans probably have a more precise word for it, but it’s close to schadenfreude as an outsider to watch a professional group agonise over who they are, whether they […]
Richard Smith: Finding meaning in life through neurosurgery
Paul Kalanithi, a neurosurgeon, wanted badly to understand life and its meaning, and he knew that to do so he would need to understand death. So when in his 30s […]
Richard Smith: The challenge of high need, high cost patients
A challenge to all health systems is how best to manage “high need, high cost patients,” a term developed by the Commonwealth Fund. Its president, David Blumenthal, discussed the best […]
Richard Smith: Being creative in developing primary care
Primary care covers the whole population, but it’s underfunded and has increasing difficulty recruiting doctors; and there are worries about equity and the quality of care. This could be the […]
Richard Smith: Teaching children to make better health decisions
After 30 years of trying to teach clinicians, policymakers, journalists, and patients the basic concepts of deciding if claims about health interventions are valid, Andy Oxman, one of the originators […]
Richard Smith: Mental health—has the tide finally turned?
When I spoke to this group four years ago about mental health services all was doom and gloom, but now I feel optimistic. This is how Paul Farmer, chief executive […]
Richard Smith: The “micro-macro problem” and the difficulty of using evidence to make policy
Doctors commonly complain that they consider evidence before they treat a patient, but politicians and policy makers don’t use the same rigour when making changes to health services. Indeed, Margaret […]