Trying to define a good doctor is as elusive a task as trying to define a good life or a good death. Like good lives and deaths, good doctors will […]
Richard Smith
Richard Smith was the editor of The BMJ until 2004.
Richard Smith: A 45 minute play on death
Caryl Churchill’s 45 minute play on death at the National Theatre begins with people at a drinks party after a funeral. Nobody is much upset. “The waters close over very […]
Richard Smith: Four reasons why we may not be responding in the right way to hypertension in low and middle income countries
Should we be responding to hypertension in low and middle income countries? Of course we should. Hypertension kills 10 million people a year prematurely, and 80% of those deaths occur […]
Richard Smith: Big data, Twitter, the NHS, and the junior doctors’ dispute
Big data, as we all know, is going to save us. Used well it will make health systems solvent, introduce immortality, cool the planet, bring peace in the Middle East, […]
Richard Smith: The NHS—a terrible thought
There is great reluctance in Britain to consider any other kind of funding for the NHS apart from taxation, but we are surely close to a time when we will […]
Richard Smith: What causes cholera? A Victorian debate
Yesterday I was in The Cholera Hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh; today I’m reading about a highly emotional debate about the causes and treatment of cholera that took place in India […]
Richard Smith: The Closer We Get
The Closer We Get shows the last months of a woman’s life after she has had a stroke and tells the complex story of a family as they gather around […]
Richard Smith: The Catch 22 of health strikes
Junior doctors are clearly extremely angry. Some 15 000 junior doctors recently protested against changes in their contract. As there are about 55 000 junior doctors in England, that’s the equivalent of […]
Richard Smith: Health research when carbon matters more than money
As I write this, the strongest hurricane ever detected in the Western Hemisphere is approaching the coast of Mexico, where my son lives. It may have nothing to do with […]
Richard Smith: A better way to publish science
Journals have been the main way to publish scientific research for 400 years, and remarkably they still are despite 20 years of the World Wide Web. But it’s becoming increasingly […]