The other night, as is my wont, I imagined myself dying, and I wondered as I came near the end whether I would suddenly fear that I might be going […]
Richard Smith
Richard Smith was the editor of The BMJ until 2004.
Richard Smith on living funerals
As we begin to assimilate the reality of assisted suicide we should also take the next step to living funerals. I’ve never been to one, but a living funeral is […]
Richard Smith asks: How international do we want to be?
How international do we want to be? Many organisations find themselves discussing that question in a globalising world—and most don’t find it easy to answer. Britain itself can’t answer the […]
Richard Smith: Don’t panic, regret, worry, or feel guilty
I’m fed up of being told not to panic over swine flu. If I want to panic then I’ll panic. I’ll run naked and screaming down the street imploring my […]
Richard Smith on doing the right thing – but at a snail’s pace
One of the things about being an “old guy” is that you realise how extraordinarily slow we are at doing the right thing. You also see wheels being constantly reinvented. […]
Richard Smith on questioning doctors on their future
I have just come back from a gathering of the “big dogs of British medicine” at Highclere Castle, home of Lord Carnarvon, who participated in the discovery of the tomb […]
Richard Smith’s HealthCamp for innovators
I associate camps with wood smoke, burnt sausages, and filled latrines marked with crosses, but HealthCamp is different. It’s about innovation, and I attended my first one last week—at the […]
Richard Smith’s first days as a doctor
The Student BMJ is asking, via Twitter, for accounts of people’s first days as a doctor, and their request has for me brought back painful and partially suppressed memories. I […]
Richard Smith on how to improve your interaction with patients by 50%
If there was a pill that would improve your interaction with patients by 50% would you take it? I imagine you would. Well, I don’t know of such pill […]
Richard Smith asks: Can the rich save the world?
Mathew Bishop, one of the authors of Philanthrocapitalism , last night told the audience of a Lancet debate packed into the grandeur of the Royal Society of Arts in London, […]