Geoff Whaley, a terminally ill man with motor neurone disease recently travelled from the UK to a Dignitas facility in Switzerland to end his own life. Shortly before his death, […]
Latest articles
Heart failure is not the immediate death sentence that the term implies, but we need to do a lot better
Heart failure is an unfortunate, and inaccurate, term with bleak connotations. After being told he had a diagnosis of heart failure, one of my patients thought his heart was going […]
Unreported trial of the week: Utilizing Interleukin 10 levels as a guide for antibiotic selection in MRSaB infection (NCT02660346)
Maria van Hove, Nick DeVito, Ben Goldacre Background The US FDA Amendments Act (FDAAA 2007) requires certain clinical trials to report their results onto ClinicalTrials.gov within one year of completion. European Union […]
Richard Smith: The most devastating critique of medicine since Medical Nemesis by Ivan Illich in 1975
Seamus O’Mahony, a gastroenterologist from Cork, has written the most devastating critique of modern medicine since Ivan Illich in Medical Nemesis in 1975. O’Mahony cites Illich and argues that many […]
Zackary Berger’s weekly research reviews—13 February 2019
Zackary Berger reviews the latest research from the medical journals […]
Overtesting American doctors: The toxic pressure of board exams
The US’s Step 1 exam is increasingly career defining, driving many medical students to adopt punishing routines while studying for it. Pranav Reddy and Kunal Sindhu call for change […]
Giles Maskell: A really stupid mistake
As a radiologist I’m used to getting things wrong, but this one shook me up a bit […]
Gambling: an unaddressed public health challenge, especially for children
There is an increasing understanding that gambling is a public health issue, yet insufficient mainstream effort is being used to address gambling related harms. While many people gamble and experience […]
Dubhfeasa Slattery: Open disclosure—doctors need ongoing training and peer support
If we want open disclosure to work, we need to properly train doctors in responding to adverse events, says Dubhfeasa Slattery […]
Henry Kitchener: Primary cervical screening with human papillomavirus testing
According to our latest research paper, screening for high risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) infection is more sensitive than cytology testing. Together with prophylactic HPV vaccination this provides a compelling rationale […]