Who gets to define value in health systems? The notion that it should be the people who use their services, rather than those who provide them, is gaining momentum. At […]
Latest articles
Bernard Merkel: Should patients really be at the centre of healthcare?
I attended the recent Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) policy forum on the Future of Health, “People at the Centre,” with mixed feelings. [1] On the one hand, the […]
Colin D Butler: Regional overload and the consequences it has for health
Almost 1% of the world population, mostly children, is forcibly displaced (including 11.7 million Syrians), an increase of over 50% from 2011. [1] Here I propose that the public health catastrophe […]
Neel Sharma: Fired up, ready to go!
Although I’m not usually political by a long shot, the presidential transition in the US today has made me reflect on Barack Obama’s legacy and his mantra of: “Fired up, […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Discovering lithium
There are many ways of discovering effective medicines. One can, for example, investigate herbal remedies, endogenous agents in animals and micro-organisms, or drug metabolites; use applied pharmacology and empirical chemistry; […]
What can we learn from the European Union’s first right to food law?
By Tomaso Ferrando and Roberto Sensi. In this second article on the #RightToFood, part of a BMJ Global Health series, we discuss our experience of the conception and enactment of a right to […]
David Kerr: Big pharma in Trumpland
Donald Trump has big pharma in the crosshairs. Using classic #TrumpSpeak, the soon to be 45th President of the United States hinted recently that Medicare, the biggest buyer of drugs […]
Yuhong Zhu: School bullying in China calls for holistic interventions and prevention
Recently there has been a lot of discussion on social media in China about bullying at school and the effect that it has on children’s mental health. Bullying is emerging […]
Richard Smith on supply-led demand—more doctors, more hospitals, more cost, but not more value
I squirm every time I hear that “increasing patient demand” is driving up costs in the NHS. I squirm because demand, although a standard technical word of economists, sounds so […]
David Shaw: The implications of conflicts of interest for informed consent
The General Medical Council (GMC) has detailed guidelines on handling conflicts of interest. These state that “You must not allow any interests you have to affect the way you prescribe […]