In my last two blogs I discussed empathy and suggested that it may take different forms. Here I expand on those ideas and compare sympathy, empathy, and compassion. I take […]
Latest articles
Joanna Lyall: Feeding the 400
The comfort of food is not a concept readily accepted by institutions, be they hospitals, schools, or nursing homes. As well as financial constraints—many NHS trusts in England feed inpatients […]
No waiving goodbye to Medicaid expansion: What does the rejection of Ohio’s Medicaid waiver proposal mean for other states?
Since the enactment of the Affordable Care Act (ACA, or Obamacare), the number of uninsured individuals in the United States decreased from 49 million in 2010 to 29 million in 2015. […]
Shilpa Prabhakar: Should you choose mental health as your specialty?
I have always wanted to be a doctor. Perhaps, like many, I was attracted to medicine because I wanted to help people. After qualifying in 2004, I briefly did a general […]
Bengt Fadeel: Bob Dylan, the Nobel Prize, and The Day of the Locusts
Our paper, published last year in The BMJ, on the tendency among scientists in the biomedical field to cite Bob Dylan’s lyrics in their own papers,1 seems to have struck a […]
Laura Burkimsher: The art of medicine
“The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.” — Voltaire This was the opening sentence of my personal statement for my application to medical […]
Joe Freer: Patient advocacy for antimicrobial resistance
“It was a good idea to get an economist to lead the review,” said Lord Jim O’Neill in Westminster yesterday*, referring respectively to himself and his 2016 report on Tackling […]
Behrooz Astaneh: Iran’s scientific community shouldn’t be put in the shade
A recent news report published in Science ran with the alarming headline: “A shady market in scientific papers mars Iran’s rise in science.” The story reports that some Iranian scholars […]
Neel Sharma: Lessons from the Bronx
I have just relocated to the Bronx in New York. At 29 I made it my mission to work and live abroad. I realised there comes a point when simply […]
Richard Smith: STPs—too much sustainability, too little transformation?
STPs (Sustainability and Transformation Plans) are the device that it is hoped will save the NHS in England by dramatically improving efficiency and allowing NHS bodies to balance their budgets. […]