The NHS is in the middle of the transition from a publicly funded and publicly provided health service towards a publicly funded but increasingly privately provided service. It is thus […]
Latest articles
Readers’ editor: Free pens and memory sticks
I spent yesterday at St George’s Hospital in Tooting, south London, talking to readers of the BMJ. The medical school library had organised an open day and a sales colleague […]
Magdalena Kincaid: Basic surgical training on the Mount of Olives
The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd) team has been here before, yet nothing from past experience can possibly prepare for being swept up by overwhelming excitement of entering […]
Tracey Koehlmoos on a national initiative for arts and health in the military
I was fortunate to have the opportunity to attend a national summit on arts, health, and wellbeing across the military on 10 April 2013. It was held at Walter Reed […]
Margaret McCartney: Clinical trial company tempts patients with free health screening
When buses in Glasgow started to come with posters asking if people were “Concerned about diabetes?” with an image of an older woman, a freephone number, and webpage for people […]
Desmond O’Neill: Alex Ferguson and the Field Marshall
Field Marshall Mannerheim of Finland is one of the giant, if relatively under fêted, figures of European history. Called out of retirement at the age of 72 to lead tiny […]
Richard Smith: Is anything less than fully informed consent abuse?
Recently in preparing a talk I was giving in Bologna I found a copy of a talk I’d given to WONCA, the world meeting of general practitioners, back in the […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review—20 May 2012
JAMA 15 May 2013 Vol 309 2016 I got into a bit of a muddle with this paper, but I blame JAMA. Let me test you out: the abstract says […]
David Lock: What does duty of care mean?
This is a serious blog about death, about what can go wrong in the dying process and how it can be put right. It arises out of an inquest where […]
Juliet Dobson: MSF scientific day 2013—how can we measure the impact of research?
How can we measure the impact of research? What is impact, and how can we show that research leads to measurable outcomes for patients? On 10 May, Médecins Sans Frontières […]