Each year the BMJ runs an online reader survey. The survey is mainly multiple choice but there is also a free text question where we ask readers: “What single improvement […]
Latest articles
Krishna Chinthapalli on Atul Gawande—thinker, leader, doctor, writer
In 2009, Obama convened senior politicians in the Oval Office to discuss one magazine article: why were there Medicare costs of $15,000 per person per year in the Texan town […]
David Lock: Spot the legal howlers—picking over the assurances given by Lord Howe to the House of Lords
Healthcare lawyers have a new game—it’s called “spot the errors.” A number of us have been through the speech made by Lord Howe in winding up the debate in the […]
Richard Smith: A French recipe for happiness
Émilie du Châtelet, the French aristocrat, philosopher, lover of Voltaire, and interpreter of Newton, had highly original (and possibly even correct) ideas on the route to happiness. Those who are […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review—29 April 2013
JAMA 24 Apr 2013 Vol 309 1691 Last week I welcomed the imminent arrival of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) because it would classify every human […]
Richard Vize on the challenges faced by clinical commissioning groups
The mood among clinical commissioners less than a month into the new system is characterised by a determination to move care out of hospitals, frustration at legal and financial impediments […]
Estrella Lasry: Seasonal malaria chemoprevention—good news in a year marked by malaria emergencies
In 2012, MSF projects in several countries saw an important increase in cases of malaria, and a prolonged peak in areas of seasonal transmission. More than six emergency interventions were […]
Julian Sheather: Is psychiatry a form of torture?
I doubt few areas of medical practice are more ethically charged than the forced treatment of people with mental disorders. Recently a colleague forwarded me some comments made in March […]
Rhys Davies: Chronic frustrating syndrome
A wise man once said that he knew nothing at all except that he knew that he knew nothing at all. Socrates would have made a good medical student. Chronic […]
Narinder Kapur on using Gandhi’s teachings to inspire charitable work
As a follower of Gandhi, I was always fascinated by the subtitle of his autobiography—”Experiments with truth.” Gandhi noted, “Far be it for me to claim any degree of perfection […]