“The thing that makes someone get up at 5am and run—we want it.” Besides the text was a picture of a running shoe. It was a recruitment advertisement for managers […]
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Liz Wager: Follow the rules—as soon as we’ve written them
One of my most vivid schoolday memories is of being told off for doing something I didn’t know was forbidden. My crime was “running in the school corridors” which seemed […]
Paul Glasziou: Most innovations are not advances: innovation + evaluation = progress
Innovation is currently fashionable. But new is not necessarily better [1]. Progress rests in sifting out the effective innovations. Edison clearly understood this process: when he developed the light bulb, […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review—14 January 2013
JAMA 9 Jan 2013 Vol 309 155 We know in our bones that vitamin D is important, and we even have a rough idea of the blood levels that are […]
Desmond O’Neill: Turner, medical history, and ageing
Limiting access adds savour to most sensory experiences, a sentiment captured by Patrick Kavanagh in his poem Advent: “through a chink too wide comes in no wonder.” A narrow aperture […]
Kieran Walsh: Should we be more short term in our thinking about medical education?
Putting the horse before the cart always seems like a sensible idea. And so it is with funding initiatives—it seems sensible to invest in starting up sustainable projects that will […]
Jonny Martell: An anthropological view of care of elderly people
When viewed through the perspective offered by an anthropological lens, “care of elderly people” is an extraordinary phenomenon in Western culture. Reading the masterful survey of what we might learn […]
Saleyha Ahsan on providing medical care in Syria
It had been raining for three days solid before I arrived at Atme refugee camp, in North Syria. I was there with Rola*, a British Syrian doctor and medical co […]
Lifebox Q and A: El Salvador—education, education, education
A pulse oximeter in the operating theatre doesn’t make surgery safer; it’s the anaesthesia provider using the oximeter effectively who will save lives. For Lifebox, the BMJ’s Christmas charity, provision […]
Kailash Chand on the value of the “friends and family test”
Last week prime minister David Cameron announced a series of measures to improve nursing standards and care, including a “friends and family test” (FFT). To me, it appears more of […]