I used to be part of running a course for editors of medical journals, and on each course we’d encounter editors, usually distinguished professors, who worked evenings and weekends on […]
Latest articles
Julian Sheather: Vulnerable adults, coercion, and the inherent jurisdiction of the High Court
In law, the capacity to make a specific decision has a binary quality. Somewhat like a light it is either on or off, you either have it or you don’t […]
David Kerr: The dangers of going to hospital
Hospitals can be dangerous places. Two things happen to everyone admitted to hospital for more than a few hours—they are put to bed and are fed. Over half a century […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review – 2 July 2012
JAMA 27 June 2012 Vol 307 2595 Of all the things that made me glad to retire from general practice two years ago, pay for performance must top the list. […]
Andrew Brunskill on Obamacare – can we keep politics out of this picture?
At a recent meeting in Washington State an attender denounced the evils of The Affordable Care Act (ACA), or as it has become known “Obamacare.” He argued that requiring compulsory […]
Desmond O’Neill: Aiming to lose
Working as a doctor in Ireland has many positive aspects, particularly a warm human ambience and a remarkable love of the spoken word. On the debit side of the linguistic […]
Richard Smith: A bad bad week for access
I was once the editor of the BMJ and chief executive of the BMJ Publishing Group. I work for a $100 billion company. I’m an unpaid professor at both Warwick […]
Edzard Ernst: The “integrated medicine” straw-man
Proponents of integrated medicine want us to believe that they are offering “the best of both worlds” to their patients and claim that using a combination of alternative plus conventional […]
Andrew Brunskill: The strike zone—nothing to do with pensions in the USA
Doctors don’t strike about employee pensions in the USA. This is because many of them are not employees and few have defined pensions from the employers. Most doctors are in […]
Domhnall MacAuley: Storm clouds and research
On an island off the west coast of Ireland, I picked up a discarded newspaper while sheltering in a bar. Browsing through, I came across an article about physical activity […]