Professor Terence Ryan discusses the range of stimuli which can be picked up by the forebrain and directed to the amygdala, suggesting how they might be used as therapeutic interventions by both the medical and veterinary professions. The forebrain receives many stimuli which it passes on to the amygdala known as the emotional centre. It […]
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Unusual wounding influenced by the mind and demonstrating the power of the brain
Professor Terence Ryan discusses links between the amygdala and physical symptoms and signs such as psychogenic purpura. Medical students in 1950 at Oxford listened to Dr John Hunt talking about Indian Fakirs. The injury they could do to themselves without long term harm was fascinating. Since then this author has witnessed and photographed a sharp […]
Alien physician
Khalid Shalaby discusses some of issues facing international medical graduates training in the US. Many thoughts were racing through my head as I was writhing in bed with a fever in March 2020. Internal medicine residents have been on the frontlines of America’s fight against the pandemic. I was among the afflicted with the deadly […]
Mental Health Services in India: challenges and innovations
Dr. Manik Inder Singh Sethi discusses some of the challenges facing mental health services in India, as well as some potential solutions. I am a resident in the Department of Psychiatry that caters to one of the largest private universities in South India. India today boasts a population of 1.36 billion people, the second-highest in […]
Fighting Predatory Journals in Africa: The Tale of a Young Moroccan Scientist
Khalid El Bairi discusses the problem of predatory journals, providing his personal experiences in challenging this issue in Africa. The open science movement has radically transformed access to research worldwide. Notably, the number of for-profit open access journals has increased dramatically during the last few years. In parallel, predatory open access issue arose as a recent trend […]
The patient voice: a biased or valuable source of information?
Casper G. Schoemaker reflects upon a recent interaction which caused him to consider how we should think about the value of patient accounts of illness. The education department of our academic hospital is proud to be ‘patient-centered’. Consequently, a patient was invited as the first keynote speaker at a retreat for teachers and some students. […]
Postgraduate Examinations
Dr Phillip Welsby shares some MRCP tales… My guilty secret? It took me three attempts to pass MRCP. I qualified from the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine for Women (that’s another story that has nothing to do with my sexual orientation in case you were, as you were, wondering). In the olden days in […]
Invitations to write masterworks
Dr Philip Welsby discusses some recent invitations to contribute to a range of lesser-known journals… I read a paper dealing with predatory or low-quality journals1 with interest. Having written about 100 papers on a wide variety of topics I have obviously been included in multiple commercially distributed lists. Between 6th October 2019 and 23rd April […]
Enlightenment of COVID-19 for medical students as a major public health event
Xianqiang Yu reflects on the role of medical students in the COVID-19 pandemic… We read with great interest an article in your journal about the roles of medical students during COVID-19 [1]. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread and worsen, it raises questions surrounding medical students. From the articles published in your journal, I […]
Two plus two equals four. Well, maybe.
Philip Welsby explores the difficulties that can be faced in answering ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions in general practice… To my annoyance a politician was being interviewed on television. That in itself is perhaps annoying enough, but he would not answer a simple question with a simple answer. He kept on talking and had to be […]