Covid careers: how the pandemic changed my working life
Michael FarquharPaediatric sleep consultant, Evelina London Children’s Hospital“I’ve been a consultant for 10 years and…
Author: British Medical Journal
Retaining trial participants takes more than a Christmas card
“Bah humbug! Sending Christmas cards to trial participants does not increase retention.” So conclude Coleman…
Building utopia from disaster: could the pandemic show a way to better healthcare? An essay by Agnes Arnold-Forster
As soon as the covid-19 pandemic started, commentators began to predict the radical social, political,…
Bah humbug! Association between sending Christmas cards to trial participants and trial retention: randomised study within a trial conducted simultaneously across eight host trials
AbstractObjectivesTo determine the effectiveness of sending Christmas cards to participants in randomised controlled trials to…
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Gatekeepers, wizards, and a mutual appreciation of each other’s kingdoms
Collaborative working is crucial to providing joined up, high quality care, yet medicine continues to…
Listening to illness: hearing gout through music
Some research found that the risk of gout increased during the winter season1—not then the…
Unequal global vaccine coverage is at the heart of the current covid-19 crisis
In early 2020, as the covid-19 pandemic started to spread across the world, warm words…
First the words, now the actions: a proactive approach to tackling sexism in medical school
We are heartened that our students feel empowered to speak out about sexism1 and that…
Opioid treatment for non-cancer pain: we need a comprehensive approach
Wilton and colleagues’ large retrospective cohort study of 60 000 participants is part of a…
Addressing racist parents in a paediatric setting: the nuance of zero tolerance policies
Everyone has a right to healthcare, but on occasion this can conflict with the right…
Trial overdose prevention centres to halt rise in UK drug deaths, urge health leaders
Leaders in health and drug policy are urging the government to pilot overdose prevention centres…
Covid-19: Do vaccines work against omicron—and other questions answered
What mutations does omicron have?Omicron’s spike protein has at least 30 amino acid substitutions, three…
Covid-19: Monoclonal antibodies authorised in US as alternative to vaccines for certain groups
The US drug regulator has granted emergency use authorisation to a combination of two monoclonal…
Ann Robinson’s research reviews—10 December 2021
Parathyroidectomy: underrated and underused?Primary hyperparathyroidism—diagnosed on the basis of high blood calcium and parathyroid hormone…
Protecting the mental health of groups needing NHS care this winter
The sudden return to coronavirus restrictions to protect the UK from the latest “heavily mutated”…
Paul Bekkering; GP and co-founder of one of the first abortion clinics in the Netherlands
bmj;375/dec10_6/n3054/FAF1faPhoto credit: Arre BekkeringDutch general practitioner Paul Bekkering recalled the 1970s and confronting a Roman…
When I use a word . . . . The Precautionary Principle: a brief history
AbstractTwo ideas precede the modern Precautionary Principle. First, that prevention is better than cure, exemplified…
UK drug regulator formalises plan to cut staff in response to Brexit income loss
The UK’s medicines and devices regulator will stop work that “does not add value” and…
New Zealand plans to outlaw tobacco sales to citizens born after 2008
New Zealand will become the first country in the world to implement a “tobacco-free generation”…
Biased Outcome reporting Guidelines for Underwhelming Studies (BOGUS) statement and checklist
AbstractMost biomedical research is flawed. While existing reporting guidelines (eg, STROBE, CONSORT, STARD) highlight the…
Stressing the personal benefits of the covid-19 vaccine might encourage more people to accept it
The studyFreeman D, Loe BS, Yu LM, et al. Effects of different types of written…
Imposter syndrome—a particular problem for medical students
“Everyone loses when bright people play small,” according to Valerie Young, an internationally renowned expert…
Moosa Qureshi: My battle with the government over transparency and covid-19 pandemic preparedness
“I’m just very stubborn,” smiles consultant doctor and transparency campaigner Moosa Qureshi. His mood reflects…
My final choice: speaking truth to power
What does it mean to “speak truth to power,” and how much does it matter…
Trusts pays {pound}2.8m to couple for whose baby was stillborn after five days of labour
A major teaching trust whose maternity services have been rated inadequate by the Care Quality…
Help nature to help us
Although it is said that we live on Earth, humanity has spent its brief history…
Poor nutrition in childhood . . . and other stories
Early childhood undernutritionUndernutrition in early childhood, identified by wasting, stunting, or being underweight, affected more…
I’d like to thank . . .
Join our social media campaign on Twitter to thank those who have supported you through…
Mandatory covid-19 vaccination for healthcare workers: all employers are bound by health and safety laws to reduce risk
Sokol is right about mandatory vaccination for healthcare workers.1 As well as our professional ethical…
Turning up the heat on the NHS: it’s not fair only to blame the government
I read Edwards’ editorial with interest.1 As a concerned citizen and a consultant in public…
Cancer trial recruitment fell by 60% last year during pandemic
The number of patients with cancer entering clinical trials fell by 60% last year during…
A healthcare system close to collapse in Afghanistan
bmj;375/dec08_10/n3019/FAF1faSandra CalligaroA child is treated at Médecins Sans Frontières’ inpatient therapeutic feeding centre at Herat…
Avoiding the trap of causality
In medicine, the timing of an intervention is critical, but once a treatment or procedure…
Association of bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy with all cause and cause specific mortality: population based cohort study
AbstractObjectivesTo determine if bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, compared with ovarian conservation, is associated with all cause or…
Seven days in medicine: 1-7 December 2021
Covid-19WHO states will negotiate pandemic treatyMembers of the World Health Organization agreed to begin negotiating…
Global health system resilience is in everyone’s interest
With an official death toll that has just surpassed five million, the covid-19 global crisis…
Covid-19: Coroners call for changes after highlighting avoidable deaths during pandemic
Coroners in England are demanding changes in a series of reports highlighting how the struggling…
Graded exercise therapy for ME/CFS: finding consensus between the royal colleges, patients, and researchers
The BMJ reports the royal colleges’ discontent with the new National Institute for Health and…
Covid-19: Whatever happened to the Novavax vaccine?
At the start of the covid-19 pandemic a small US drug company found itself in…
Guidance on cow’s milk allergy may be fuelling overdiagnosis in infants, study finds
International guidelines designed to help doctors diagnose cow’s milk allergy in infants may be leading…
Bureaucracy has created a mess for Novavax volunteers like me
Be in a trial, I tweeted. Trials are great, I said on the radio. But…
Scales, fissures, and haemorrhagic crusts on the palms
This is crusted scabies on the hands of a man in his 70s (fig 1)….
Remote, proactive, telephone based management of toxicity in outpatients during adjuvant or neoadjuvant chemotherapy for early stage breast cancer: pragmatic, cluster randomised trial
AbstractObjectiveTo evaluate the effectiveness of remote proactive management of toxicities during chemotherapy for early stage…
David Oliver: Zealotry risks making faster hospital discharge a cult
We should be wary of single issue zealotry in health service delivery, which risks making…
The US opened up access to health records—how do patients use them?
Many have argued for patients to be given greater access to their medical records. The…
Health at COP26: just the beginning
During the first two weeks of November, the global health community advocated on behalf of…
Poland’s government plans mandatory registry of pregnancies and “family institute” with prosecutorial powers
A year after Poland’s top court imposed restrictions on abortion rights, the government plans to…
Rammya Mathew: The true cost of unnecessary investigations
In UK general practice we’re very fortunate to have easy access to diagnostic investigations. I…
Mandatory covid-19 vaccination for healthcare workers: vaccinated and unvaccinated people seem as likely to infect others
Sokol’s main argument for mandatory covid-19 vaccination of healthcare workers is that vaccination of patient…
Misconduct in public office?
Civil society organisations have a critical role in a democracy, holding governments to account for…