Digital transformation could increase the burden of treatment on patients
The burden of treatment refers to the demands that healthcare professionals and systems place on…
Author: British Medical Journal
Aaron Temkin Beck: psychiatrist who invented cognitive behavioural therapy
bmj;375/nov25_8/n2902/FAF1faCredit: © 2016 Moonloop Photography, courtesy of Beck Institute for Cognitive Behaviour TherapyAsk the daughter…
Could rural China’s healthcare deal with covid-19?
Nearly 40% of China’s population of about 1.4 billion people live outside urban areas, 2020…
Can we trust strong recommendations based on low quality evidence?
A necessary requirement for development of trustworthy guidelines is to respect the relation between the…
Pandemic mental health . . . and other stories
Suicides during the covid-19 pandemicCovid-19 has had a deleterious effect on the mental health of…
Headlines play down the gravity of covid-19 in children
“Only six healthy children died of covid in a year, but lockdowns fuel youth health…
Discordant and inappropriate discordant recommendations in consensus and evidence based guidelines: empirical analysis
AbstractObjectiveTo investigate whether alignment of strength of recommendations with quality of evidence differs in consensus…
Covid-19: Why China is sticking to “zero tolerance” public health measures
Maintenance of containment has greatly reduced the impact of covid-19 lives lost and socioeconomic progress,…
A moratorium on strong recommendations is needed
Medicine is addicted to so-called hopium, an unwarranted confidence in the value of its tests…
Predatory marriage: Doctors can help to spot and prevent this exploitation
In 2018, Joan Blass was married by a younger man while she had late-stage dementia….
Healthcare professionals have a vital role to play in safeguarding older people from abuse
Substantial numbers of older people experience financial, emotional, and physical abuse. Those with dementia and…
A strategy for NHS Scotland focused on reducing emissions and enhancing wellbeing
In 2019, the Scottish Government announced its ambition for NHS Scotland to become net-zero by…
China’s challenge in promoting older migrants’ health and wellbeing: a productive ageing perspective
Onarheim and colleagues discuss the health vulnerabilities and unmet health needs of migrant workers globally.1Newly…
Covid-19 and violence against women and children: time to mitigate the shadow pandemic
Covid-19 has highlighted the urgency of addressing violence against women and children, which reports suggest…
.jpg)
We need more patient and public reviews on research papers—and the resources to do so
Historically, patients have always been considered the passive recipients of healthcare. This way of thinking…
Time waits for no one
Medical students are always constrained by time. Too little time—too much content to revise, too…
Workforce: health leaders lament lost chance to secure safe staffing in Health and Care Bill
Doctors’ and health policy leaders have accused the government of squandering an opportunity to guarantee…
Unexplained metabolic acidosis
A man in his 20s was found to be unresponsive after experiencing headache and vomiting…
Hemichorea in non-ketotic hyperglycaemia
This is a brain magnetic resonance image (MRI) of a woman in her 70s with…
NICE recommends progesterone to prevent early miscarriage
Progesterone should be offered to women who experience bleeding in early pregnancy and have previously…
Sanitation workers: covid-19’s forgotten frontline
bmj;375/nov24_7/n2875/FAF1faNelson Owoicho/Water AidSanitation workers such as Iliyasu Abbas (pictured), a pit latrine and septic tank…
Conduct and reporting of formula milk trials: systematic review
In this paper by Helfer and colleagues (BMJ 2021;375:n2202, doi:10.1136/bmj.n2202, published 14 October 2021), a…
Effect of PEP flute self-care versus usual care in early covid-19: non-drug, open label, randomised controlled trial in a Danish community setting
AbstractObjectiveTo determine whether positive expiratory pressure (PEP) by PEP flute self-care is effective in reducing…
Opioids: US court finds major pharmacy chains guilty of contributing to crisis
Three of the US’s largest pharmacy chains have been found guilty of contributing to the…
Getting the “balance” right in clinical trials
Co-interventions are additional treatments, advice, or other interventions received by trial participants that are not…
David Oliver: Dismissing unwell people to argue for pandemic freedoms is abhorrent and unrealistic
On 12 November the Daily Telegraph headlined with “Six healthy children died of covid in…
mRNA vaccines: hope beneath the hype
The next decade will “see a revolution in mRNA therapeutics,” says Paul Burton, chief medical…
.jpg)
A movement for common care
Healthcare is unsustainableThe demand for healthcare services has been growing over recent decades. The medicalisation…
Helen Salisbury: E-consultations are increasing the GP workload
Easy and convenient access to a GP must be a good thing, and that’s arguably…
Leading oncologist who overtreated patients is found to have impaired fitness to practise
A UK oncologist with a world reputation faces possible striking off or suspension from the…
Sepsis guidance may change as result of deaths of two women from herpes infection after giving birth
Clinical advice on how to treat new mothers with sepsis could change after two women…
The world must act now to be prepared for future health emergencies
Covid-19 has affected each and every one of us. This is what sets it apart…
Give people choice of treatment options for depression, says NICE
People with depression should choose what treatment option is right for them, in discussion with…
Covid-19: What next for the Valneva vaccine?
In September, UK health secretary Sajid Javid said that the country’s medicines regulator would not…
Health and Care Bill fails to tackle workforce problems and risks outsourcing to private providers, BMA warns
The BMA has written to MPs highlighting concerns over the proposed NHS restructure set out…
Cradle to grave general practice: the family doctor
At the age of nearly 70 Joe Cohen still works a four day week in…
Moving beyond tokenism in our approach to human rights in digital health
Digital technology that depends on data and artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a key resource…
Sixty seconds on . . . wine, chocolate, and coffee
Are we about to be told off for excessive intake?Not this time. We’re all aware…
Covid-19 and pregnancy: vaccine hesitancy and how to overcome it
What’s the vaccine uptake in pregnancy?Some 80 000 pregnant women in England had received two…
A record 100 000 people in the US died from overdoses in 12 months of the pandemic, says CDC
The United States’ opioid epidemic worsened significantly during the pandemic, with overdose deaths recorded in…
Dudley trust fined {pound}2.5m over deaths of two patients from infection
A hospital trust has been fined more than £2.5m after pleading guilty to failing to…
We need rebels to imagine better futures
Godlee touches on the often overlooked issues of dissent, resistance, incivility, and indeed rebellion in…
Independent SAGE replies to The BMJ
We read The BMJ’s article on whether the Independent Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Independent…
Group programmes for weight loss may be more effective than one-to-one sessions
The studyAbbott S, Smith E, Tighe B, Lycett D. Group versus one-to-one multi-component lifestyle interventions…
When I use a word . . . . Examining the efficiency paradox
Abstract:Healthcare involves tackling patients’ problems using many different types of resources, both human and technological,…
Covid-19: Doctors will refuse to limit use of antiviral drug to unvaccinated patients, say ethicists
Leading US ethicists have warned that doctors will revolt if the drug regulator authorises an…
Changes in behaviour last year led to fall in antibiotic resistant infections
The incidence of antibiotic resistant bloodstream infections fell in England in 2020 for the first…
Partha Kar: Holding up a mirror to racism in the NHS
Listening to Azeem Rafiq’s testimony to MPs about institutional racism at Yorkshire County Cricket Club,1…
Overdiagnosis: it’s official
Recently the US National Library of Medicine (NLM) unveiled new terms to be included in…
Tom Nolan’s research reviews—19 November 2021
No surprises for PfizerThe phase II/III double-blind randomised controlled trial of Pfizer’s BNT162b2 vaccine in…