Has covid-19 become milder?
Is covid-19 really getting milder?The short answer is no. Covid-19 is still a deadly disease,…
Author: British Medical Journal
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The future of general practice in England
No one who works in general practice, and few patients attempting to access care, would…
An acutely painful hot swollen knee
A woman in her 90s presented to the emergency department with shortness of breath, fever,…
Blood pressure and the J shaped curve . . . and other stories
Systolic blood pressureA meta-analysis of a vast amount of data from randomised controlled trials and…
Comparative risk of thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome or thromboembolic events associated with different covid-19 vaccines: international network cohort study from five European countries and the US
AbstractObjectiveTo quantify the comparative risk of thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome or thromboembolic events associated with…
Reducing routine inpatient blood testing
What you need to knowRoutine, repetitive laboratory testing for hospital inpatients who are clinically and…
Ann Robinson’s research reviews—27 October 2022
Genital herpes: a sore subjectI was taught that herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) causes…
Wealth as a determinant of brain health
Farina and colleagues’ recent editorial argues that “public health messaging should promote brain health as…
Activists demand more funds for ME research
bmj;379/oct26_1/o2548/FAF1faTakenbyTaraDemonstrators in London’s Parliament Square last week called for hundreds of millions of pounds missing…
Helen Salisbury: Would GMC proposals prop up or undermine general practice?
Before 1979, being a GP required no postgraduate training. After completing medical school and a…
AI technologies: guidelines set out training requirements for NHS staff
All health and care staff will receive training in how to use artificial intelligence (AI)…
Rachel Clarke: Ukraine—how do you live in the face of death?
For her first six months of work as a doctor in the small Ukrainian town…
Impact of a package of health, nutrition, psychosocial support, and WaSH interventions delivered during preconception, pregnancy, and early childhood periods on birth outcomes and on linear growth at 24 months of age: factorial, individually randomised controlled trial
AbstractObjectiveTo determine the effect of integrated and concurrent delivery of health, nutrition, water, sanitation and…
A lethal staghorn
This is a left renal squamous cell carcinoma arising from a staghorn calculus in a…
My top BMJ Student picks—shake it out
Starting work at the BMJ as the new editorial scholar has been incredibly exciting.1 Picking…
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Scarlett McNally: Exercise can do wonders for social care
We need urgent radical solutions for the crisis in social care, to prevent the collapse…
Continuous glucose monitoring for adults and children with diabetes: summary of updated NICE guidance
What you need to knowThe guideline update recommends real-time continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) and intermittently…
WHO offers a prescription for tackling the health workforce crisis, but will the UK take the medicine?
Governments across Europe must act now to tackle a crisis in the health workforce. That…
FDA urged to publish follow-up studies on covid-19 vaccine safety signals
In July 2021 the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) quietly disclosed findings of a…
GP who repeatedly asked woman to remove her veil and lied about her complaint is suspended
A GP who pressed the mother of a child patient to remove her veil during…
A&E: Move patients to wards regardless of bed capacity, to spread risk, says royal college
A “continuous flow model” of care whereby patients are transferred from the emergency department into…
Sharp Scratch episode 83: students, sex work, and stigma
Sharp Scratch episode summaries are back. And we’ve chosen a big topic for this episode:…
Doctor faces new charges of wrongfully practising as a GP after GMC wins appeal
A doctor who was cleared by a medical practitioners tribunal of any misconduct is facing…
Tracking the performance of endovascular devices
The linked study by Goodney and colleagues in The BMJ (doi:10.1136/bmj-2022-071452) is an important evaluation…
Obesity alone should not rule out knee replacement surgery
The studyEvans JT, Mouchti S, Blom AW, et al. Obesity and revision surgery, mortality, and…
Use of linked registry claims data for long term surveillance of devices after endovascular abdominal aortic aneurysm repair: observational surveillance study
AbstractObjectiveTo evaluate long term outcomes (reintervention and late rupture of abdominal aortic aneurysm) of aortic…
What should I do if I witness a colleague sexually harassing another member of staff?
Doctors need to know that they will be supportedJo Wren, head of outreach for the…
The NHS is facing the bleakest midwinter
Last week, NHS England warned1 of a worst case scenario in which half of all…
US research coordinators are imprisoned for falsifying studies
Two study coordinators for a Florida based clinical research company have been sentenced to prison…
Treatment strategies for women with WHO group II anovulation: systematic review and network meta-analysis
Since the publication of the systematic review by Wang and colleagues in 2017 (BMJ 2017;356:j138,…
Management of psychiatric and cognitive complications in Parkinson’s disease
AbstractNeuropsychiatric symptoms (NPSs) such as affective disorders, psychosis, behavioral changes, and cognitive impairment are common…
Making better use of natural experimental evaluation in population health
Natural experiments have long been used as opportunities to evaluate the health impacts of policies,…
Reduce unnecessary use of proton pump inhibitors
What you need to knowProton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are effective and widely used, but often…
Sixty seconds on . . . long life livers
Is this like the lettuce that outlasted Liz Truss?Much longer than that. Researchers have found…
Clinical trials: Number started in UK fell by 41% in four years, finds report
The number of industry backed clinical trials started in the UK each year fell by…
Can SAS doctors help tackle the GP workforce crisis?
The General Medical Council has warned that a shortfall of doctors in primary care is…
The end of the rainbow? Preserving a symbol of LGBTQ+ allyship in the NHS
The covid-19 pandemic saw the image of the NHS logo next to a rainbow become…
Staff and patients at risk from underinvestment in health and social care, says England’s regulator
The health and care system in England “is in gridlock and unable to operate effectively,”…
When I use a word . . . . Too much healthcare—Biomarkers
Defining biomarkersThe term “biomarker” is surprisingly new. The earliest instance is from 1973, when it…
Licensing deal for cancer drug will increase access in low and middle income countries
More people in low and middle income countries will have access to nilotinib to treat…
Cholera: WHO rations vaccines to preserve stocks amid rising outbreaks
Countries confronting outbreaks of cholera will have to administer half the recommended doses of vaccines…
Managing a small burn
What you need to knowWhen calculating burn size, 1% of total body surface area (TBSA)…
Medical students—the fight for reproductive healthcare is ours
For US medical students, access to education about abortion is far from guaranteed. Abortion is…
Now auditors understand health better than government
When we find ourselves in times of trouble, might it be worth listening to the…
Pharmacists in England will be able to prescribe antibiotics without GP approval from next year
From next year England’s pharmacists will be allowed to prescribe a wider array of drugs—including…
Restore the doctor-patient relationship in primary care, say MPs
General practices should measure and report on continuity of care for their patients as a…
Tom Nolan’s research reviews—20 October 2022
The first RCT on colonoscopy screeningUntil now, recommendations supporting colonoscopy for colorectal cancer screening have…
East Kent Hospitals: “This cannot go on,” says doctor who found that babies could have survived with standard care
Suboptimal maternity care at two hospitals in Kent led to death or injury for dozens…
An adolescent girl with acute abdominal pain and abdominal mass
A girl in her early teens presented to the general paediatric department with 24 hours…
Winter waves . . . and other stories
A winter wave of covid-19Waning immunity and the many factors that help respiratory viruses thrive…