What you need to know about physician associates
How did physician associates come about?The role originated at Duke University, North Carolina, as a…
Category: British Medical Journal
Increase taxes on alcohol and sugary drinks, WHO urges
The World Health Organization has urged countries to apply more taxes on alcohol and sugary…
The new health secretary must tackle ȷunior doctors’ dissatisfaction before winter
Despite the announcement of new strike dates, the recent offer by the government to NHS…
Nigel C H Stott: pioneering academic GP who championed multidisciplinary approaches to understand and tackle complex health problems
bmj;383/dec06_12/p2891/FAF1faNigel Stott’s academic and clinical contributions were built on the principle that improving health requires…
Districts of Pakistan boycott polio immunisation until economic and health demands are met
Tribal elders in the last remaining areas of Pakistan to have endemic wild polio are…
November top picks: A strange time to study medicine
While at medical school, the calendar’s 11th month—the year’s 11th hour—seems to be inseparable from…
Conditions in Gaza are ripe for “epidemics and public health disaster,” UN warns
Gaza’s health system is “on its knees” as “mentally and physically exhausted” Palestinians face more…
Court dismisses leadership of Turkish Medical Association after criticism of government
A civil court in Ankara has dismissed all 11 elected leaders of the central council…
The global health community must prevent the erosion of human rights in healthcare
“If access to healthcare is considered a human right, who is considered human enough to…
Inconsistent definitions of labour progress and over-medicalisation cause unnecessary harm during birth
Prolonged labour results in considerable morbidity and mortality globally in women and children, as well…
Effectiveness of conservative management versus laparoscopic cholecystectomy in the prevention of recurrent symptoms and complications in adults with uncomplicated symptomatic gallstone disease (C-GALL trial): pragmatic, multicentre randomised controlled trial
AbstractObjectiveTo assess the clinical and cost effectiveness of conservative management compared with laparoscopic cholecystectomy for…
NHS culture change is difficult, not impossible—but essential, says health ombudsman
Early on in his career as a civil servant, Rob Behrens, now the parliamentary and…
Managing symptomatic gallstone disease
Symptomatic gallstone disease (cholelithiasis) is the classic indication for elective cholecystectomy.1 In addition to relieving…
Cosmetic surgeon is struck off for dishonesty and as a risk to patient safety
A cosmetic surgeon has been struck off the UK medical register after a tribunal found…
Helen Salisbury: How the duty of kindness could suppress legitimate debate
Good Medical Practice is a guide produced by the General Medical Council (GMC) that sets…
Junior doctors announce new strike dates
Junior doctors in England have announced two further rounds of strike action, in December and…
MPs back compensation scheme for patients given infected blood
MPs have voted to establish a compensation scheme for NHS patients who were given infected…
Susan Abarca Salazar: consultant in paediatric infectious diseases whose research benefited children with neurological infections
bmj;383/dec05_11/p2849/FAF1faYYNYsalazar301123.f1YYSusan Abarca Salazar, a consultant in infectious diseases who was conducting doctoral research on evaluating…
Invest in youth led efforts for gender equality and pandemic preparedness
Women, people aged under 30, and marginalised populations, especially from low and middle income countries…
Covid inquiry: Hancock is grilled on care homes, lockdowns, and testing
Matt Hancock, the UK health secretary between 2018 and June 2021, acknowledged major deficiencies in…
Curb antidepressant prescribing to improve mental health, say campaigners
A group of 31 medical professionals, researchers, patients’ representatives, and politicians has called on the…
Primary care needs to rise to the challenge of caring for patients during climate disasters
As a primary care physician and climate health research fellow, I’m alarmed by how unprepared…
Building climate resilient and low carbon health systems
The effect of climate change on human health is increasingly visible,1 and health systems will…
Advances in the management of chronic kidney disease
AbstractChronic kidney disease (CKD) represents a global public health crisis, but awareness by patients and…
Why I . . . do amateur dramatics
Mat Owen-Veale has found a way of escaping from being a decision laden GP—he becomes…
RETRACTION: Changes in soft drinks purchased by British households associated with the UK soft drinks industry levy: controlled interrupted time series analysis
This paper by Pell and colleagues (BMJ 2021;372:n254, doi:10.1136/bmj.n254, published 10 March 2021) has been…
Politicians, experts, and patient representatives call for the UK government to reverse the rate of antidepressant prescribing
We, a group of medical professionals, researchers, patient representatives, and politicians, call for the UK…
US firearm suicides reached “unprecedented” high last year, data show
The number of people in the US who died by suicide from use of a…
Lower oxygen saturation targets in ventilated children could save lives, trial concludes
Aiming for lower oxygen targets in critically ill children being ventilated in intensive care could…
Writing letters to patients attending psychiatry clinics
Since around 2000, there has been a shift in UK medical and surgical culture and…
Apply for the 2024 BMJ Student Clegg scholarship
We are looking for four students who are studying medicine within the UK or European…
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Let’s make poor reporting of early phase dose finding clinical trials a thing of the past
In 2017, I was drafting the first manuscript for a phase I clinical trial. I…
Capita’s pension errors are causing some GPs to quit practice, leaders warn
GPs who are encountering persistent problems with accessing their pension information through Capita’s Primary Care…
Texas court hears challenge to state’s strict abortion ban by women who say they were harmed
The Texas Supreme Court, the state’s highest court, has heard a case challenging the state’s…
Patients treated by female surgeons have lower healthcare costs, study finds
Patients who underwent surgery by a woman surgeon for one of 25 common procedures had…
Authors’ reply to Laurent
Laurent raises several thoughtful questions regarding our sub-cohort focused on the use of denosumab in…
Use of denosumab in castration sensitive prostate cancer
In their article, Mitchell and colleagues state that the use of denosumab in men with…
Royal college’s advocacy of international medical graduates
The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd) thanks The BMJ for raising awareness about…
Consultant pay offer: Will early career doctors lose out?
Last month the BMA and the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association said they would put…
GPs in Scotland reȷect call for “fully salaried GP service”
General practitioners in Scotland have rejected a call for a “move to a fully salaried…
Sixty seconds on . . . dogs and dementia
WoofDown boy, although I can understand your excitement. New research says a dog can reduce…
New suicide surveillance system launched in England
Ministers have launched a new surveillance system to quickly identify emerging methods of suicide as…
Life-extending epilepsy surgery performed less often in Black children, study finds
Children with drug-resistant epilepsy who are Black or insured through Medicaid may be less likely…
Malaria: Climate change poses “substantial risk to progress,” WHO warns
A “substantial pivot” is needed to get the fight against malaria back on track after…
US life expectancy recovered slowly from pandemic in 2022, while Canada’s fell further
US life expectancy in 2022 was more than a year longer than in 2021, new…
Preventing cervical cancer: what are the risks and benefits of different treatments?
The studyKyrgiou M, Athanasiou A, Cieslak-Jones D. Comparative effectiveness and risk of preterm birth of…
Heat related health inequalities are rising
This summer has been the world’s warmest, by a large margin.1 The UK experienced its…
Sub-Saharan Africa registers biggest declines in AIDS infections, says UNAIDS
The numbers of people infected with and dying of AIDS worldwide have fallen, but sub-Saharan…
The debate over physician associates is necessary—but needlessly toxic
Pepperer. Grocer. Apothecary. Surgeon apothecary. General practitioner (https://www.apothecaries.org/history/origins).1 The evolution of medical associate professionals in…
John Launer: Israel and Gaza—recognising shared human values
All Muslim and Jewish doctors, and many of other faiths or none, will have felt…