Focusing on people not symptoms: the consultant psychiatrist
Treating patients as human beings with a wide range of interests, and identities beyond their…
Category: British Medical Journal
Brown tumour
This is osteitis fibrosa, a destructive skeletal mass that is also known as a brown…
Breast cancer mortality in 500 000 women with early invasive breast cancer in England, 1993-2015: population based observational cohort study
AbstractObjectivesTo describe long term breast cancer mortality among women with a diagnosis of breast cancer…
Is the desperation of patients with incurable diseases being exploited?
In a linked analysis article (doi:10.1136/bmj-2023-075000),1 Fernandez Lynch and Largent argue that regulators should balance…
Merck sues US government over negotiations on drug pricing
The pharmaceutical company Merck has sued the US government over negotiated pricing of drugs for…
Misaligned AI constitutes a growing public health threat
Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have the potential to transform medicine by generating novel cures,…
Puberty blockers for young people will only be available as part of clinical research, says NHS England
Puberty suppressing hormones will not be prescribed to under 18s for gender dysphoria, except in…
Feature: Folic acid: The case to rethink the UK’s food fortification plans
Neena Modi was mistakenly quoted in this feature (BMJ 2023;381:p1158. doi:10.1136/bmj.p1158, published 08 June 2023)…
Whistleblowing surgeon quits profession over fear of being “hunted” by NHS
A campaigning whistleblowing surgeon who wrote two books about his experiences has decided to leave…
General practices secure substantial reduction in premises service charges after settlement
Five general practices in England have secured large reductions to the service charges for their…
Ending the neglect of women’s health in research
The health inequities facing women and gender diverse people are well known.1 Sex differences exist…
The public library was at the heart of my social mobility
Launer’s eulogy to the public library jogged deep memories.1 My parents left a small town…
Perinatal multidisciplinary teams are necessary to identify mental health needs
In the call for the NHS to improve data on antenatal mental health screening, Trudi…
Nineteen healthcare organisations urge government to strip GMC of its power to appeal
A group of 19 prominent health organisations have written to the health secretary to urge…
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When I use a word . . . Medical slang
Lexicographic anniversariesEvery year since 20161 I have been contributing articles to The BMJ documenting medical…
Time for paediatrics to screen out sepsis “screening”
Despite the success of vaccinations against organisms such as Haemophilus influenza type B and Neisseria…
Nearly one in five of world’s newborns with sepsis die, study finds
A study in 11 countries over four continents has shown the “catastrophic impact” of antibiotic…
Sixty seconds on . . . lifestyle advice
This sounds important—I’d better delay my jogYou may well want a sit down, especially if…
Fewer NHS staff feel able to raise clinical safety concerns, data show
The number of NHS staff who feel able to raise concerns about clinical safety has…
Canadian wildfires create hazardous air conditions in eastern US
Smoke from more than 200 wildfires in Quebec is making breathing dangerous for about 100…
Mea culpa: “correcting” my 2012 BMJ article on the Abolitionists and calling on medical institutions to research their links with slavery
In the Christmas issue of The BMJ in 2012 I published an article on the…
How to ensure equitable research partnerships in global health
Equitable research partnerships are fundamental to global health. They are often defined as those in…
Should patients requiring radiotherapy for breast cancer be treated with proton beam therapy?
What you need to knowProton beam therapy is a type of radiation therapy that uses…
Wegovy: Weight loss drug to be available from GPs in pilot scheme
GPs in England will be able to prescribe a weight loss drug to patients with…
Two GP partners are suspended after falsifying QOF data to try to save their practice
Two GP partners who falsified Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) data in patient records in…
Seven days in medicine: 31 May to 6 June 2023
Covid-19WHO treaty is “being watered down”The World Health Organization’s new pandemic preparedness treaty is being…
Tom Nolan’s research reviews—8 June 2023
How do DOs do?How important are qualifications in modern day healthcare? Regardless of how good…
Practical thematic analysis: a guide for multidisciplinary health services research teams engaging in qualitative analysis
Through qualitative methods, researchers can provide deep contextual understanding of real world issues, and generate…
Folic acid: The case to rethink the UK’s food fortification plans
“The importance of folic acid has been known for some 30 years, enough time for…
Recurrent episodes of confusion, weakness, and unsteadiness
A woman in her 50s presented to her general practitioner with recurrent episodes of confusion,…
Considering tomorrow’s patients in today’s drug approvals
Responding to pressure from patients seeking access to promising new medicines,1 drug regulatory agencies have…
Palliative care in dementia: referring to “end of life” is unnecessary
Nobody could disagree with Yorganci and Sleeman that many people with dementia would benefit from…
GMC says it’s making progress in stamping out discrimination in referrals
The gap between doctors from ethnic minority groups and white doctors in the proportion of…
Helping people plan their end of life
In his response to Yorganci and Sleeman’s article on the benefits of palliative care for…
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The imprinting effect of covid-19 vaccines: an expected selection bias in observational studies
Antigenic variation in the SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant and subvariants are substantial compared with previous variants…
Doctors are told to stay alert as cases of gonorrhoea and syphilis reach record highs
Gonorrhoea diagnoses increased by 50% between 2021 and 2022—from 54 961 to 82 592, the…
Scarlett McNally: Considering the impact of human factors on teamworking and behaviour
The NHS needs every one of its 1.4 million staff,1 but nobody is perfect every…
Is the UK losing its world leading covid surveillance network just when it needs it most?
In early March 2020 a group of scientists set up the Covid-19 Genomics UK Consortium…
Selection bias due to conditioning on a collider
Definition of a colliderIn a causal graph, a collider is a variable that is affected…
Candida auris: another frontier in the battle against antimicrobial resistance
Recently there has been increased news coverage of a drug resistant fungus infecting patients across…
David Oliver: The “40 new hospitals” pledge was always a mirage
In 2020, when he was prime minister, Boris Johnson pledged to build “40 new hospitals…
Why occupational health should be universally accessible
Employers, workers, and the healthcare profession can all benefit from occupational health, but only if…
Thomas Powell
bmj;381/jun06_15/p1292/FAF1faAfter qualifying Thomas Powell (“Tom”) trained in radiology, and was appointed consultant radiologist in 1967….
Brian John Sweetman
bmj;381/jun06_14/p1294/FAF1faBrian John Sweetman was born on 23 May 1945 in Sydney, Australia. His father was…
Weakened by a decade of austerity: why the UK’s covid-19 inquiry is right to look at policies since 2010
Any concerns that the UK’s covid-19 inquiry would give ministers an easy ride seem to…
The politics of health
Salisbury rightly points out that debates about funding the NHS often come down to the…
“Vocation” won’t prevent the impending workforce crisis
Matt Morgan, 6 MayMorgan questions whether vocation in medicine is dead.1 In my experience as…
Why I . . . carve spoons
Sitting at his kitchen table, Matt Gardiner enjoys creating what may become cherished pieces of…
Helen Salisbury: Retention, not just training, is key
Achieving a place at medical school is the ambition of many school leavers. Competition is…
Gender equality and vocation
Morgan raises an interesting question in asking if the concept of vocation can still be…