I hate to miss the opening ceremonies of European geriatric medicine conferences, with the individual interplay between this most complex of medical specialties with the national characteristics of the host […]
Columnists
William Cayley: Life saving science?
This past week saw the interestingly coincident publication of a reanalysis of “Study 329” in The BMJ and an opinion piece in the New York Times, calling for more rapid dissemination of […]
Richard Smith: How well are countries doing in responding to the NCD pandemic?
A pandemic of NCD (non-communicable disease) is sweeping across the world, particularly in poor countries, causing much suffering and premature death and swamping health systems. NCD (cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Adam’s throat-bowl
Of the dozen early medical words I found in the Old English dictionary called the Epinal glossary, five were anatomical: átr (atter, gall, or bitterness; Latin Bile); bledrae (bladder; Latin […]
Desmond O’Neill: 45 years of solitude
One of the rare pleasures of life is to encounter a movie without the encrustation of prior critical approval, hype, or derision. One of my stand-out cinematic experiences occurred at […]
Richard Smith: Promoting compassion
Edinburgh University’s Global Health Academy has together with Stanford University created a Global Compassion Initiative, and, as I walked last week towards the launch of the initiative in one of […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Gargantuan gargoyles
Although I found only one onomatopoeic word (iesca, a sob, hiccup, or belch), among early medical words in the Old English dictionary called the Epinal glossary, another, throtbolla (throat-boll, the […]
The BMJ Today: Doing the right thing, doing the wrong thing, and the Hawthorne effect
• Samir Dawlatly explains in a blog the barriers that he faces daily as a practicing GP, which often hinder him from providing high quality healthcare. He gives the example of […]
Richard Smith: Disciplined for being human
“Doctors need to bring something of themselves to their patients, to make a personal connection, if medicine is to be a healing science,” writes an anonymous obituarist, somewhat portentously, at […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Medical onomatopoeia
Seeking early medical words in the Old English dictionary known as the Epinal glossary, I was not surprised to find that one of the dozen examples I unearthed was onomatopoeic: […]