The BMJ

The BMJ continues to publish a wide range of opinion pieces. These are now published on bmj.com. https://www.bmj.com/news/opinion For more information about how to submit an opinion piece, pl...

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2022/01/13/bmj-opinion-has-moved-to-bmj-com/

Detailed plans and timings were absent from the government’s announcement in September on new taxes to fund social care reforms. So far the plans focus almost exclusively on funding mechanisms ...

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/11/09/cian-odonovan-getting-the-basics-right-in-digital-social-care-transformations/

Interim results for sotrovimab in covid: too soon to call Covid-19 has killed nearly five million people worldwide and is still raging. The quest for effective treatments continues, especially fo...

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/11/05/ann-robinsons-research-reviews-5-november-2021/

Once upon a time, the word “pirate” would recall the excitement of Treasure Island, but today, the Jolly Roger flag of warning is raised by publishers, whose pieces of eight More... The...

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/11/05/sam-shuster-predatory-pirate-journals-and-what-we-can-do-about-them/

In June 2021, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved aducanumab, a monoclonal antibody, for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, even though the data remain “incomplete and contr...

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/11/04/nothing-is-right-about-the-approval-of-aducanumab-and-nothings-new/

Non-alcoholic fatty livers: is drug treatment on the horizon? Levels of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), which can progress to fibrosis and cirrhosis, are rising in parallel with the increas...

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/29/ann-robinsons-research-reviews-29-october-2021/

As I wrote last week, a cellular automaton is a computational system with two components: an ordered array of cells and a set of rules that determines the state of More... The post Jeffrey ...

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/29/jeffrey-aronson-when-i-use-a-word-medical-cellular-automata/

In an inspiring speech to students at the London School of Economics (LSE), John Kerry, United States special presidential envoy for climate, spelt out the urgency of tackling climate change—�...

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/28/i-head-to-glasgow-an-optimist-john-kerry-tells-students-at-lse/

The world is unprepared for global health crises and is not ready for using artificial intelligence for the covid-19 response The covid-19 pandemic has shown that the world is unprepared More....

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/28/get-ready-for-ai-in-pandemic-response-and-healthcare/

When I leave Clapham soon after dawn to join the Ride For Their Lives, I’m not entirely sure where I’m going, although I know it’s “at the back of King’s More... The post Richard ...

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/26/richard-smith-an-old-man-attempts-day-one-of-the-ride-for-their-lives/

The government must act now, or be faced with much tougher decisions and less popular choices as the winter kicks in, says John Middleton One person in 55 is now More... The post Government...

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/25/government-indecision-is-still-costing-lives-in-the-uk/

“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced” —James Baldwin Bad news about our planet can be overwhelming and can make More... The post ...

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/24/the-climate-crisis-how-do-we-show-we-care/

The defining characteristic of child abuse, be it physical, emotional, or through neglect, is that the child suffers significant harm. At its extreme child abuse is fatal. As a species, More.....

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/24/we-must-protect-our-planet-for-our-childrens-future/

In the face of a devastating potentially fatal diagnosis, healthcare professionals and families often turn to palliative medicine for guidance and support. It is not about “giving up”—and i...

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/24/climate-emergency-it-is-time-for-the-aggressive-life-saving-interventions/

In paediatric medicine, denial of impending disaster prevents us from recognising when a child’s medical condition is deteriorating. Someone uncertain of their role, or afraid to speak up becau...

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/24/we-must-not-delay-speaking-up-about-the-health-harms-of-the-climate-emergency/

The response to refugees arriving in the UK after the international emergency in Afghanistan requires health professionals to be equipped for the needs of this population. The integration of this...

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/24/embracing-afghanistans-refugees-into-the-uks-health-and-social-care-system/

The 2021 Global Peace Index reports a significant deterioration in global peace over the last fifteen years. The Global Humanitarian Overview 2021 reports an increase in the number of More......

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/22/a-global-health-response-to-gender-justice-requires-continued-engagement/

The shortage of general practitioners in the NHS is widely acknowledged, but this has not resulted in the kinds of changes that will make a difference. Last week, Martin Marshall, More... T...

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/22/achieving-long-term-retention-of-gps-will-require-funding-support-and-a-reduction-in-workload-demands/

A cellular automaton is a computational system with two components: an ordered array of cells, such as on a Go board, and a set of rules that determines the state More... The post Jeffrey A...

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/22/jeffrey-aronson-when-i-use-a-word-cellular-automata/

Carbon dioxide laser on postmenopausal vaginal symptoms This small but interesting Australian study found that treatment with fractional carbon dioxide laser did not reduce the severity of self r...

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/22/ann-robinsons-research-reviews-22-october-2021/

Samiran Nundy, Atul Kakar, and Zulfi Bhutta have published a book titled How to Practice Academic Medicine and Publish from Developing Countries? A Practical Guide. It’s a book that will Mor...

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/21/academic-medicine-and-publishing-from-developing-countries/

Although the daily number of new covid-19 infections globally is thankfully falling, there are still around 240,000 new infections worldwide each day, and there are many “hot spots” of uncont...

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/21/what-game-theory-can-teach-us-about-controlling-pandemics/

A delegation of MPs and scientists representing an alliance of organisations, scientists, and individuals (Zero Hour), will today deliver an open letter to the UK prime minister calling for the ...

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/21/a-bill-before-parliament-to-preserve-nature-and-keep-global-temperature-increase-below-1-5c/

Co-creation is by no means a new concept. It refers to the collaborative development process of products and services with relevant stakeholders or “end users,” and it now crosses most Mor...

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/20/jan-philipp-beck-is-co-creation-the-key-to-high-value-care/

We must not let our reliance on single-use plastic in healthcare become the “new normal” or set-back the strides taken prior to the covid-19 pandemic to address the primary existential Mor...

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/20/single-use-plastic-in-healthcare-must-not-become-the-new-normal/

If the covid-19 pandemic has taught us all one thing, it is the value of human relationships. More than ever before, doctors, nurses, and all allied healthcare professionals are working More.....

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/19/practising-medicine-in-the-virtual-world-continuity-of-care-is-even-more-important/

On 1 September 2021 the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) recommended that certain patients aged 12 and over, who were thought to be immuno-suppressed (through disease or med...

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/19/setting-up-a-vaccination-programme-for-immunocompromised-patients/

I love snowflakes. I enjoy crunching them underfoot on a crisp winter’s day and the silky feeling that you get when skiing through a fresh fall. The word “snowflake” entered More... T...

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/19/jeffrey-aronson-when-i-use-a-word-snowflakes/

Russell Viner, professor of child and adolescent health at UCL, writes an open letter to Parliamentarians calling for support on the implementation of National Food Strategy recommendations on ch...

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/18/food-insecurity-is-toxic-for-our-children-and-a-threat-to-the-future-of-the-next-generation/

“It’s really quite hard not to feel outright anger at the evidence that we’ve heard over the last few months.” – Tony O’Sullivan This was the final session of the More... The po...

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/15/peoples-covid-inquiry-what-must-happen-now/

“How a society treats its most vulnerable is always the measure of its humanity” is a well-known quote often attributed to Mahatma Gandhi. With the “levelling up” agenda being quoted M...

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/15/covid-19-vaccines-patients-left-confused-over-rollout-of-third-primary-doses/

This week’s announcement gave us a short-term sticking plaster that will do little to improve the morale of our beleaguered profession or the care we can deliver to our patients, More... ...

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/15/martin-marshall-we-need-long-term-realistic-and-tangible-solutions-to-solve-the-crisis-in-general-practice/

The disproportionate mortality and morbidity in mothers and babies from Black, Asian, and ethnic minority backgrounds as compared to white mothers and babies is clearly evidenced. There have bee...

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/15/racial-profiling-for-induction-of-labour-improving-safety-or-perpetuating-racism/

Lack of easy access to personal health records is associated with adverse consequences for patients, writes Charlotte Blease “The cancer might be stage 1b. Then again it could be 3b.”  Mo...

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/15/charlotte-blease-we-need-to-talk-about-closed-notes/

In the wake of a bereavement, Ruth Moore describes how she felt a new kinship with the patients she cares for who live with chronic pain “Now is the start More... The post Life lessons fr...

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/14/life-lessons-from-the-pain-clinic/

Patients and their care partners are usually the first to notice new or changing symptoms and are the connecting “thread” between different healthcare encounters. In this article Sigall Bell,...

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/14/co-development-of-ourdx-an-online-tool-to-facilitate-patient-and-family-engagement-in-the-diagnostic-process/

After a rapid start, the pace of the United Kingdom’s (UK) covid-19 vaccination programme has slowed down while the UK still faces high infection, hospitalisation, and death rates, and a Mor...

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/14/covid-19-vaccination-in-children-adolescents-and-young-adults-how-can-we-ensure-high-vaccination-uptake/

Data on recruitment success by ethnicity are an important barometer of how inclusive, or discriminatory, NHS trusts are. As such, hospitals should be sharing this information freely and using it ...

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/13/nhs-trusts-should-be-openly-sharing-their-data-on-ethnicity-and-recruitment/

We were notified last week of a covid-19 case in my seven-year-old daughter’s class. My wife and I both work in the NHS, but we still had to recheck the More... The post Cognitive dissona...

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/13/cognitive-dissonance-during-the-pandemic-lessons-for-research-and-policy/

Charu Chopra looks at how knowledge of our shared past and present could help the NHS to challenge workplace inequalities and discrimination “If you know your history, then you would More......

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/12/a-step-towards-decolonising-medical-training/

A major report from a year-long joint inquiry by the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee and Science and Technology Committee offers a forensic analysis of six aspects More... ...

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/12/chris-ham-dithering-and-delays-hampered-the-uks-covid-19-response/

A new report from two House of Commons committees highlights the UK’s failed pandemic response. Martin McKee unpicks the findings On 17 March 2020, the government’s chief scientific adviser P...

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/12/following-the-science-but-was-it-the-right-science-a-parliamentary-report-raises-serious-questions-about-the-uks-covid-19-response/

In a powerful letter to be delivered during COP26, the world’s health community will call on world leaders to take real action to put the world on a path that More... The post Elaine Mulc...

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/11/elaine-mulcahy-a-healthy-prescription-for-a-cleaner-future/

If we don’t seem to have learned much from Exercise Alice, what can we learn from the attempts to conceal it, asks Martin McKee The official inquiry into the UK’s More... The post Exerc...

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/11/exercise-alice-the-uk-government-did-test-the-response-to-a-coronavirus-but-why-are-we-only-discovering-this-now/

This year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been won by David MacMillan at Princeton and Benjamin List at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung in Muelheim an der Ruhr. They developed a ...

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/08/jeffrey-aronson-when-i-use-a-word-stereoisomerism/

Everyone is entitled to a say in the healthcare services they use and a child or young person is no different, say Aishah Farooq, Emma Beeden, and Catherine White Accessing More... The post...

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/08/healthcare-in-our-hands-putting-babies-children-and-young-people-at-the-centre-of-their-care/

One of my main motivations for studying medicine was to fight discrimination and social (and gender) inequalities by providing equal healthcare for all. I became aware of gender discrimination th...

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/08/communicating-about-the-representativeness-of-women-in-scientific-productivity-a-step-towards-greater-equality/

Tides are notoriously difficult to turn. But, when the time is right, even the strongest tides will turn—and now is one of those critical moments in relation to overweight and More... The...

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/08/turning-the-tide-the-obesity-health-alliances-healthy-weight-strategy/

Sarajevo on the morning of 29 May1992. The Serbian forces have surrounded the city. A Bosnian field commander reassures Esma Zecevic, the city’s chief paediatrician that the hospital will likel...

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/08/julian-sheather-perilous-medicine/

“As health and social inequalities widen, and we learn more about the power held over human lives by an ever-diminishing number of individuals and corporations, I predict that more doctors M...

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/10/08/climate-action-demanding-economic-systems-that-safeguard-life/