Atul Gawande has published ‘The Checklist Manifesto’ with Profile Books. Its about his WHO project to develop an 18 point safety checklist for non-cardiac operations. His blend of anecdotes and data makes comparison with building construction and aircraft accident investigation. On a more personal level Craig Jurisevic has published ‘Blood on my Hands’ as an […]
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LRB and Alan Bennett’s Greening of Mrs Donaldson
London Review of Books for 9 Sept 2010 has interesting short story by Alan Bennett about a middle aged widower who, after becoming a landlady to medical students, becomes a demonstration patient. The doctor in charge of the medical students exhibits many of the unfortunate characteristics that greater exposure to the patient’s POV is designed […]
Fasting: Unto Life and Until Death
The month of Ramadan is drawing to a close. During this time, Muslims from every terrain, from the hottest countries, to the most Westernised societies, have been involved in a shared yet equally an exclusive passage of religious rites. Ramadan is a unique time in the Islamic year. For a period of one month, the […]
Institute of Medical Ethics Grants and Awards
For information on generous grants offered by the Institute of Medical Ethics for medical student electives, internships and related intercalated degree courses, as well as institutional grants see below. […]
A Doctor’s Language
If it is true what the phenomenologist Merleau-Ponty says, then, “man is at home in language”. What are the implications for the experiences of patients, when a doctor’s mother tongue speaks from a two thousand year long tradition of medical descriptions since Hippocrates founded Western medicine. The reason I have begun such questioning is from […]
When a child is born, where is the war? In Memory of Dr Karen Woo.
The recent deaths of ten people in Afghanistan, working for a Christian charity to promote healthcare, have shocked nations across the globe. In particular, the unfolding story about British Dr Woo’s decision to enter a war zone have revealed a raw and sobering side to the war that we have grown used to hearing the […]
“A supremely worthwhile, if sometimes unbearably demanding job”: Ray Tallis on doctoring
I’d hazard a guess that no matter how much editors like to think that readers enjoy having their ideas and prejudices challenged, there’s nothing in practice that the average reader likes better than an opinion that chimes neatly with their own. Which, I’ve no doubt, is why I enjoyed reading Ray Tallis’s article in yesterday’s […]
Vitamin D, a Public Health Issue: listen again with the BBCiPlayer to learn more
I’ve got a confession: I, and indeed a significant number of my fellow GPs, have got an unhealthy obsession with vitamin D. Or, to be more precise, vitamin D deficiency and the apparent inability of the NHS to make available to me, as a prescriber, the means to treat it in my patients. You see […]
Eating yourself sick in pregnancy: why it would be NICE to understand the historical context
Earlier this month the UK’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence produced very welcome guidance for all of those who have a direct or indirect role in, and responsibility for women who are pregnant or who are planning a pregnancy and mothers who have had a baby in the last 2 years. http://guidance.nice.org.uk/PH27 As […]
Wanted: Art, Poetry and Prose: call for submissions from Ars Medica
For all you creative types looking for a suitable outlet for your art, poetry and prose, this call from the respected Canadian journal ARS MEDICA may be just what you’ve been looking for. […]