Latest BMJ podcasts

Bias in clinical guidelines, and giving birth at home

webmaster@bmj.com (BMJ Group) — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 04:52:53 +0000

Despite repeated calls to prohibit or limit conflicts of interests among authors and sponsors of clinical guidelines, the problem persists. Jeanne Lenzer explains what's going wrong. And is giving birth at home as safe for the mother as giving birth in hospital? New research from the Netherlands suggests that it is, and that risk assessment is...

Corporations as vectors of disease

webmaster@bmj.com (BMJ Group) — Fri, 31 May 2013 05:59:11 +0000

This month the UK parliament has been looking at the big accountancy firms' involvement in drafting tax laws. Conversely, the Department of Health has hidden the involvement of tobacco lobbyists in proposed plain packaging legislation. Jeff Collin, professor of global health policy at the University of Edinburgh, argues that this culture of...

Think then scan, don't scan then think

webmaster@bmj.com (BMJ Group) — Fri, 24 May 2013 05:20:24 +0000

Until now, the increased risk of cancer from CT scans has been modelled from the data gathered from survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. However, new BMJ research, based on a large Australian cohort, offers new evidence to support the modelling. John Matthews, from the university of Melbourne, joins us to explain what they...

Vulnerable adults, and the road to cycle safety

webmaster@bmj.com (BMJ Group) — Fri, 17 May 2013 05:51:27 +0000

In a drive to improve safety, many cyclists now wear helmets. But how useful is legislation that mandates their use when compared with all the other safety initiatives available? Jessica Dennis, a PhD candidate from the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, tells us about her research into accident trends. Also this...

The BMJ Awards: Medical Team of the Year

webmaster@bmj.com (BMJ Group) — Wed, 15 May 2013 10:40:38 +0000

The BMJ Awards were held last Thursday. Fiona Godlee, the BMJ's editor in chief, announced that the Britain Nepal Otology Service (BRINOS) was named Medical Team of the Year. BRINOS (brinos.org.uk) started out in 1988 by setting up joint British and Nepalese surgical camps to treat ear disease among patients living outside the reach of...

Suspected heart failure

webmaster@bmj.com (BMJ Group) — Fri, 03 May 2013 05:27:57 +0000

Mabel Chew, practice editor at the BMJ, talks to Tushar Kotecha, a cardiology specialist registrar at Charing Cross Hospital in London, about when to suspect heart failure, and how to diagnose the condition. See also: Investigating suspected heart failure

Dying patients in hospital, e-patients online

webmaster@bmj.com (BMJ Group) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 04:47:40 +0000

Patients are increasingly going online to find and discuss information about their condition. What are they getting on the web that they’re not getting from clinicians, and how is this changing healthcare? Also, how to care for a dying patient in hospital. See also: Caring for a dying patient in hospital BMJ Learning's module on the...

Warts and all

webmaster@bmj.com (BMJ Group) — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 06:38:47 +0000

This week, we discuss how Australia’s national human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination programme has caused a dramatic drop in genital warts. Does this foretell elimination of all disease caused by HPV in the country? And some advice on how to diagnose and manage pulmonary hypertension. See also Genital warts in young Australians five years...

Dealing with delirium

webmaster@bmj.com (BMJ Group) — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 03:52:58 +0000

Delirium is often missed in primary and secondary care. Edison Vidal, assistant professor in internal medicine at the Universidade Estadual Paulista, Brazil, advises on diagnosing and managing the condition. Rheumatoid arthritis, non-biological drug treatments, or both, might suppress tumour surveillance and in theory increase the risk of...

Tackling hypertension in India

webmaster@bmj.com (BMJ Group) — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 05:11:19 +0000

The World Health Organization has chosen hypertension as the public health threat it will focus on for the next year. The problem is particularly pressing in India, and Anita Jain, the BMJ's India editor, spoke to François Decaillet, Coordinator for Health Programs, WHO India, about what needs to be done to tackle hypertension in the country's...

All trials registered | All results reported

webmaster@bmj.com (BMJ Group) — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 06:18:01 +0000

The issues of hidden data are well known, and the BMJ’s open data campaign page documents some of the problems which have arisen as a result of clinical trial data remaining undisclosed. At Evidence Live 2013 in Oxford this week, Fiona Godlee, BMJ editor in chief, convened a group of those closely involved with the AllTrials campaign, to discuss...

Carotid atherosclerosis and patient participation

webmaster@bmj.com (BMJ Group) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 06:59:23 +0000

A clinical review this week looks at the diagnosis and treatment of carotid atherosclerosis, including when to screen and the threshold for intervention. Alun Davies, professor of vascular surgery at Imperial College London, also answers how useful or harmful screening offered commercially is. Also this week, the BMJ’s editorial board met to...

Are all calories equal?

webmaster@bmj.com (BMJ Group) — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 07:10:40 +0000

Are all calories equal? Thermodynamics would say that energy is energy, be it derived from carbohydrate, fat, or protein. But things get more complicated when appetite is taken into consideration , says Robert Lustig, professor of pediatric endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco. Also this week, life expectancy in Europe is...

After Francis, what next?

webmaster@bmj.com (BMJ Group) — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 07:05:02 +0000

Recorded at the recent Nuffield health policy summit, this round table asks how to impliment the Francis reports recommendations. Taking part were: Robert Francis, chair of The Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Enquiry Simon Stevens, president of global health at the UnitedHealth Group Sam Barrell, chief clinical officer of...

Witty words on data

webmaster@bmj.com (BMJ Group) — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 06:53:10 +0000

Andrew Witty is the CEO of GlaxoSmithKline. He’s been credited with taking on a pharma company with a history of behaving badly in the past – as shown by a record $3bn fine levied by the US government last year. How much is he able or willing to change the culture of an industry, which is under pressure to alter its practices? Rebecca Coombes...