Medicine and Science from The BMJ

Referrals for ADHD and autism assessments have reached unprecedented levels, leaving NHS waiting lists stretched into years and families struggling to access support. But is the rise driven by a genuine increase in neurodevelopmental conditions, increased awareness, or systemic overdiagnosis? This prompted the government to commission the Independent Review into Mental Health Conditions, ADHD, and...

Last year, in July 2025, the independent review of the physician associate and anaesthesia associate roles, carried out by professor Gillian Leng, was published. The review followed the contentious role out of PAs in the NHS - where their scope of practice differed across trusts, and GP practices, and concerns were raised about clinical safety. Some of the key recommendations were around seeing un...

The VAERS system in the US monitors adverse events following vaccines, but a new investigation on BMJ.com has found problems with the data mining systems used to spot patterns - and more worryingly, that the agencies involved were alerted about the issues, and didn’t take steps to fix the problem. David Willman, Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist, joins us to explain what he found.  ...

Something different for the podcast today: a live event. It’s the inaugural BMJ lecture, in partnership with the Academy of Medical Sciences and hosted at the historic Royal Academy of Arts. We want to talk about the big issues facing healthcare professionals around the world - and we’re starting with one of the biggest: how do we make decisions in the face of real risk and genuine uncertainty? We...

Back in 2024, the BMJ revealed how more than half of the members of the UK government's Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition, had declared financial interests with food and drinks companies. A tightening of the rules followed, but two years after our initial investigation, we have returned - and we found that nearly a third of nutrition advisors still have significant ties to the food indust...

The next few months might be an inflection point for GPs in England and Wales  Our strong primary care system is often credited in the success of the NHS - But changes to how that system works are currently underway. Legislation is quietly proceeding through parliament that will reorganise the way in which local care is structured, and those changes are raising concerns for GPs. To talk about how...

In this week’s podcast we’ll be hearing a lot about exams - the bane of many doctor’s training lives, exams that determine your future are scattered through medicine and can cause a huge amount of anxiety and stress…   John McLachlan, professor of medical education at the University of Lancashire, has carried out four reviews of medical exams. He explains what happens to the people who have been m...

This week we’re focusing on how healthcare is using AI systems. The NHS is firmly set on a course of AI integration, with NHS England committing £10 billion of taxpayer funds to the cause over the next three years. The pressure to implement AI in our hospitals is intense. But, how can healthcare leaders know what makes for a good AI adoption strategy? Victor Montori and Jon Tilburt are physicians...

Bipolar disorder affects almost 40 million people worldwide, but finding the right treatment is complex, and nearly half of patients struggle to follow their prescribed treatment plans.   In the first part of this episode, we discuss new research which aims to help patients and their doctors identify the right treatment. Michele De Prisco, psychiatrist and researcher at the Fundació de Recerca Clí...

This week we focus on the external forces that shape medicine and healthcare.  Global health is changing, after the reduction in financing from wealthy nations, the global community are beginning to implement reforms to improve the situation. However, any change will be unsuccessful until we tackle the fundamental structures that govern outcomes, argue Daniel Bernal-Serrano and Omar Gabriel Torres...

In this week's podcast - the Sensitivity of Patient Questionnaires: If you've ever asked a patient to fill out a Patient Health Questionnaire (like the PHQ-9) to assess their mental health and wondered exactly how much of a change it can actually detect, new research just published on bmj.com sets out to answer that question. We're joined by Brett Thombs, Professor in the department of Psychiatry...

Known for his use of devolved powers, during his tenure as Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham now has the opportunity to bring his local blueprint to the national stage. But what does this mean for the future of health and social care? Our panel explore the deeply rooted health inequalities tied to the social determinants of health, the disconnect between local decision-making and national...

Discrimination in NHS Hiring: We examine the troubling success rates of Black and Asian doctors when applying for NHS jobs. Deputy news editor, Gareth Iacobucci speaks to Anthony Emmanushares his analysis on why discrimination persists in the medical workforce and what recent reports reveal. The Ethnicity Data Gap in Research: While sex and gender are reported in 99% of trials, ethnicity is report...

Who actually owns our health data once it is stored in the cloud? And how do we balance the global push for open medical research with the need to protect local populations from data extraction? Kamran Abbasi sits down with Trudi Lang, Professor of Global Health Research at the University of Oxford and David Strain, Associate Professor of Cardiometabolic Health at the University of Exeter. Togethe...

Two NHS maternity reviews have been published over the past few weeks. The biggest ever conducted, involving nearly 2500 families, investigated services at Nottingham university hospitals NHS trust. It was led by senior midwife, Donna Ockenden, and its findings on poor and avoidable harm to babies and mothers have reverberated throughout UK healthcare. This was followed immediately by publication...

Australia has been in the vanguard of legislation to try and reduce the influence of social media on children and young people - their ban for under 16s was introduced on the 10th of December 2025, to great fanfare, and a lot of interest around the world. But how effective are these bans at keeping children away from social media? New research just published on BMJ.com has looked at that question...

The US military’s Operation “Epic Fury” highlighted the devastating cost of using artificial intelligence for rapid military planning. Thomas Adamkiewicz, associate professor at Morehouse School of Medicine, and Zulfiqar Bhutta, Robert Harding Inaugural Chair in Global Child Health at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, to discuss why international humanitarian law is lagging dangerously behi...

The heated debate on prostate cancer screening boils down to one question: should men be routinely screened? Two recent position statements from the UK’s national screening committee published in the BMJ show that screening decisions are steeped in complexity.  The benefits of screening may be easier to grasp, but the harms of overdiagnosis and overtreatment are given less attention. Can we close...

New estimates of Global Patterns in Neonatal, Child, and Adolescent Mortality have been published - and while there has been a huge improvement, those gains are in danger - and we’re seeing worrying trends.   Kate Strong, a Scientist at the World Health Organization and Lucia Hug, a specialist in statistics and monitoring for UNICEF, join us to explain the data - and why they are worried about our...

Does healthcare have a moral emergency? In this episode of the Medicine and Science podcast, Kamran Abbasi sits down with healthcare leaders Maureen Bisognano, president emerita of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and Bob Klaber, director of strategy at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, to discuss why they're calling the lack of humanity in medicine an emergency. We ask why this dange...

It has been a tumultuous time in UK health politics. UK Health Minister ,Wes Streeting, has freshly resigned. What does this mean for his newly introduced NHS Modernization Bill as it heads through Parliament? Together with Hugh Alderwick, Director of Policy and Research at the Health Foundation, we unpack the bill's sweeping centralization of power, the abolition of NHS England, and the contentio...

Twitter was launched 20 years ago, followed quickly by the iPhone and Instagram. Today, nearly 60% of the world’s population uses social media. Medical experts are sounding the alarm on the potential for these platforms to cause systemic harm. This past year has seen large events in the legal and public health battle against tech giants, with millions of dollars awarded in damages to child victims...

The BMA has released their long awaited review of the Cass report. The original report looked at the provision of NHS gender identity services for children and young people, and involved a review of the science underpinning those services. It also set out a plan to improve care for gender diverse young people.  We talk with David Strain of the BMA’s board of science to discuss their findings, and...

The new trade deal struck between the UK and US came into force in April.  The deal will double the amount that the NHS spends on new medicines, by the end of 2036 (from 0.6 - 0.6% of GDP).  increase the threshold that the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) sets for drug approvals - which will allow more to be approved, but will also allow companies to charge more for their p...

A blockbuster MS drug undergoes FDA re-evaluation. We explore the story of Ocrelizumab, a treatment for primary progressive multiple sclerosis, following a patient petition that highlighted internal disagreements among agency reviewers regarding its efficacy. We look to Sweden, where new research involving sibling pairs separated by adoption investigates how early-life environments shape long-term...