BMJ Best Practice Podcast

According to the WHO, over 200,000 people die from drowning globally every year. So it is vital that we get the diagnosis and management of this condition right. To find out how to prevent and manage drowning, please do have a listen to this BMJ Best Practice podcast interview with Dr David Szpilman, Medical Director of the Brazilian Lifesaving Society and Co-founder of the International Drowning...

Traveller's diarrhoea is common. But it is difficult to put a percentage on it as a lot depends on lots of different factors. However, we do know that traveller's diarrhoea can be serious and can cause complications - from lactose intolerance to irritable bowl syndrome. To find out more, please have a listen to this podcast with Daniel Leung, Professor at the Division of Infectious Diseases, Dr Th...

BMJ Best Practice is our clinical decision support resource. It is designed to help healthcare professionals make better decisions in partnership with their patients.   To find out more about shared decision making in a range of difficult circumstances, please do listen to this BMJ Best Practice podcast interview with Amber Washington, Patient Advisory Coordinator, Tampa General Hospital.   View B...

Bipolar disorder is common and important. So it is vital that we get the diagnosis and management of this condition right.   To find out more about this condition, please do listen to this BMJ Best Practice podcast interview with Adrian Preda, Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at the University of California, Irvine.   For more on bipolar disorder, visit BMJ Best Practice.   Competing interests:  A...

Pulmonary embolism is common and important. So it is vital that we get the diagnosis and management of this condition right. To find out more about this condition, please do listen to this BMJ Best Practice podcast interview with Scott Woller, Director of the Thrombosis Clinic, Intermountain Medical Center and Professor of Medicine at the University of Utah. For more on pulmonary embolism, visit B...

Migraine is very common, affecting an estimated 1.16 billion people worldwide. It is one of the most disabling neurological disorders. So it is vital that we get diagnosis, management and prevention of this condition right. To find out how to do this, please listen to this BMJ Best Practice podcast with Timothy Collins, Associate Professor of Neurology and Chief of the Headache Division, Departmen...

Comorbidities are common and important and have a massive impact on the delivery of care. The BMJ Best Practice Comorbidities Manager is designed to help healthcare professionals deliver better care for patients with multiple illnesses. To find out more, please do listen to this podcast with Dr Preethi Pirlamarla, Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiologist at the University of Washington....

BMJ Best Practice is our clinical decision support resource. It is designed to help healthcare professionals make better informed clinical decisions.   But such decisions should be made in partnership with patients - they should be shared decisions.   To find out more about shared decision making, please do listen to this BMJ Best Practice podcast interview with Emma Doble, Patient and Public Stra...

Mumps used to be a common childhood disease. Then it became a lot less common because of vaccination. But now unfortunately it is becoming more common again. So it is vital that we get the diagnosis, management and prevention of this condition right. To find out more about this condition, please do listen to this BMJ Best Practice podcast interview with Dr Kristine Macartney, Director of the Natio...

Pertussis or whooping cough is an acute infectious disease caused by Bordetella pertussis. It is highly contagious, highly serious, and highly preventable. To find out more about this condition, please do listen to this BMJ Best Practice podcast interview with Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, Director of the Oxford Vaccine Group and Ashall Professor of Infection and Immunity in Oxford. Competing inte...

Social anxiety disorder is common. The 1-year point prevalence rate is about 7% and the estimated lifetime prevalence about 12%. And social anxiety disorder can have a real effect on a patient’s life. To find out more about this condition, please do listen to this BMJ Best Practice podcast interview with Professor Craig Sawchuk of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, Mayo Clinic. Craig is...

Measles is a serious disease. Unfortunately, it is making a comeback. So we need to know how to diagnose, manage and prevent it. To find out more about how to do all of this, listen to this BMJ Best Practice podcast interview with Linda Nield, Professor of Medical Education and Pediatrics at West Virginia University School of Medicine. For more on measles, visit BMJ Best Practice . Competing inter...

Paediatric asthma is the most common chronic respiratory disease globally and is a significant cause of childhood morbidity and mortality. So it is important that we get the diagnosis and management of this condition right. To find out more, listen to this BMJ Best Practice podcast on asthma in children. It features an interview with Helen Brough, Consultant in Paediatric Allergy and Professor in...

It is difficult to say how common factitious disorders are. A review of psychiatric consultations in a tertiary care setting found about 1% of referrals received a diagnosis of factitious disorder. Using an entirely different approach, researchers examined specimens submitted by patients as kidney stones and found that 3.5% were obviously non-physiological. But whatever the prevalence, the consequ...

Down syndrome is the most common genetic cause of intellectual disability, occurring in 1 in about 800 births worldwide. Children and adults with Down syndrome need high quality care from a wide range of different types of healthcare professionals. To find out more about this condition, listen to this BMJ Best Practice podcast interview with Kishore Vellody, Professor of Pediatrics, University of...

In 2016, the estimated number of people globally with active epilepsy was 45.9 million. For the US in 2015, this figure was around 3.4 million. So epilepsy is common and generalised seizures are a common type of epilepsy. And the consequences can be serious - from medication side effects to status to sudden unexpected death. To find out more about this problem and what we can do about it, listen t...

Measles, mumps and rubella are all serious illnesses. They are also all preventable. Vaccination is safe and effective. But take up of the vaccine is not what it should be. To find out more about this problem and what we can do about it, please do listen to this BMJ Best Practice podcast interview with Helen Bedford, Professor of Children's Health at the UCL Institute of Child Health. For more on...

Hypercholesterolemia is common condition with serious consequences. It is important that we assess, diagnose and manage it appropriately. To find out more about this problem and what we can do about it, please do listen to this BMJ Best Practice podcast interview with Thorsten Leucker, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. For more on...

The purpose of BMJ Best Practice is to provide knowledge that will help healthcare professionals deliver better care. In this podcast, Dr Clare Mock explains how you can put evidence based knowledge into practice to ensure that we achieve high quality and safe healthcare. Clare is Clinical Engagement Physician at BMJ and has a great deal of experience in safety, quality improvement and implementat...

Hyperkalemia is common and can be serious. It can result in life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias. So it is important that we assess this problem properly, find an underlying diagnosis if there is one, and manage appropriately. To find out more about this problem and what we can do about it, please do listen to this BMJ Best Practice podcast interview with Sri Yarlagadda, Associate Professor at The...

Hypothyroidism is common. The prevalence of overt hypothyroidism in the general population ranges between 0.2 and 5%. And it can cause a range of complications - from heart to brain problems to problems during pregnancy. So it is important that we get the diagnosis and management of this condition right. To find out more about this problem and what we can do about it, listen to this interview with...

Wrist fractures are common. They can occur in older women with osteoporosis and low-impact injury. Or young men with high-impact injuries.   And they can cause complications from malunion to joint stiffness to complex regional pain syndrome.   So it is important that we get the diagnosis and management of this condition right.   To find out more about this problem and what we can do about it, list...

Tourette syndrome has a prevalence of 0.6% in children and adolescents ages 6 to 17 years, with about half of patients undiagnosed. And Tourette syndrome is associated with distress, substance abuse, and treatment-related side effects. So it is important that we get the diagnosis and management of this condition right.   To find out more about this problem and what we can do about it, please do li...

Cervical spine injuries result primarily from car accidents, falls, and sports activities (such as rugby or diving into shallow water). They can occur in young and old, and can cause considerable complications - from chronic pain to medication dependence. So what if anything can we do to ensure that it is diagnosed and managed correctly? To answer this and other important questions, please do have...

Comorbidities are common and important in all countries around the world. They have a significant impact on patients and healthcare providers. The BMJ Best Practice Comorbidities Manager has been designed to help healthcare professionals better manage patients with common combinations of comorbidities. This BMJ Best Practice podcast is an interview with Professor Neera Ahuja, Professor of Medicine...