Medicine and Science from The BMJ

Bobbie Farsides is professor of clinical and biomedical ethics at Brighton and Sussex Medical School. She’s been described as one of the few people that is acceptable to “both sides” of the assisted dying debate. This week she joins us to talk about the way in which the debate on euthanasia has played out in the UK - and hear why she thinks it’s now time for all individual doctors to make up their...

The UN Convention against Torture defines torture as “any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person” by someone acting in an official capacity for purposes such as obtaining a confession or punishing or intimidating that person. It is unethical for healthcare professionals to participate in torture, including any use of medical knowle...

The number of people officially recorded as sleeping on the streets of England rose from 1768 in 2010 to 4751 in autumn 2017.1 Charities estimate the true figure to be more than double this. Danny Dorling, Halford Mackinder professor of geography at the University of Oxford joins us to explain what's fuelling that rise, why the true extent of the problem is far larger, and what steps need to be ta...

We have evidence on which to act, and inaction costs lives, argues Simon Capewell, Professor of Public Health and Policy, at the University of Liverpool. But Aileen Clarke, professor of public health and health services research at Warwick Medical School, says our understanding of the human behaviour that leads to unhealthy choices is still lacking Read the head to head http://www.bmj.com/content/...

We know that smoking 20 cigarettes a day increases your risk of CHD and stroke - but what happens if you cut down to 1, do you have 1/20th of that risk? Allan Hackshaw, professor of epidemiology at UCL joins us to discuss a new systematic review and meta analysis published on bmj.com, examining the risk of smoking just one or two cigarettes a day. Read the full review: http://www.bmj.com/content/3...

Virginia Murray, public health consultant in global disaster risk reduction at Public Health England, was instrumental in putting together the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction - an international agreement which aims to move the world from reacting to disasters, to proactively preventing them. In this podcast, she explains what they learned in the process, and why science had to become...

The BMJ publishes a variety of education articles, to help doctors improve their practice. Often authors join us in our podcast to give tips on putting their recommendations into practice. In this audio round-up The BMJ’s clinical editors discuss what they have learned, and how they may alter their practice. Kate Addlington, associate editor and trainee psychiatrist is joined by Cat Chatfield, qua...

Many older adults have difficulty understanding speech in acute healthcare settings owing to hearing loss, but the effect on patient care is often overlooked. Jan Blustein professor of health policy and medicine at New York University, and who has also experienced the affects of hearing loss, joins us to explain what that's like, and gives some tips on making it easier to communicate. Read the ful...

Trial MVA85A - monkey trials for a booster vaccine for BCG, developed by researchers at Oxford University, is the subject of an investigation published on bmj.com. Experts warn that today’s investigation is just one example of “a systematic failure” afflicting preclinical research and call for urgent action “to make animal research more fit for purpose as a valuable and reliable forerunner to clin...

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer is a new strategy that was introduced towards the end of the 20th century with the aim of reducing tumour size - rendering an otherwise inoperable tumour operable, allowing more conservative surgery, and hopefully improving overall survival. Although data indicate that the first rationale remains valid, the others have not led to the desired outcomes. Mor...

Winter pressures on NHS services have kicked in a little bit earlier than usual. So here to discuss that, and also the issue of how local NHS leaders can support staff in times of extreme pressure. Discussing that with Rebecca Coombes, The BMJ’s head of news and views, are Matthew Inada-Kim, a consultant in acute and general medicine at Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and Joe Harrison, C...

Acute respiratory distress syndrome was first described in 1967 and has become a defining condition in critical care. Around 40% of patients with ARDS will die, and survivors experience long term sequelae. No drug treatments exist for ARDS, however good supportive management reduces harm and improves outcome. In this podcast, John Laffey, professor of anaesthesiology at St Michael’s Hospital, Toro...

Psychosis often emerges for the first time in adolescence and young adulthood. In around four out of five patients symptoms remit, but most experience relapses and further difficulties. Psychosis can be a frightening and bewildering experience for both patients and families. Early proactive support and intervention improves clinical outcomes, avoids costly and traumatic hospital admissions, and is...

The notion that animal companionship might be linked to human health can be traced to ancient writings and, with the first population based study conducted at least four decades ago. Although some empirical evidence links animal companionship with apparent protection against a series of important health outcomes in middle aged populations, including premature mortality, obesity, hypertension, and...

Wine glasses come in a range of sizes, but the average wine glass in the UK today can hold almost ½ a litre. That wasn’t always the case - and a new analysis, on bmj.com takes a look at the changing size of wineglasses from 1700 until now. To discuss how the size of glass affects consumption we're joined by Theresa Marteau, director of the Behaviour and Health Research Unit at the University of Ca...

Average body temperature is 37°C, right? That was the conclusion of Carl Wunderlich in his magnum opus, The Course of Temperature in Diseases - Wunderlich published that in 1868, following his extensive collection of body temperature readings - and 37°C stuck. But, it’s not as simple as that Philip Mackowiak, emeritus professor of medicine, and now history of medicine scholar in residence, at the...

Manflu, the phenomenon that men experience the symptoms of viral illness more than woman, is usually used with derision - but a new review, published in the Christmas edition, is asking - is there a plausible biological basis for this sex difference? Kyle Sue is a clinical assistant professor in family medicine at Memorial University of Newfoundland, and a GP in northern Canada - and has been look...

Assessing young people with possible eating disorders can be complex for a variety of reasons. Building a therapeutic relationship with a young person with a possible eating disorder and their family is key to enabling a thorough assessment and ongoing management, but it introduces difficult issues regarding confidentiality and risk. In this podcast we speak to the mother and daughter authors of a...

Assessing young people with possible eating disorders can be complex for a variety of reasons. Building a therapeutic relationship with a young person with a possible eating disorder and their family is key to enabling a thorough assessment and ongoing management, but it introduces difficult issues regarding confidentiality and risk. In this podcast we talk with the authors of two practice article...

Our latest H2H debate asks: Is continuous electronic fetal monitoring useful for all women in labour? Peter Brocklehurst is professor of women’s health at the University of Birmingham. He argues that continuous electronic fetal monitoring during labour can lead to harm and increase the risk of caesarean section. Christoph Lees is reader in obstetrics and fetal medicine at Imperial College London....

We have a problem in obesity research — clinical trials continue to prioritise weight loss as a primary outcome and rarely consider patients’ experience, quality of life, or adverse events - and now a new analysis article, "Challenging assumptions in obesity research" questions that focus on weight. Navjoyt Ladher discusses this thorny topic with Liz Sturgiss, GP, obesity researcher at Australian...

We know that adults with obesity have an increased risk of premature mortality, cardiovascular disease, some cancers, type 2 diabetes, and many other diseases. However, the effect of dieting on 3 of those outcomes (cancer, cvd, and mortality) is surprisingly little studied. However a new systematic review and meta-analysis does bring together what we know of that effect, and to explain the evidenc...

In July, The BMJ published an analysis article called “The Antibiotic Course has had it’s day” - a provocative title that turned out the garner a lot of debate on our site. The article said that the convention for the length of a course of antibiotics was set by Flemming, in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech - “If you use penicillin, use enough!” - and that the evidence base hasn’t moved on since...

Unjust discrimination against people with mental ill health should be replaced with universal rules based on decision making ability, argues George Szmukler, emeritus professor of psychiatry and society at King’s College, London. However Scott Weich, professor of mental health at the University of Sheffield, worries about legal distractions that won’t improve outcomes while services are so thinly...

The Three Talk Model of shared decision is a framework to help clinicians to think about how to structure their consultation to ensure that shared decision making can most usefully take place. The model is based around 3 concepts - option talk, decision talk, and team talk - with active listening at the centre. Three Talk was first proposed in 2012, now new research published on bmj.com updates th...