Medicine and Science from The BMJ

In previous episodes of Doctor Informed, we've talked about the importance of speaking out, but the culture in your organisation might not always make that easy, especially if you feel something has gone wrong and you might be blamed for it. Blame culture, no blame culture, just culture - there are many terms which are used to describe the environment in which individuals and teams work, the feel...

In previous episodes of Doctor Informed, we've talked about the importance of speaking out, and how to do that better, but as you progress through your medical career, you will become the person to whom those with problems will turn. In this episode we will explore listening. As a senior clinician, how can you make the space in your work to be a good listener, when what you hear might not be what...

In the first Talk Evidence of 2022, we'll be asking about the evidence for isolation - now that isolation periods are being reduced, or even stopped in the event of a negative lateral flow test, we'll find out what data that's based on, and if it's appropriate. Vaccinations and treatments for covid-19 have been the one major success story of the pandemic, but that doesn't mean we should abandon th...

In the previous episodes of Doctor Informed, we've heard why it's so important to talk about patient safety concerns, and some of the mechanisms that allow hospital staff to raise them, but knowing why and how doesn't always make it easier to speak out. In this episode we're exploring the concept of a voiceable concern – identifying what counts as a concern, and what counts as an occasion for voic...

Rachel Levine Trained as a paediatrician, before becoming firstly the state of Pennsylvania's Physician General, then its Health Secretary. During president Joe Biden's administration, she was nominated to become the U.S.'s assistant secretary of health. That lead to her becoming a four-star admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, and thus the first openly transgender four-st...

The BMJ has special criteria for considering Christmas research: first it should make you laugh, and then it should make you think. In this festive episode of the Talk Evidence podcast, our regular panel of Helen Macdonald and Joe Ross are again joined by Juan Franco, editor in chief of BMJ Evidence Based Medicine. They’ll give you a peek into what makes for good Christmas research, and why what m...

As clinicians, we're all taught that patient safety is everyone's responsibility - but on the ground it can be hard to know how to most effectively report concerns, especially if you're not sure how those concerns will be received. In this episode of Doctor Informed, Clara Munro is joined by Ayisha Ashmore, and they ask "who is actually responsible for patient safety?" To answer that we're joined...

Fiona Godlee is stepping down as Editor-in-Chief of The BMJ after 16 years in the position. She was the first female editor of the journal, and over her tenure has seen a lot of changes - both to the publication she's run, and to the wider world of medicine. To mark her departure, Helen Macdonald sat down with Fiona to ask her a bit about those early days at the journal, on her view of women takin...

In this second podcast focussing on the covid response in South Asia, we’re focussing on the intersection of conflict and covid in the region. The pandemic has highlighted the underlying weaknesses in many health systems - but could it also be used as a catalyst for change, and be a step towards easing tensions? To discuss this, Kamran Abbasi, executive editor of The BMJ, is joined by Zulfiqar Bhu...

In this episode of Doctor Informed, Clara Munro is joined by Ayisha Ashmore - and they're getting to grips with being a compassionate colleague. While the topic might seem warm and fuzzy, there's some good hard science to suggest that compassionate leadership at every level of healthcare can make a huge difference to staff, and improve patient outcomes. Most people innately have the skills need to...

In the wellbeing podcast, the dread topic of phone usage has come up again - how social media, and an "always on" culture can affect our wellbeing. But knowing that, and changing our behaviour are two different things - so to give some advice on reducing our reliance on phones, Abi and Cat are joined by Nidhi Gupta, assistant professor of pediatrics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, who's b...

When you hear the reports from a major patient safety issue, it will be shocking to hear how they have played out - but the patterns in behaviour, of people and institutions which have gone disastrously wrong, can be seen throughout healthcare. As this first series of Doctor Informed unfolds, we'll be exploring these patterns, and bring you evidence and expertise on tackling them - Doctor Informed...

In this month’s Talk evidence, we’re going back to our roots and avoiding covid - so sit back and listen to Helen Macdonald and Joe Ross discuss a new nutrition study to prevent fractures in older adults by eating dairy, and a meta-analysis which helps you choose pain relief medications for management of osteoarthritis. We’ll hear from Steven Woloshin about the virtual Overdiagnosis conference, an...

Doctor Informed is a new podcast for hospital doctors, from The BMJ - created in collaboration with THIS Institute, and sponsored by Medical Protection. Medical expertise is fundamental to the practice of medicine. But other skills and knowledge are important too. Doctor Informed gives the inside story on the evidence about giving the best care and having positive relationships with patients and c...

It's easy to decide to do something like exercise, or a hobby to improve your wellbeing, but actually following through and make that a regular part of your week can be much harder. In this podcast, Pedro Delgado, vice president of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, joins Abi and Cat to explain how he turned some of the QI methodology he's been taught over the years on himself, and improved...

In this podcast series, Kamran Abbasi, executive editor of The BMJ will convene experts from South Asia to discuss how the pandemic has affected the region, how measures like lock-down and vaccination have been handled, and the impact of the pandemic on the social determinants of health. In this first podcast, we're focussing on India and Nepal, and are joined by; Srinath Reddy, president of the P...

This week our regular panelists, Helen Macdonald and Joe Ross, are joined by Juan Franco, editor in chief of BMJ Evidence Based Medicine - to take a primary care focussed look at what's been happening in the world of evidence. On this week’s episode. As kids go back to school, winter bugs surge and pressure mounts on health services we look at two trials which aimed to use reduce antibiotic prescr...

There has been a lot of work on the way in which surgeon's are affected by tiredness - and the whole medical workforce can probably relate to their experience. But there's a difference between tiredness and fatigue, and that difference might be important in understanding what's happening in your own life. Dale Whelehan is a physiotherapist, and PhD candidate at Trinity college Dublin, where he is...

The infrastructure of Afghanistan healthcare is under threat, as international agencies who run clinics withdraw from the country. At the same time, some of the healthcare workforce are leaving the country, while those who remain face the prospect of their wages drying up as the economy of the country collapses. But there remain people dedicated to providing healthcare, and in this podcast we hear...

The final evacuation planes have left Kabul airport, and Afghanistan’s government have ceded power to the Taliban. Amongst the international community, worries about what that transition of power means for the people of Afghanistan have centred around the rights of women, access to education for the whole population, and the continuing prosperity of the country… However what this means for health...

In this month's Talk Evidence, Helen Macdonald and Joe Ross are back with a wry look at the world of Evidence Based Medicine. They give us a round up of real world data emerging to address various uncertainties about vaccinations against covid Helen has an update on NHS Digital’s project to extract GP coding for planning of healthcare and research, and talks to Natalie Banner from Understanding Pa...

The Midlands Charter, is a set of principles that hospitals in the midlands region of England have signed up to, to improve the health and wellbeing of trainees working in the area. It was created in a huge collaboration of trainees, NHS England, Health Education England and the GMC. Dan Smith is a junior doctor at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, and one of the authors of that charter....

Rota gaps are a big problem when it comes to loading stress on the medical workforce, and there is big pressure to spread the workforce as evenly as possible across wards and shifts. However the tyranny of the rota - especially when changing rotations or working across multiple sites, means that often doctors personal wishes, or big life events are not taken into account. The dehumanising status o...

It's been 25 years since the declaration on the rights of women, was signed in Beijing - and in that time the landscape of health car inequity has changed. To celebrate we created 3 podcasts, in collaboration with The WHO and UN University, as part of the collection on Women’s Health and Gender Inequalities www.bmj.com/gender In these podcasts we'll be hosting conversations between women early in,...

In the wellbeing podcast, we have had a lot of personal experience of the pandemic, and schemes to support staff - but always we've wanted to know if there's research which can tell us how universal those experiences have been. In this podcast, Abi and Cat are joined by Danielle Lamb, senior research fellow at University College London, and Sam Gnanapragasam, clinical fellow in psychiatry at South...