Devi Sridhar's new book “How Not to Die (Too Soon) - The Lies We’ve Been Sold, and the Policies That Could Save Us” is focussing on the way wellness culture ignores the societal context in which health is really created. As a trained personal trainer and professor of global public health, Devi's straddling both of those worlds, and joins us to talk about how she would tackle our lowering life expectancy. Also, John Downey, from the Centre of Health Technology at Peninsula Medical School, and Mar...
Jun 02, 2025•39 min•Ep. 42
Recent escalations in the ever simmering tension between India and Pakistan brought us closer to conflict - conflict between two nuclear powers. For a long time doctors have campaigned for nuclear disarmament, and Chris Zielinski, president of the World Association of Medical Editors, makes the case for returning WHO's mandate to measure the potential impact of nuclear war. Also the militarization of the region is detrimental to the health and wellbeing of the populations in both India and Pakis...
May 19, 2025•40 min•Ep. 41
China was declared malaria free in 2021 - and we'll hear how persistence was key to their success, and what new technologies are available to help the rest of the world become malaria free, from Regina Rabinovich, director of the Malaria Elimination Initiative at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health. Sonia Saxena, professor of primary care at Imperial College London, and Miguel O’Ryan, dean of the medical faculty of the University of Chile join Kamran to talk about what broke academic medic...
May 07, 2025•37 min•Ep. 40
The UK government is debating legislation to allow assisted dying in England and Wales, which puts doctors at the forefront of deciding if their patient will be eligible for a medically assisted death - the key criteria being a 6 month prognosis. But is making a 6 month prognosis actually clinically reliable? To discuss we're joined by a panel of experts on end of life; Scott Murray, emeritus professor of primary palliative care at the University of Edinburgh Simon Etkind, assistant professor of...
Apr 23, 2025•31 min•Ep. 39
Kamran Abbasi interviews Professor Ashish Jha, Dean of Public Health at Brown University and former COVID-19 pandemic advisor to President Biden. Watch this interview on our YouTube. Trump’s second term has touched everything in the US political sphere - and health is no exception. With research funding for medicine and science weathering under Trump’s storm of cuts, how can Americans who care about public health and data navigate a course through the swells? Professor Jha discusses how to resis...
Apr 11, 2025•50 min•Ep. 38
The UK’s chancellor has announced a £5bn cut to benefits, much of which will be borne by those on long-term disability allowance. Gerry McCartney, professor of wellbeing economy at Glasgow University explains about why these cuts will not only hurt the most vulnerable, but will be counterproductive to the government's wish to get people back to work. Also, Suzanne O'Sullivan, consultant neurologist and author, joins us to talk about her new book "Age of Diagnosis". The book used clinical cases t...
Apr 09, 2025•33 min•Ep. 37
In the UK, the prime minister has announced the disbanding of NHS England, Nigel Crisp - former chief executive of the NHS, explains why he thinks that it’s important the health service is closer to the political decision makers, and why this could be the time to really acknowledge the healthcare emergency. On the international stage, the Trump administration's withdrawal from the WHO is throwing global health into disarray - Illona Kickbusch, founder of the Global Health Centre at the Graduate ...
Mar 26, 2025•38 min•Ep. 36
We've just published a new rapid review on the safety and efficacy of physician and anaesthetic associates in the UK, which was commissioned to support the ongoing Leng review of these new roles in the NHS. Trish Greenhalgh, professor of primary care at the University of Oxford, joins us to discuss the data she found. Habib Naqvi is director of the NHS Race and Health Observatory, and is holding up a mirror to the NHS on it's support for ethnic minority patients and doctors - he joins us to talk...
Mar 12, 2025•47 min•Ep. 35
From pay restoration, to making sure there are enough training posts for resident doctors, the BMA has been busy. In this podcast, Kamran Abbasi, the editor in chief of The BMJ, spoke to Phil Banfield, chair of the BMA’s council. They talk about the ongoing pay discussions, how the BMA is working with the new government - touching on both speciality training places, and the role of physician assistants. The conversation also covers the BMA's changing strategy, which aims to empower local members...
Mar 05, 2025•29 min•Ep. 34
In this episode of the BMJ's Medicine and Science podcast, editor-in-chief Kamran Abbasi discusses the urgent need to tackle disinformation in health, especially in the context of the US, with Heidi Larson and Martin McKee from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. We also hear from Jane Ballentyne, professor of anaesthesia and pain medicine at the University of Washington, about new guidelines that strongly recommend against the use of spinal injections for chronic pain - and why ...
Feb 26, 2025•31 min
Providing quality healthcare is demanding, often stressful, and requires sustained effort. When resources are stretched and pressure mounts, compassion can slip - but compassion is an essential tool for leaders, who need to support their teams to continue delivering the best possible care. In this final episode of The BMJ’s podcast series on quality of care, Rachael Hinton, BMJ Editor, speaks to three healthcare leaders. They discuss how fostering kind and compassionate leadership and care can i...
Feb 21, 2025•24 min•Ep. 33
This week Rebecca Coombes is back with another big-food investigation, this time about fast-food giant MacDonalds subverting attempts to stop it opening stores near schools. Sticking with industry behaving badly, May van Schalkwyk, from the University of Edinburgh, wonders why we haven't learn lessons from the attempts to control big tobacco companies, when it comes to other industries that harm health. And finally, AI in healthcare - Karim Lekadir, from the University of Barcelona, explains new...
Feb 12, 2025•34 min•Ep. 32
Exercise and a better diet, prior to surgery, can improve outcomes. Daniel McIsaac, a professor of anaesthesiology from the University of Ottowa and lead author of that research, joins us to talk about getting those results into practice. Julia Sinclair, professor of addiction psychiatry at the University of Southampton, explains how the NHS has lost sight of the impact alcohol consumption has on clinical care, and why we need a strategy to tackle it. Finally, Matt Morgan, consultant in intensiv...
Jan 29, 2025•41 min•Ep. 31
US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to withdraw the US out of the WHO. This would cut funding for the UN’s medical agency by one-fifth. Will they really exit, or can a deal be made? Lawrence Gostin hopes so, and as a professor of law at Georgetown, and director of the World Health Organisation Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law, he is working with senior US and WHO officials to try and understand what reforms could be made to WHO what would allow a such a ...
Jan 24, 2025•30 min
In the last podcast of 2024, Richard Smith, former editor of The BMJ and head of UKHACC will be making the case for being more convivial. Tina Korownyk, professor of family medicine at the University of Alberta is the ghost of Christmas past for TV doctors. Tim Feeny and Navjoyt Ladher take us through this year's Christmas research papers. And finally, Mari Martensen, a paramedic, explains what makes being a medic in Svalbard bear-able. Reading list. The dangers of industrialisation—why we need ...
Dec 30, 2024•41 min•Ep. 29
Conflicts of interest harm health, and a new investigation uncovers the infiltration of big food manufacturers into UK schools. Emma Wilkinson reports on that investigation. Kamran and Rebecca Coombes, head of journalism, discuss moves to reduce industry's impact on food policy in the UK. A new research paper has identified a link between eating chocolate and lower rates of diabetes. Binkai Liu, doctoral student and Qi Sun, associate professor, at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health ex...
Dec 17, 2024•33 min•Ep. 28
In today’s episode, new research, which has looked at the impact staff turnover is having on patient outcomes. Giuseppe Moscelli, associate professor at the University of Surrey joins Navjoyt Ladher to explain more. Also, every year the BMJ has a Christmas appeal - and this year we have chosen the International Rescue Committee as our partner. To talk more about what they do, and to give us some insight into how geopolitics are affecting health we're joined David Milliband, president and chief e...
Dec 04, 2024•33 min•Ep. 27
This week we’re at the World Innovation Summit for Health, where we’re a media partner - the meeting is focussing on conflict, equity and resilience. In that vein, we’re joined by Christos Christou, international president of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) to talk about attacks on healthcare staff, and the difficulty and importance of maintaining neutrality in conflict zones. Ara Darzi, surgeon, executive chair of the conference, and author of the recent NHS review, joins us to talk about antimi...
Nov 20, 2024•32 min•Ep. 26
In this episode, we speak to the doctor overseeing the WHO’s emergency response for the eastern mediterranean region - including Gaza, Lebanon, Sudan and Yemen. Richard Brennan joins us to talk about protecting health services, and workers, in the escalating armed conflicts that are affecting the region. Menaka Paranathala and Emma Rourke, from The BMJ, are on to talk about improving research into women’s health. A new UK project, MESSAGE, aims to give consideration to sex and gender in life sci...
Nov 02, 2024•38 min•Ep. 25
It’s an often cited statistic that if healthcare was a country, it would be the fifth largest carbon emitter. At The BMJ we want to change that, and move healthcare towards a more sustainable future. In this week’s episode, we’ll hear about our annual climate edition from two of The BMJ’s editors, Sophie Cook and Juliet Dobson. We’ll be diving into Cli-Fi and asking how climate fiction can galvanise our collective response to climate change. Our panel includes Howard Frumkin, professor emeritus ...
Oct 19, 2024•41 min•Ep. 23
How science can be transformed into policy? One of the seemingly intractable issues when it comes to legislative change in the US is gun control. One reason policy change is so difficult, is the US specific evidence vacuum, but that’s beginning to change. We're joined by Louis Klarevas, an academic at the University of Colombia and author of the book “Rampage Nation, securing america from gun violence" and Shannon Watts, from Moms Demand Action which is a grassroots movement of Americans fightin...
Oct 12, 2024•22 min•Ep. 22
Under-nutrition harms health, but so does over-nutrition. The Bill and Melinda Gate’s foundation has just released their Goalkeepers' report - highlighting the detrimental impact that poor nutrition is having on children’s health. Rasa Izadnegahdar, director of Maternal, Newborn, Child Nutrition & Health at the foundation joins us to explain how they are targeting nutritional interventions. Also this week, a new investigation in The BMJ has found that the UK government’s Scientific Advisory ...
Sep 27, 2024•22 min•Ep. 21
There's a real drive to strengthen quality of care in facilities around the world. However, no matter where you are, improving healthcare depends on quality data—and collecting and using that data can be challenging without the time and expertise. In this podcast, we explore how different healthcare systems, especially those with limited resources, are tackling the challenge of data collection and use head-on. The BMJ has partnered with the World Health Organization and the World Bank on a Colle...
Sep 17, 2024•23 min•Ep. 20
The news that GPs in England have voted for industrial action has spooked the healthcare system - Katie Bramall-Stainer, the chair of the BMA's General Practice Committee explains what's lead to this, and why trust in the government has gone. After the games, olympians and paralympians return to their normal lives - but what does that mean for their healthcare, especially in the US where insurance is expensive? Jonathan Finnoff, chief medical officer for the US Olympic and Paralympic committee j...
Sep 09, 2024•29 min•Ep. 19
This week we're questioning the effectiveness of the Galleri Test for early cancer detection with investigation authors Margaret McCartney and Deborah Cohen. They delve into the decision-making and politics behind this test's introduction in the UK. The episode also covers the growing NHS waiting list crisis and how Imran Ahmed and his team at Guy's and St. Thomas' NHS Trust are using high intensity theatre (HIT) lists to increase surgical throughput - and what other teams need to know, if a nat...
Aug 14, 2024•26 min•Ep. 18
The Paris games have just started - and France has made a concerted effort to ensure that this year's Olympics will have a legacy of physical activity for the whole population. However, mega sporting events don't always have that effect, and Fiona Bull, head of physical activity for the WHO, joins us to explain why it's increasingly important that they do. We'll also hear from Professor Sir Denis Perera Gray about how a lifetime of general practice, and why continuity needs to be at the heart of...
Jul 26, 2024•39 min•Ep. 17
We celebrate 10 years of patient and public partnership strategy at The BMJ with a patient-centred podcast. We ask how should the new Labour government engage patients in shaping the future of the NHS. We also dive into the concepts of social care and peer support, and learn from Brazil's experience in social participation. Highlights: 01:52 - The Patient "takeover" 05:43 - Social care with Charlotte Augst 19:53 - Peer support groups with Claire Reid and Partha Kar 31:48 - WHO’s resolution on so...
Jul 13, 2024•43 min•Ep. 16
Women's Health, breast cancer screening, epidurals, and GP voices New U.S. guideline on breast cancer screening have been extended to women in their 40s - Katy Bell, from the University of Sydney, and Stacy Carter, from the University of Wollongong explain why the good intention of that change wont be mirrored in outcomes - and may even induce harm. Research in The BMJ shows epidurals during labour can reduce severe maternal morbidity Rachael Kearns describes why analgesia may improve those outc...
Jul 01, 2024•30 min•Ep. 15
As increasing numbers of mammalian, and human, cases of H5N1 are documented we askShould we worry about a growing threat from “bird flu”? Wendy Barclay, from Imperial college London, and Christopher Dye, from Oxford University join us to explain why they think we should. Our commission on the future of the NHS has released a manifesto for a sustainable NHS that still meets it's founding principles. Helen Salisbury, GP and BMJ columnist, joins the podcast to lay it out. Finally, a musical interlu...
Jun 14, 2024•32 min
In the UK, a general election has been called - and around the world, ½ the global population will be voting this year; so in this episode we’ll be talking about how elections and health intersect. Firstly, what are the UK parties’ plans for health? Abi Rimmer, The BMJ's UK features editor joins us with the latest information. The world’s largest democracy is polling, so how are Indian politicians talking about health? Sanjay Nagral, surgeon and director of the Department of Surgical Gastroenter...
May 31, 2024•30 min
