Is it possible to have a fair price for medicines? Yes, according to a new collection just published on bmj.com. The authors set out to evaluate how we could improve the functioning of the market for medicines, to honestly compensate industry for innovation, whilst allowing the poorest to afford them. Suerie Moon, co-director of global health at the Graduate Institute of Geneva joins us to explain what's wrong with how we decided what to pay for medicine's now, and how we could change that. Read...
Jan 17, 2020•26 min
Michael West is professor of organisational psychology, at Lancaster University, and co-author of a new GMC report into the wellbeing of NHS staff. The review he led together with the clinical psychiatrist Denise Coia, focused on primary interventions related to workplace factors and the systems that doctors work in, rather than secondary interventions such as resilience training. In this podcast interview, he describes what he found - and talks about how low wellbeing is amongst doctors, why th...
Jan 10, 2020•39 min
If you read the Christmas BMJ in the last few weeks, you might have noticed a lot around art and health - the way in which engagement in arts can help in prevention and treatment, but can also affect those more nebulous things which really matter to patients - loneliness, self expression, being connected to the wider community. That obviously links to social prescribing, which looks like it’s going to be one of the big changes to medicine which will happen in near future. In this podcast we hear...
Jan 07, 2020•42 min
If you’re lucky enough to not be back at work, you might be feeling like you need to quickly refresh your medical knowledge - and this podcast the BMJ’s education editors take you on a whistlestop tour through the BMJ’s education articles of 2019. Tom Nolan (GP in London) is joined by Navjoyt Ladher (GP in London), Anita Jain (GP in India) and Jenny Rasanathan (GP in Phnom Penh). Our reading list: Please don’t call me mum https://www.bmj.com/content/367/bmj.l5373 Which emollients are effective a...
Jan 03, 2020•30 min
Welcome to the festive talk evidence, giving you a little EBM to take you into the new year. As always Duncan Jarvies is joined by Helen Macdonald (resting GP and editor at The BMJ) and Carl Heneghan (active GP, director of Oxford University’s CEBM and editor of BMJ Evidence) This month: (2.00) Helen look back at a Christmas article, which investigates a very common superstition in hospitals. (7.55) Carl has his pick of the top 100 altimetric most influential papers of the year. (12.40) We find ...
Dec 31, 2019•44 min
The internecine takes on medical specialty are a common thread in the Christmas BMJ, and this year we're doing it through the lens of driving. Which speciality speeds the most, who has the nicest cars? André Zimerman, soon to be cardiologist, and researcher lets us know - and also why you can't rely on being a doctor to get off a speeding ticket. At least in Florida. Read the full article: https://www.bmj.com/content/367/bmj.l6354
Dec 20, 2019•16 min
As editors, we feel like we’re spending a lot of time taking the superlatives out from articles - amazing, novel, important… But new research on BMJ.com suggests that we might not be doing that great a job, and that for some reason, papers authored by men tend to have more of them - because men put more in, or maybe a bias against woman writing in that way. Marc Lerchenmueller, assistant professor at the University of Mannheim joins us to talk about how they did the research, and what it means f...
Dec 20, 2019•23 min
We’re back for the December Talk Evidence, and this month we’re being very digital Firstly,(1.20) Helen tells us about arthritic fingers - should we be using prednisolone for treatment when people have painful osteoarthritis of the hand Then (13.30) Carl gets us all to check our fingers for clubbing, and we find out how useful it is as a test for lung cancer (23.10) Minna Johansson GP and Cochrane Sweden researcher explains why EBM needs to take into account sustainability, and why that isn’t ju...
Dec 16, 2019•44 min
In this special edition of talk evidence, Helen Macdonald and Carl Henneghan talk about creating an evidence base from harms. We hear from a member of the pubic who experienced harm from a drug, and now advises the FDA. A former regulator who explains why reporting harms is so important. And finally, an investigative journalist who explains what "ghost management" is.
Dec 13, 2019•35 min
The UK general election is happening this week, and you’ve probably made your mind up which MP you’re voting for already - and maybe the NHS has influenced that decision. This year has seen an increase in the number of doctors running for parliament, and in this podcast we find out what motivates doctors to step away from clinical practice, and why their voice on national issues is important to guide the health of their patients. We’re joined by Louise Irving, gp and former parliamentary candida...
Dec 09, 2019•33 min
UK general election has been called - polling day is on the 12th of December, and from now until then we’re going to be bringing you a weekly election-themed podcast. We want to help you make sense of the promises and pledges, claims and counter-claims, that are being made around healthcare and the NHS out on the campaign trail. This week we're focussing on what the NHS means to the election, from people who have been inside the political process and know about how campaign promises are made. We...
Dec 05, 2019•35 min
A UK general election has been called - polling day is on the 12th of December, and from now until then we’re going to be bringing you a weekly election-themed podcast. We want to help you make sense of the promises and pledges, claims and counter-claims, that are being made around healthcare and the NHS out on the campaign trail. This week we're focussing on health beyond the NHS - public health spending, and pledges to tackle air pollution and climate change. To discuss we're joined by Jennife...
Nov 30, 2019•39 min
A UK general election has been called - polling day is on the 12th of December, and from now until then we’re going to be bringing you a weekly election-themed podcast. We want to help you make sense of the promises and pledges, claims and counter-claims, that are being made around healthcare and the NHS out on the campaign trail. This week we're focussing on spending pledges. NHS budgets have not been keeping up with healthcare demand, and social care is in dire financial straits. David Oliver,...
Nov 22, 2019•28 min
A UK general election has been called - polling day is on the 12th of December, and from now until then we’re going to be bringing you a weekly election-themed podcast. We want to help you make sense of the promises and pledges, claims and counter-claims, that are being made around healthcare and the NHS out on the campaign trail. This week has seen pledges about GP numbers, so we're focussing on primary care - and are joined by two GPs, Clare Gerada, co chair of the NHS Assembly, and former cha...
Nov 15, 2019•31 min
Reverse innovation may sound like some attempt to return to the dark ages - but it has a specific meaning, especially when it comes to med-tech. It’s about where we look for innovation - and overturning our preconceived ideas of where new ideas come from. Mark Skopec, and Matthew Harris - both from Imperial College London are two of the authors of a new analysis, setting out to highlight those preconceptions, and creating new routes to bring innovation into the NHS. Read the analysis: https://ww...
Nov 14, 2019•23 min
Talk Evidence is back, with your monthly take on the world of EBM with Duncan Jarvies and GPs Carl Heneghan (also director for the Centre of Evidence Based Medicine at the University of Oxford) and Helen Macdonald (also The BMJ's UK research Editor). This month Helen talks about the messy business of colon cancer screening - which modality is best, and in what population is it actually effective (1.40) Carl talks about how the Netherlands did the right research at the right time to stop a new pr...
Nov 11, 2019•40 min
Giving staff the confidence to speak out is important in healthcare - It's a key aspect of the WHO patient safety checklist, decreasing incidence of medical error, but it's also important to stop incidents of harassment and abuse which undermine staff and increase burnout. Creating that culture is a difficult task, but two hospitals in the southern hemisphere have been trying to do do that by putting in place ways which support staff in making complaints when they wouldn't normally feel confiden...
Nov 07, 2019•28 min
The NHS Practitioner Health Programme - once only for doctors in London, now it’s being rolled out across the NHS to provide the largest, publicly funded, comprehensive physician health service, in the world. However, while helping the individual is essential, systemic change needs to be made to support doctors in our healthcare system. Clare Gerada, GP and medical director of NHS PHP joins us to talk about how the expanded service will work, and what role regulation and inspections should play ...
Nov 05, 2019•18 min
There has been a lot of noise made about calorie counts on labels - the idea being it’s one of those things that might nudge people to make healthier choices. So much so that in 2018, in the USA, it became mandatory for food chains with more than 20 outlets to label the calories in their food. But the effectiveness of that is hard to gauge - it’s relied on reporting from customers, which leads to an incomplete picture. The really killer data would be from the chains themselves, but they’re reluc...
Oct 31, 2019•26 min
A TB infection can take two forms, active and latent. Active disease is transmissible, and causes the damage to the lungs which makes TB one of the biggest killers in the world. In the latent form, the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis is quiescent and can stay that way for years until it becomes active and causes those clinical signs. Testing for the active version of the disease is done directly, but when it comes to latency, we use the tuberculin skin test to see if someone has an immunolog...
Oct 25, 2019•30 min
This week, Dr Arnav Agarwal joins Ray to share the perspective and experiences of a young, recently graduated doctor working in a busy, metropolitan hospital. Despite the long shifts and demanding environment, Arnav makes time and space to reflect on work, life and mortality through his thought-provoking poetry and volunteer work.
Oct 22, 2019•34 min
This week, Ray ventures into the notoriously complex field of nutrition with special guest, Professor Marion Nestle. Named by Forbes as one of the world's most powerful foodies, Marion’s stellar career spans five decades of research, teaching, advocacy work and the publication of countless prize-winning books.
Oct 22, 2019•28 min
Statins are now the most commonly used drug in the UK and one of the most commonly used medicines in the world, but debate remains about their use for primary prevention for people without cardiovascular disease. Paula Byrne from the National University of Ireland Galway, joins us to talk about the evidence of benefit for low risk individuals, and what needs to be done to finally answer the questions about efficacy and harms. Read the full analysis: https://www.bmj.com/content/367/bmj.l5674...
Oct 21, 2019•21 min
Direct-to-consumer genetic tests are sold online and in shops as a way to “find out what your DNA says". They insights into ancestry or disease risks; others claim to provide information on personality, athletic ability, and child talent. However, interpretation of genetic data is complex and context dependent, and DTC genetic tests may produce false positive and false negative results. Rachel Horton, clinical training fellow, Anneke Lucassen, chair of British Society of Genetic Medicine, and Ju...
Oct 17, 2019•36 min
Blockchain is the digital technology that underpins cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, and has been proposed as the digital panacea of our times. But Leeza Osipenko, from the London School of Economics, has thought about how it could actually be used in clinical trials, and what else would need to change in our regulatory environment to make that work. Read her full essay: https://www.bmj.com/content/367/bmj.l5561
Oct 12, 2019•23 min
In quality improvement, measurement is seen as a key driver of change - how well do you know you’re doing, if you can’t actually measure it. So, when something changes in the NHS (say a new guideline) how can you tell how quickly that’s filtering down to the front line. Ben goldacre, from the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford, joins us to talk about a new proof of concept published on bmj.com, which uses NHS prescribing data to analyse how change pro...
Oct 08, 2019•31 min
Our latest series kicks off with Australia’s multi-award-winning health and science reporter, Liam Mannix. He joins Ray to share his insights into the role and impact of evidence, advocacy and investigative reporting in today’s ever-changing media landscape.
Oct 08, 2019•31 min
Talk Evidence is back, with your monthly take on the world of EBM with Duncan Jarvies and GPs Carl Heneghan (also director for the Centre of Evidence Based Medicine at the University of Oxford) and Helen Macdonald (also The BMJ's UK research Editor). This month Carl talks about evidence that restricting your diet might improve health at a population level (1.50) Helen talks about the data on a drop in alcohol consumption amongst Scots (7.04) A listener questions the team about their take on Tram...
Oct 04, 2019•37 min
After ten years at the helm of the Cochrane Library, Dr David Tovey recently stepped down as Editor-in-Chief. This week he joins Ray to reflect on Cochrane’s past, present and future and share some of the challenges and rewards of leading one of the world’s largest and most trusted health research networks.
Oct 02, 2019•29 min
On the 1st of May, 2018 Scotland was the first country to try a new way of reducing alcohol consumption in its population. It introduced a minimum unit prices for alcohol. Now new research just published on BMJ.com is looking at the effect of that price increase - and measuring how well it has achieved the goal of reducing drinking in Scots. Peter Anderson, professor of alcohol studies at Newcastle University explains how well the result matched the expectation, and if the result targeted just l...
Sep 26, 2019•17 min
