Continuing our series on wellbeing during the pandemic, in this podcast we speak to Occupational Psychologist Roxane Gervais about how doctors can look after themselves during the covid-19 pandemic. We discuss the importance of reaching out to friends and family during this difficult time, how to deal with the loss of control, as well how to tackle feelings of guilt when you are unable to work clinically. For more wellbeing content www.bmj.com/wellbeing For more on covid-19 www.bmj.com/coronavir...
Apr 07, 2020•35 min
We knew a pandemic was coming at some point - it’s kind of why we have the WHO. We have had various smaller scale tests of the international response to an infectious disease outbreak - Ebola in west africa being the most recent. After that, reports criticised the WHO's response - citing problems around the swiftness of their action, the lack of coordination between countries, and the platforms for knowledge sharing. Is the agency doing any better in Covid-19? Suerie Moon is co-director of the G...
Apr 05, 2020•33 min
For the next few months Talk Evidence is going to focus on the new corona virus pandemic. There is an enormous amount of uncertainty about the disease, what the symptoms are, fatality rate, treatment options, things we shouldn't be doing. We're going to try to get away from the headlines and talk about what we need to know - to hopefully give you some insight into these issues. This week 3.50 - There is a lot of confusion around symptoms, we hear what Carl's review of the case studies has found,...
Mar 27, 2020•40 min
Reports from Italy, and more recently from the U.S. show the strain the healthcare system is under during this pandemic. We know that staff will step up in an emergency, but this isn’t a fire or a bombing, this is going to last for months. So how can organisations be proactive in supporting staff, and how can leaders try to mitigate the inevitable burnout. In this podcast, Michael West, professor of organisational psychology at Lancaster university, and author of the GMC report “Caring for docto...
Mar 26, 2020•26 min
This edition of talk evidence was recorded before the big increase in covid-19 infections in the UK, and then delayed by some self isolation. We'll be back with more evidence on the pandemic very soon. 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). in this episode (1.01) Helen talks about variation in prescription of opioids - do 1% of clinician really prescri...
Mar 20, 2020•55 min
The NHS is a world leader in sustainable healthcare - and it's the staff who have have been leading the charge. The For A Greener NHS campaign is asking everyone who has made a change to the way they work, to submit evidence and help shape the whole organisation's response to the climate emergency. In this podcast, Isobel Braithwaite, public health registrar & academic clinical fellow at UCL, and Sandy Robertson, LTFT Emergency Medicine Trainee and Chair of RCEM environmental specialist interest...
Mar 14, 2020•17 min
We all know we should be doing more exercise, and one way to do that is by active commuting - journeying to work on foot or by bike. One thing preventing people from taking up cycling is the fear of being involved in road traffic accidents, and that the risk isn't worth the benefit of the extra exercise. It’s even more confusing when air pollution has to be taken into account. Joining us to discuss new research into that risk/benefit calculation are Paul Welsh, a Senior Lecturer, and Carlos Celi...
Mar 12, 2020•23 min
We know that the number of people living with multiple health conditions is rising year on year, and yet training, guidelines, organisations and physical spaces in healthcare still largely focus on single diseases or organ systems. The means that patients in the NHS are often treated as if their conditions exist in isolation, and that their care lacks coordination, and isn't as good as it should be. To look at why patients with multiple conditions pose a challenge to the NHS, and what we can do ...
Mar 05, 2020•1 hr
In this week's special episode of Sharp Scratch, we've got something a little different for you! Last week the panel talked microaggressions, so this week we're hearing from an expert guest who is leading the work the NHS is doing to combat inequality in healthcare. If you like this special edition, let us know on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter using #SharpScratch This week's special guest: Yvonne Coghill, CBE is the director of Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) at NHS England and NHS Impr...
Feb 28, 2020•49 min
Last week the BMJ published it’s first special edition into Racism in Medicine. The issues tacked ranged from differential attainment in medical school, to the physiological effects that experiencing everyday discrimination has. The issue was guest edited by Victor Adebowale, the Chief Executive of the social care enterprise Turning Point, and Mala Rao, Professor of Public Health, at Imperial College London - and they, along with Simon Stevens, chief executive of the NHS, Chand Nagpul Chair of c...
Feb 21, 2020•28 min
We're taking a break from the usual Talk Evidence to focus on the new corona virus that has emerged in China. With a brand new disease, we have to build our evidence base from scratch - basic virology, epidemiology, pathogenicity, transmissibility, and ultimately treatment are all unknowns. In this episode of Talk Evidence, we're trying to get away from the headlines and talk about what we need to know - to hopefully give you some insight into these issues. (8.00) Peter Openshaw, professor of ex...
Feb 17, 2020•45 min
There comes a tipping point in all campaigns when the evidence is overwhelming and the only way to proceed is with action. According to David Williams, it’s time to tackle the disproportionate effects of race on patients in the UK. David Williams, from Harvard University, developed the Everyday Discrimination Scale that, in 1997, launched a new scientific approach to assessing social influences, such as racism, on health. He’s shown that people who experience every day acts of discrimination— li...
Feb 13, 2020•53 min
In 2012, Eleni Linos, professor of dermatology at Stanford university, published a systematic review and meta-analysis of the link between non-melanoma cancer and sun-beds. That bit of pretty standard research, and a particular rapid response to it, has kicked of years of work - and in this podcast I talk to Eleni and her colleagues Stanton Glantz, and Yogi Hendlin about what they’ve uncovered. Reading list: Association between financial links to indoor tanning industry and conclusions of publis...
Feb 10, 2020•29 min
In many countries (including the UK and Australia) it is still common practice for hospital doctors to write letters to patients’ general practitioners (GPs) following outpatient consultations, and for patients to receive copies of these letters. However, Hugh Rayner, consultant nephrologist, and Peter Rees, former Chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges' lay patient committee, suggest that hospital doctors who have changed their practice to include writing letters directly to patients ha...
Feb 07, 2020•25 min
In October 2019, Mary Dixon-Woods, director of the THIS Institute, dedicated to healthcare improvement. In that she explained how she believed healthcare improvement could be improved. The essay took the position that "Quality Improvement" isn't necessarily the best way to improve healthcare, and that more rigour needs to be brought to the field. That paper has created a great deal of discussion, so in this podcast we wanted to go back to Mary and ask her what she thinks about improvement, and h...
Jan 31, 2020•45 min
Precocious puberty, that is puberty that starts before age 8 in girls and 9 in boys seems to be on the rise, but whether that’s because of an increase in incidence, or greater attention is unknown - what we do know that precocious puberty in girls is commonly idiopathic, while in boys is a red flag for pathology. But either way ther first point of call is the GP. In this podcast, Steven Bradley GP, and Neil Lawrence, paediatric trainee join us to discuss how common precocious puberty is, how GPs...
Jan 28, 2020•34 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: (1.20) Carl tells us about new research on treating sepsis with steroids that might inform practice. (4.58)Proscribing of prophylactic PPIs or H2-blockers for intensive care patients. (11.00) Carl wonders if we...
Jan 22, 2020•41 min
In a British cohort, 30% of patients who had survived childhood cancer had died within 45 years of diagnosis; only 6% were expected to have died. 51% had developed a new primary cancer, but a 26% died of cardiovascular disease - thought to be caused by their treatment. Consequently, efforts to reduce long term mortality have focused on reducing exposure to the most toxic aspects of anticancer treatment, including radiotherapy. In this podcast we’re joined by Daniel Mulrooney, associate professor...
Jan 21, 2020•25 min
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
