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 Gastroente...
May 31, 2024•30 min
With the anticipation of a new government in the UK, shadow health secretary Wes Streeting will hit the ground running - with a winter season (and it's inevitable crisis) and ongoing industrial desputes with junior doctors. Elisabeth Mahase ask him about his plans to handle these challenges if elected. We also find our selves in the puzzling situation of potential GP unemployment in the UK despite a high demand for primary care doctors, Helen Salisbury, GP and columnist for The BMJ explains how ...
May 10, 2024•34 min
Where next for psychological safety? Amy Edmundson is professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School. Her work on psychological safety has underpinned so much quality improvement, and she joins us fresh of the stage at the International Forum on Quality and safety in healthcare to talk about the next steps in creating a safe work place. The BMJ has published two new investigations, looking at the alcohol and tobacco industry funding of public health and education - we’ll h...
Apr 26, 2024•37 min
Hilary Cass, the former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics, has spent the last 3 years collating the evidence for treatment of gender questioning young people; engaging with those young people, their families and their clinicians - all with the aim of improving NHS treatment of this complex and vulnerable group. In this interview, Kamran Abbasi, editor in chief of The BMJ, speaks in depth to Cass about her review - about evidence base for transitioning, but also about the way in which...
Apr 12, 2024•38 min
Derogation, the way in which striking doctors can be recalled to the ward to protect patient safety, was agreed by NHS England and the BMA. Now, new data The BMJ has uncovered shows that the mechanism was rarely used - and when it was tried, was often rejected. Gareth Iacobucci explains what that means about relations between the government, the NHS, and doctors. Felice Jacka, director of the Food & Mood Centre at Deakin University, is one of the authors of our recent ultra-processed foods u...
Mar 29, 2024•30 min
In this week's podcast: How AI will affect the clinician-patient relationship? Our annual Nuffield Summit roundtable asks how the promise of tech tools stacks up against reality, and how the future of the therapeutic relationship can be protected (participants below). Your code is as important as your methods, which is why The BMJ now requires you to share it - Ben Goldacre and Nick De Vito, from the Bennett Institute for Applied Data Science at the University of Oxford, explain why it's so impo...
Mar 15, 2024•37 min•Ep. 14
The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing a case on the approval of mifepristone for medical abortion - a case which could change the availability of the drug in the US, and which hinges on papers linking abortion to mental distress. However, those papers are contested (including a paper published by BMJ), and some have been retracted already - Julia Littell and Antonia Biggs tell us how that science is being used in court, and why retraction is essential. Awakening from anaesthetic is difficult enough,...
Mar 01, 2024•39 min
Social media, and the rate at which the online world is changing, is worrying - especially the speed at which health disinformation can speed around the globe. We look to tech companies for a solution to the problems of their own making - but Heidi Larson, director of the Vaccine Confidence Project, and professor of anthropology, risk and decision science at LSHTM, joins us to explain why we should be cautious about focussing our attention there. Next on the podcast, research just published in T...
Feb 16, 2024•35 min
With a new logo, and new music, comes a revamped The BMJ Podcast . Every two weeks we’ll be bringing you a magazine style show, more variety and perspectives on medicine, health, and wellbeing. In this episode: Former chief executive of the NHS, Nigel Crisp, explaining why the UK is facing a national health and care emergency (01:22) The guest editors of our US covid series, Gavin Yamey and Ana Diez Roux, discuss the US pandemic response, and how problems are built into the US constitution (19:4...
Feb 02, 2024•40 min
In this festive edition of the BMJ podcast, we hear about what medicine can learn from music, when it comes to giving a convincing performance, and how we can grow an evidence base for nature prescribing. Professors Roger Kneebone and Aaron William of the Centre for Performance Science raise the curtain on the performance of medicine, and we hear what your consultation technique could learn from a hairstylist. Ruth Garside, Professor of Evidence Synthesis, Kerryn Husk, Associate Professor of Hea...
Dec 22, 2023•34 min
There’s an inherent tension between creating quality standards that are very clinically focussed, and standards which are very patient centred - especially in settings where clinical outcomes can be compromised by basic lack of resources. The use of oxytocin to prevent bleeding after birth is an example of this - WHO quality guidelines clearly measure and incentivise use of the drug, but in more wealthy healthcare systems, adherence patient preference is the key measure. How can we ensure that l...
Dec 21, 2023•40 min
In this specially curated three-part podcast series from The BMJ, we explore the importance of community and connection to foster adolescent wellbeing. The discussion covers athe wide array of issues young people face, with a particular focus on the unique challenges of adolescence from a social perspective. The episode unpacks the significance of having supportive relationships within families, schools, and communities and the influence of these relationships on the mental and behavioural healt...
Dec 14, 2023•48 min
This is the second episode of a special three-part podcast series that delves into adolescent health and wellbeing, focusing on creating a positive trajectory of health from a young age. The podcast explores physical and mental health issues affecting young people globally, particularly in sexual and reproductive health. We hear how young people are excluded from decisions about their own health, and how grassroots groups around the world are empowering them to take responsibility for their own ...
Dec 14, 2023•45 min
In the final episode of this three-part podcast series from The BMJ, we dive into the vital topic of education for adolescents and how it influences the course of life. This podcast explores barriers, burdens and possibilities of change in the educational system to better support young people, and how the traditional system of schooling is failing to equip young people with the skills and knowledge to lead healthy lives. We also hear how the value of informal education and its impact on subjects...
Dec 14, 2023•46 min
The December edition of the Talk Evidence podcast discusses the complexities of seeking consent from patients who are part of large data sets, and some new research to help patients living with diabetes in places without certain power supplies. First patient consent and data - in the UK, two stories that have made the public worry about the use of their health data. Firstly the news that UK biobank, who hold a lot of genomic and health data, allowed research by an insurance company, and second t...
Dec 12, 2023•41 min
We were accepting of an increase in deaths every winter 'flu season, but Ashish Jha thinks that is not longer a tenable position. Lessons he learned during his time as the White House Covid-19 coordinator have convinced him we should be taking a different approach to the winter season. In this interview with Mun-Keat Looi, The BMJ's international features editor, we hear about living with COVID, the future of antivirals, vaccines, and surveillance. They talk about long COVID, the investment requ...
Dec 01, 2023•39 min•Ep. 13
Each episode of Talk Evidence we take a dive into an issue or paper which is in the news, with a little help from some knowledgeable guests to help us to understand what it all means for clinical care, policy, or research. In this episode: Helen Macdonald take a deep dive into cancer screening tests, prompted by a paper in JAMA which showed most have no effect on all cause mortality, and news that the NHS is evaluating a single test which screens for 50 common cancers - we ask Barry Kramer, form...
Nov 06, 2023•33 min•Ep. 12
Organisational and student leaders explore the responsibilities of the British Medical Association and The BMJ to understand and respond to its colonial history. Our panel Kamran Abassi, editor in chief, The BMJ, London, UK Omolara Akinnawonu, Foundation year doctor, Essex, UK, and outgoing co-chair of the BMA medical students committee Latifa Patel, elected chair of the UK BMA's Representative Body and BMA EDI lead Host - Navjoyt Ladher, clinical editor for The BMJ...
Oct 17, 2023•46 min
Leaders from academic and funding organisations discuss the transformative change required to overcome extractive and inequitable research practices in global health, and the need for examining power and privilege within traditional research institutions. Our panel Samuel Oti, senior program specialist, International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada, and member of the Global Health Decolonization Movement in Africa (GHDM-Africa) Muneera Rasheed, clinical psychologist and behaviour sci...
Oct 17, 2023•54 min
