It’s only since taking on this job that I’ve noticed how few women speak at medical conferences. It seems to me that half the time I’m the only woman on the programme and the other half I’m in the audience listening to an all male line up. I don’t believe in tokenism and anyway, given all the talk of the feminisation of medicine, it shouldn’t be necessary. more…

Web 2.0—the social web—has the potential to improve global health greatly and to solve complex problems in health science—as it has already done in particle physics. I heard this message at a conference on global health in Geneva last week, but I also heard that the barriers to these potential achievements are social and cultural, not technological. more…

The first press event I attended as a BMJ Clegg Scholar was the launch of the General Medical Council’s new guidance for doctors ‘Consent: patients and doctors making decisions together,’ at the National Theatre, London, so it was no surprise that a short play (commissioned by the GMC) was performed to reflect the situations influencing the need for new guidance.  more…

This blog is about my time as a BMJ Clegg Scholar.  The Clegg Scholarship gives medical students from around the world the opportunity to learn about medical journalism in a two month placement at its London offices.  more…

Arriving in Tokyo, the signs and maps impenetrable, and rush hour a torrential flood of determined faces in swirls and eddies through the halls of the seven level central station. Without a guide, it would be almost impossible to find one’s way. Thankfully Miki Inoue and Hiroshi Takayanagi, residents in family medicine with Professor Ryuki Kassai, met me at Narita Airport and led me by the hand (almost) to the BMJ-Fukishima Medical University conjoint conference with the Japanese Academy of Family Medicine at Tokyo University. more…

I’ve promised to explain why advanced cancer is humbling. There are several reasons.

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Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised by the revelation (from recently released official papers) that the UK Government wanted to suppress findings about the dangers of smoking because it was worried about the possible effect on tax revenues. It’s a great example of the fact that absolutely everybody has some sort of interest in research findings. more…

A few days ago, my scans came back. My liver looked like a Jackson Pollock painting. Blobs, blotches, lines everywhere. Three weeks ago, it had looked quite neat. No longer. It’s been attacked by a mob of graffiti artists. My lungs were a bit better, but heading the same way. Chemo time! Oh yay. more…

I had no idea of what it meant when I was asked to put myself up for election as a director of the Council of Science Editors . Since this is largely a US outfit, I wondered about a strategy for the Primaries. Should I concentrate on building close relationships with editors of obscure journals at private colleges in sparsely populated states or just go straight for Elsevier? I need not have worried: I clinched the sentimental green popular vote using a photo-opportunity with our tame garden pheasant and the shortest election address on record. more…

In a recent article in the BMJ Paul Biegler returns to a familiar theme in some of the more reflective literature on depression. Should an episode of depression be seen primarily as a biochemical problem, a problem of brain chemistry, or is it a problem tied to the individual’s understanding of the world?

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