Medicine and Science from The BMJ

Wellbeing - where to turn for emotional support during the pandemic

The Samaritans have traditionally been there for people in a crisis, those who are on the verge of ending their life by suicide - but during this pandemic, with the personal toll of caring for covid-19 patients, they are also here to provide emotional support for NHS staff however they are feeling.
In this podcast, Ben Phillips, head of service programmes for Samaritans joins us to explain how being listened to can help - and how to tactfully point your colleagues towards that emotional help if you feel they need it.
If you need support at this time you can call 0800 069 6222
or visit https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/health-and-care/

Food aid - helping providers support the health of their users

The growth in the need for food aid, in the UK, has been staggering. That's why The BMJ has chosen the Independent Food Aid Network (IFAN) as its annual charity appeal.
Nutritional guidelines which work for everyone is difficult, even harder for food aid providers who have to factor in things like long term storage, reduced access to fresh produce and in some cases the inability to afford the electricity to cook with.
In this podcast, Sabine Goodwin, IFAN's coordinator is joined by Isabel Rice, dietician at the charity Centrepoint, and Dee Woods, co-chair of IFAN and who co-runs Granville Community Kitchen, a food aid provider in London.
Please time the time to donate at;
https://www.foodaidnetwork.org.uk/bmj

Coronavirus second wave - The UK’s fourth lockdown

Recorded Tuesday 5th Jan 2021
As the UK enters lockdown, again, schools are closed, the NHS struggles under the surge of cases, new variants of SARS-COV-2 virus stalk the world, and vaccination programmes make a faltering start.
In this podcast, Fiona Godlee, editor in chief of The BMJ, talks to Matt Morgan, a consultant in a intensive care medicine in Cardiff, Helen Salisbury, GP in Oxfordshire, and Nisreen Alwan, public health consultant in Southampton, about the pressure on critical care, England's vaccination roll out, the closure of schools and why communication is undermining trust in the vaccines.
All the BMJ's corona virus coverage is currently free to access
www.bmj.com/coronavirus

Listening is the first part of research

The BMJ has long campaigned for better patient and public participation in research, making the case that it leads to better outcomes for patients and for society - but an article published in the Christmas edition of The BMJ goes further than that - and talks about the insights that participants in research provide- insights that the academic team would never be able to have themselves.
In this podcast, Seb Crutch a professor of neuropsychology, and Martin Rossor, national director for dementia research - who have been involved in neurological research as academics, and also by Valerie Mansfield, who’s a member of a patient support group, discuss how the scientific establishment can recognise those invaluable insights.
Read the full article:
https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4478

A (non-systematic) evidence review of 2020

As 2021 hoves into view, we look back at a year of extraordinary evidence.
Helen Macdonald is joined by Joe Ross, one of The BMJ's research editors, as well as a researcher at Yale.
They discuss the way in which clinical pre-prints have become an important part of the research ecosystem, especially during the pandemic, and pick up on some of the non-coronavirus things you might have missed in the deluge of data.

The Deep Breath talking wellbeing evidence round-up of the year.

In this end-of-year podcast from Deep Breath In, we're bringing you a light hearted look back at 2020, and trying to remember some of the non-covid-19 medicine that has crossed our desks.
This festive quiz features the deep breath in gang, as well as Cat Chatfield from the Wellbeing podcast, and Helen Macdonald from our Talk Evidence podcasts.
Reading list;
Thyroid disease assessment and management: summary of NICE guidance
https://www.bmj.com/content/368/bmj.m41
Thyroid hormones treatment for subclinical hypothyroidism: a clinical practice guideline
https://www.bmj.com/content/365/bmj.l2006
Judd Brewer's advice for coping with burnout
https://drjud.com/

Talking Christmas evidence - how Christmas research is chosen

If you've had time to digest this year's Christmas edition of The BMJ, you might have wondered how those papers get into The BMJ.
Well in this Talk Evidence podcast, Helen Macdonald, UK research editor at The BMJ talks to two of her research team colleagues, John Fletcher and Tim Feeney, as they talk through why they chose their favourite papers.
Toxicological analysis of George’s marvellous medicine
https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4467
Does medicine run in the family—evidence from three generations of physicians in Sweden
https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4453
The time to act is now
https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4143

Wellbeing - Human factors, and Christmas Logistics

How do human behaviours affect patient outcomes? And what has that got to do with Christmas?
Graham Shaw, director of Critical Factors, and Peter Brennan, a maxillofacial surgeon in Portsmouth, join us to explain what human factors are, why they’re not a bigger part of medical training, and talk about their importance as the NHS comes under greater and greater pressure because of the surge in covid-19 cases.
They also offer a word of advice to Santa, about making sure a festive never-event never happens.
www.bmj.com/wellbeing

Food insecurity in the 6th largest economy

Every year, the BMJ has a charity appeal - we’ve regularly focused on organisations like MSF, or Lifebox - providing support to areas of the world which don’t have good healthcare provision… This year though, covid-19 has changed everything - and we’re focussed inwards, on the UK.
With growing unemployment, sections of the population being laid off, and with the well documented delays in receiving universal credit - food insecurity has become a major issue in the sixth largest economy in the world.
In this podcast Martin Caraher, emeritus professor of food and health policy at City University of London, explains how this crisis is a long time coming, and the result of the inattention of successive governments to the issue of hunger.
We also hear from Sabine Goodwin, coordinator of the Independent Food Aid Network, the recipients of this years award funds, about how the their network is being affected by the covid-19 pandemic, and how your money will be used to supports food banks, and advocate for their obsolescence
Donate the the Independent Food Aid Network here:
https://www.foodaidnetwork.org.uk/bmj

The soundscape of a hospital

Until hear death in 2019, Annabel and her husband James Weaver, spent a lot of time together in hospitals - in patient and outpatient wards, waiting in makeshift waiting rooms in corridors and atriums. And while you or I might notice things about the way in which the hospital looks - James and Annabel noticed the way in which is sounded.
James is perusing a PhD at Queen Mary University of London into acoustics and the intelligibility of sound - and in this podcast we delve into the sound of a hospital, and why it can make communication between staff and patients so hard.
Read James's Christmas article, The sound of medicine
https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4682