Medicine and Science from The BMJ

The new lost tribe

Last week BMJ Careers published “The new lost tribe,” describing the cohort of surgical trainees moving from ST2 to ST3. In this podcast Edward Davies, BMJ Careers editor, and Tom Dolphin, a member of the BMA junior doctors’ committee, describe how competition for training places is affecting career progression.

Reboxetine and the missing data

This week Beate Wieseler from IQWiG (Institut für Qualität und Wirtschaftlichkeit im Gesundheitswesen) tells us how they uncovered data on the antidepressant reboxetine.Also Angela Thomas and Julia Anderson, haematologists from the Comprehensive Care Haemophilia and Thrombosis Centre, Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, explain how to investigate a child who bruises easily.

Hyper hypo

In this week’s podcast Jayati Das-Munshi, from the Institute of Psychiatry, London, talks about her study into the mental health effects of ethnic density.Also, hyper/hypo - antonyms that can sound almost identical. Adam Frankel and Phillip Vecchio from the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Woolloongabba, Australia, explain their their plan to do away with these troublesome prefixes.

China

China’s New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme, aims to provide health insurance to 800 million rural citizens. We’ll be finding out from Scott Rozelle, from Stanford University and Qingye Meng from Peking University, the background to the formation of the scheme, and its place in the wider Chinese medical system.

Regulation, regulation, regulation

A BMJ investigation this week raises concerns about the ability of the US Food and Drug Administration to monitor the safety of medical devices through post-approval surveillance. We ask: is the FDA giving device manufacturers an easy regulatory ride?Also, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is set to lose the power to restrict the use of any drug that exceeds its £30k cost per quality adjusted life year ceiling. Alan Maynard, professor of health economics at the University of York, discusses what this will mean.

Risky business 2010

This week the podcast’s all about risk, as we bring you two reports from Risky Business, the conference where speakers from a wide range of hazardous industries came together to share ideas.Pat Crosskerry tells Rebecca Coombes how his work shows thinking more analytically, and less intuitively, could help doctors make better diagnostic decisions, and save lives.We also look at the contentious subject of medical litigation, and ask if it improves patient safety.

Refer, or not to refer...

This week Dulcie McBride, a consultant in public health at University College London, joins us to talk about the UK’s practice variation in referring to secondary care.Also Simon Wright, head of health at Save the Children, the BMJ’s Christmas charity, talks to Rebecca Coombes about how the money you donate helps health care in some of the world’s poorest countries.

A tale of two cycles

This week we’re joined by Jack Wennberg, author of the Dartmoth Atlas of Healthcare. He and Fiona Godlee discuss his work, and what the UK can learn from the US.Also this week what do you buy a MAMIL (Middle Aged Man in Lycra) for Christmas?

Christmas 2010

In this week’s cracker of a show…Firstly, could how you park your car indicate your choice of specialty?Secondly, how a team of scientists managed to solve the mystery of the missing French monarch.And are doctors in ITU more likely to be oliguric, and at greater risk of acute kidney injury than their patients?We read a modern fable, which has an important message for the management of complex clinical collaborations.And finally, how much beauty is there in beauty sleep?

And that was 2010

In the final BMJ podcast of 2010, David Payne asks the Independent’s Jeremy Laurance about the year past, and BMJ authors how they feel going into the one ahead.Also, Adama Traore tells us about the work Save the Children are doing in Sierra Leone. The charity has been instrumental in implementing free healthcare for women and children there, and we hear about their success.