Medicine and Science from The BMJ

Undernutrition in India

Tessa Richards (BMJ’s analysis editor) and Duncan Jarvies (BMJ’s multimedia producer) talk to Veena Rao (adviser at Karnataka Nutrition Mission, India) about the issue of undernutrion in the country.And David Payne (BMJ’s web editor) gives us a run-down of the new bmj.com.

Sudden death in epilepsy; NAFLD mortality

Mariana Lazo, from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, tells us how non-alcoholic fatty liver disease has affected all cause mortality in the US. Also, Ley Sander, from University College London, discusses the problem of sudden death in epilepsy.

Evolved to run

This week’s podcast is from UKSEM, the big sports and exercise medicine conference in London. Daniel Lieberman, an evolutionary biologist from Harvard, explains how we have evolved to run. Steven Blair, University of South Carolina, explains how physical inactivity is having serious effects on our health. Finally Karim Khan, BJSM’s editor, tells us how much exercise gives you the most bang for your buck.If you’re interested in sports medicine, then have a listen to the BJSM podcast, where your can find more interviews with world leaders in sports medicine - http://podcasts.bmj.com/bjsm

AIDS at 30

To mark World AIDS Day, the WHO has issued a report outlining policy successes and failures in the diagnosis and treatment of HIV/AIDS. Yves Souteyrand, the co-ordinator of the report, joins us to discuss its findings and how to combat the disease in the future.Alan White, professor of men's health at Leeds Metropolitan University and the author of a new European report into men's health, explains why we need to look at men differently.Finally, renowned surgeon Atul Gawande launches the BMJ's 2011 Christmas appeal, in aid of charity Lifebox, by describing how a cheap reliable pulse oximeter costing £160 should be available in all operating theatres. You can donate at www.lifebox.org/donations

Brain drain

How much does it cost sub-Saharan countries to train all the doctors who end up working in the UK, US, Canada, and Australia? Edward Mills from the University of Ottawa explains his economic analysis of healthcare migration. Also Hungarian health minister Miklós Szócska talks about his country's challenges and plans when it comes to improving health outcomes, currently among the worst in Europe.

Death in Borsetshire

Vanessa Whitburn, editor of BBC Radio 4’s The Archers, talks morbidity and mortality in Ambridge. James Raftery, University of Southampton, updates the Forrest Report – whose evidence prompted the breast cancer screening programme in the UK.

2011

Somehow we've come to the end of another year. The Independent's health editor Jeremy Laurance talks us through the big health stories from 2011.And Greg Scott discusses his Christmas paper on the phrase "obs stable", and what it's revealed these two words have actually come to mean to hospital doctors.

Missing data

The problem of missing data is well known, especially in cases where drug companies conceal evidence. However pharmaceutical industry misconduct is not the only cause, and a cluster of papers in this week's BMJ show how aspects of the culture of medical science contribute to the problem.Elizabeth Loder, BMJ's clinical editor, talks to Harlan Krumholz (Harold H Hines Jr professor of medicine at Yale University) and Joseph Ross (assistant professor of medicine, also at Yale) about missing data from US publicly funded trials. Lisa Bero (professor at the Department of Clinical Pharmacy, University of California) describes how adding missing data to meta-analyses of drug trials can change the results, and Richard Riley (senior lecturer in medical statistics at Birmingham University) explains why individual participant meta-analyses aren't as balanced as we may think.

Surgical performance

Antoine Declos, Université de Lyon, explains the performance curve of surgeons as they become more experienced. Peter Wilmshurst, Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, and veteran whistleblower explains why it may be harder to expose the truth in a lab, than on the ward.

Antidepressants and tamiflu

Simon Hatcher, associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Aukland, sets out the use of newer antidepressants for the treatment of depression in adults. Deborah Cohen, BMJ's investigations editor, updates us on the Tamiflu saga, and how Roche is still holding onto its full patient data.