Malaria cases in Europe have dropped from over 90,000 in 1995 to zero in 2015, due to high political commitment, improved surveillance systems, better mosquito control, strengthened communication and community involvement and greater collaboration across borders. In 2005, when there were around 5000 cases, 10 affected countries in the European region agreed to shift their […]
https://youtu.be/xmosxboD6-E Habiba Suleimon is a super-mum – an extraordinary individual with two wheels, a tablet and lots of data, who is independently raising a family and ridding her community of malaria. In this short film in USAID’s Extreme Possibilities series, follow Habiba as she zooms through Zanzibar, wielding technology and a world-class surveillance system that […]
The debate about whether homeopathy should be available on the NHS invariably sees the opposing sides citing numerous research papers in support of their argument. Both sides will claim their evidence to be the most reliable, while condemning that of their opponents as seriously flawed. I’m sure for many people this resembles two crusty old […]
Recently, I went to a large NHS teaching hospital in London for a blood test. A young couple was behind me in the queue. He was wearing a suit. She was completely covered. When I was finished and it was their turn, he started getting agitated and spoke loudly at the young MAN who was due to take blood from […]
As I write in a patient’s notes in clinic, with the end of my pen in my mouth, I fall into a reverie thinking of the fully paperless NHS, which Jeremy Hunt has promised by 2018. The urgency for the digital agenda is driven by the growth of the data underlying every aspect of healthcare. […]
Read More… from Data, data everywhere, but are doctors ready?
For a long time, it was thought that the heart muscle was post-mitotic – meaning the heart cells (that are responsible for the contraction of the heart, the cardiomyocytes) you were born with, you died with; there was no replenishment of new cardiomyocytes throughout life. In fact, over the last two decades, scientists have shown that the heart’s cardiomyocytes can […]
A&E wards can be frightening, stressful and downright unpleasant place to visit. They often seem close to bursting point with patients who range from car crash victims to the walking wounded, crying children to drunken adults. But these wards can be equally traumatic for the staff – who must not only deal with life and […]
Read More… from Accident and Emergency Diary: Saturday Night Shift
From 15th April, The Freud Museum London will launch Tall Tales a new exhibition bringing together the work of 17 women artists, who weave storytelling techniques into their art. The building which now houses the Museum in Hampstead was formerly the home of the iconic psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and his daughter, Anna, an eminent child-psychoanalyst […]
A young man in his early 30s was brought to A&E in a large London Hospital after calling NHS Direct and reporting extreme tenderness and pain in his abdomen for the last 36 hours. He complained that he had to wait on a trolley and he only gave the hospital 5 out of 10. But […]
My A&E Diary: Accident and Emergency wards can be frightening, stressful and downright unpleasant place to visit. They often seem close to bursting point with patients who range from car crash victims to the walking wounded, crying children to drunken adults. But these wards can be equally traumatic for the staff – who must not […]