BMJ Group pandemic flu podcasts

How involved are doctors in the non medical aspects of patient care? An analysis on bmj.com this week examines the problem of nutrition and fluid balance in hospitalised patients. Helen Macdonald, a junior doctor and editor at the BMJ, asks Richard Leach,

Of the myriad of clinical decision support tools, what features actually improve patient outcomes? Pavel Romanov, medical student at Western University in Canada, discusses his research. Also this week: Is it feasible to get governments to consider the p

In the wake of the Francis report, the BMJ gathered experts to discuss compassion in the health service. This is the discussion in full. Taking part are: Domhnall MacAuley, BMJ primary care editor Anthony Silverstone, consultant at UCH Peter Carter, ch

If patients living in one area have more diagnoses than those living in another, use more care, but have similar mortality rates, you would think they were simply sicker, but that the extra care they were receiving must be good and making them better. Not

Andrew Witty is the CEO of GlaxoSmithKline. He’s been credited with taking on a pharma company with a history of behaving badly in the past – as shown by a record $3bn fine levied by the US government last year. How much is he able or willing to change th

Recorded at the recent Nuffield health policy summit, this round table asks how to impliment the Francis reports recommendations. Taking part were: Robert Francis, chair of The Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Enquiry Simon Stevens, presiden

Are all calories equal? Thermodynamics would say that energy is energy, be it derived from carbohydrate, fat, or protein. But things get more complicated when appetite is taken into consideration , says Robert Lustig, professor of pediatric endocrinology

A clinical review this week looks at the diagnosis and treatment of carotid atherosclerosis, including when to screen and the threshold for intervention. Alun Davies, professor of vascular surgery at Imperial College London, also answers how useful or har

The issues of hidden data are well known, and the BMJ’s open data campaign page documents some of the problems which have arisen as a result of clinical trial data remaining undisclosed. At Evidence Live 2013 in Oxford this week, Fiona Godlee, BMJ editor

The World Health Organization has chosen hypertension as the public health threat it will focus on for the next year. The problem is particularly pressing in India, and Anita Jain, the BMJ's India editor, spoke to François Decaillet, Coordinator for Healt

Delirium is often missed in primary and secondary care. Edison Vidal, assistant professor in internal medicine at the Universidade Estadual Paulista, Brazil, advises on diagnosing and managing the condition. Rheumatoid arthritis, non-biological drug trea

This week, we discuss how Australia’s national human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination programme has caused a dramatic drop in genital warts. Does this foretell elimination of all disease caused by HPV in the country? And some advice on how to diagnose an

Patients are increasingly going online to find and discuss information about their condition. What are they getting on the web that they’re not getting from clinicians, and how is this changing healthcare? Also, how to care for a dying patient in hospita

Mabel Chew, practice editor at the BMJ, talks to Tushar Kotecha, a cardiology specialist registrar at Charing Cross Hospital in London, about when to suspect heart failure, and how to diagnose the condition.

The BMJ Awards were held last Thursday. Fiona Godlee, the BMJ's editor in chief, announced that the Britain Nepal Otology Service (BRINOS) was named Medical Team of the Year. BRINOS (brinos.org.uk) started out in 1988 by setting up joint British and Nepa