Medicine and Science from The BMJ

In this episode, we speak to the doctor overseeing the WHO’s emergency response for the eastern mediterranean region - including Gaza, Lebanon, Sudan and Yemen. Richard Brennan joins us to talk about protecting health services, and workers, in the escalating armed conflicts that are affecting the region.

Menaka Paranathala and Emma Rourke, from The BMJ, are on to talk about improving research into women’s health. A new UK project,...

It’s an often cited statistic that if healthcare was a country, it would be the fifth largest carbon emitter. At The BMJ we want to change that, and move healthcare towards a more sustainable future. 

In this week’s episode, we’ll hear about our annual climate edition from two of The BMJ’s editors, Sophie Cook and Juliet Dobson. 

We’ll be diving into Cli-Fi and asking how climate fiction can galvanise our collective response to cli...

How science can be transformed into policy?

One of the seemingly intractable issues when it comes to legislative change in the US is gun control.  One reason policy change is so difficult, is the US specific evidence vacuum, but that’s beginning to change.

We're joined by Louis Klarevas, an academic at the University of Colombia and author of the book “Rampage Nation, securing america from gun violence" and Shannon Watts, from Mom...

Under-nutrition harms health, but so does over-nutrition.

The Bill and Melinda Gate’s foundation has just released their Goalkeepers' report - highlighting the detrimental impact that poor nutrition is having on children’s health.  Rasa Izadnegahdar, director of Maternal, Newborn, Child Nutrition & Health at the foundation joins us to explain how they are targeting nutritional interventions.

Also this week, a new investigation...

The news that GPs in England have voted for industrial action has spooked the healthcare system - Katie Bramall-Stainer, the chair of the BMA's General Practice Committee explains what's lead to this, and why trust in the government has gone.

After the games, olympians and paralympians return to their normal lives - but what does that mean for their healthcare, especially in the US where insurance is expensive? Jonathan Finnoff, ch...

This week we're questioning the effectiveness of the Galleri Test for early cancer detection with investigation authors Margaret McCartney and Deborah Cohen. They delve into the decision-making and politics behind this test's introduction in the UK.

The episode also covers the growing NHS waiting list crisis and how Imran Ahmed and his team at Guy's and St. Thomas' NHS Trust are using high intensity theatre (HIT) lists to increase ...

The Paris games have just started - and France has made a concerted effort to ensure that this year's Olympics will have a legacy of physical activity for the whole population.

However, mega sporting events don't always have that effect, and Fiona Bull, head of physical activity for the WHO, joins us to explain why it's increasingly important that they do.

We'll also hear from Professor Sir Denis Perera Gray about how a lifetime of...

We celebrate 10 years of patient and public partnership strategy at The BMJ with a patient-centred podcast. We ask how should the new Labour government engage patients in shaping the future of the NHS. We also dive into the concepts of social care and peer support, and learn from Brazil's experience in social participation.

Highlights:

01:52 - The Patient "takeover" 05:43 - Social care with Charlotte Augst 19:53 - Peer support grou...

Women's Health, breast cancer screening, epidurals, and GP voices

New U.S. guideline on breast cancer screening  have been extended to women in their 40s -  Katy Bell, from the University of Sydney, and Stacy Carter, from the University of Wollongong explain why the good intention of that change wont be mirrored in outcomes - and may even induce harm.

Research in The BMJ shows epidurals during labour can reduce severe maternal morb...

As increasing numbers of mammalian, and human, cases of H5N1 are documented we askShould we worry about a growing threat from “bird flu”?  Wendy Barclay, from Imperial college London, and Christopher Dye, from Oxford University join us to explain why they think we should.

Our commission on the future of the NHS has released a manifesto for a sustainable NHS that still meets it's founding principles. Helen Salisbury, GP and BMJ colu...

In the UK, a general election has been called - and around the world, ½ the global population will be voting this year; so in this episode we’ll be talking about how elections and health intersect.

Firstly, what are the UK parties’ plans for health? Abi Rimmer, The BMJ's UK features editor joins us with the latest information.

The world’s largest democracy is polling, so how are Indian politicians talking about health?  Sanjay Nag...

With the anticipation of a new government in the UK, shadow health secretary Wes Streeting will hit the ground running - with a winter season (and it's inevitable crisis) and ongoing industrial desputes with junior doctors. Elisabeth Mahase ask him about his plans to handle these challenges if elected.

We also find our selves in the puzzling situation of potential GP unemployment in the UK despite a high demand for primary care doc...

Where next for psychological safety? Amy Edmundson is professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School. Her work on psychological safety has underpinned so much quality improvement, and she joins us fresh of the stage at the International Forum on Quality and safety in healthcare to talk about the next steps in creating a safe work place.

The BMJ has published two new investigations, looking at the alcohol and ...

Hilary Cass, the former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics, has spent the last 3 years collating the evidence for treatment of gender questioning young people; engaging with those young people, their families and their clinicians - all with the aim of improving NHS treatment of this complex and vulnerable group.

In this interview, Kamran Abbasi, editor in chief of The BMJ, speaks in depth to Cass about her review - about...

Derogation, the way in which striking doctors can be recalled to the ward to protect patient safety, was agreed by NHS England and the BMA. Now, new data The BMJ has uncovered shows that the mechanism was rarely used - and when it was tried, was often rejected. Gareth Iacobucci explains what that means about relations between the government, the NHS, and doctors.

Felice Jacka, director of the Food & Mood Centre at Deakin Univer...

The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing a case on the approval of mifepristone for medical abortion - a case which could change the availability of the drug in the US, and which hinges on papers linking abortion to mental distress. However, those papers are contested (including a paper published by BMJ), and some have been retracted already - Julia Littell and Antonia Biggs tell us how that science is being used in court, and why retract...

Social media, and the rate at which the online world is changing, is worrying - especially the speed at which health disinformation can speed around the globe. We look to tech companies for a solution to the problems of their own making - but Heidi Larson, director of the Vaccine Confidence Project, and professor of anthropology, risk and decision science at LSHTM, joins us to explain why we should be cautious about focussing our a...