Medicine and Science from The BMJ

Healthcare leaders discuss the ways in which colonial-era bias and eugenics persist in today’s medical education and clinical practice in the UK and beyond, and what meaningful change is required to overcome racial and other healthcare inequalities Our panel Annabel Sowemimo, sexual and reproductive health registrar and part-time PhD student and Harold Moody Scholar at King’s College London, UK Thirusha Naidu, head of clinical psychology, King Dinuzulu Hospital, and associate professor, Department of Behavioural Medicine, School of Nursing and Public Health, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa Subhadra Das, UK based researcher and storyteller who specialises in the history and philosophy of science, particularly scientific racism and eugenics Amali Lokugamage, honorary associate professor, Institute of Women's Health, University College London, and consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, Whittington Hospital, London, UK Host - Richard Hurley, collections editor at The BMJ

This podcast explores how to effectively talk about sustainability and climate change with colleagues and patients. It features guests who share their expertise on sustainable healthcare and the impact of climate change on human health. The hosts discuss the importance of listening and understanding patients' perspectives, giving ourselves permission to talk about climate change, and finding common ground and shared values. They also touch on the relationship between asthma and climate change and the use of humor as a tool to engage in these conversations.

Reducing low value care and resource stewardship, understanding human behavior and improving decisions, complexities and drivers of low value care, role of fear in medical decision-making, reducing unnecessary CT scans of the head, complexities of medical decision-making

Acting on climate change is often framed as having to give stuff up, to cost more money, to make sacrifices. Yet in healthcare we find the opposite can often be true: there are many actions we can take which reduce the carbon footprint of healthcare which actually end up with better outcomes for our patients. In this episode, we hear from two examples of that. Singing for breathing is a type of social prescribing to help people with chronic lung disease manage their breathlessness, reducing their need to be reliant on healthcare to do this, while also finding joy and a sense of community. Stephen is one patient who has benefited from this service, and will tell us more about the impact it had on his life. In another example, Lynn Riddell, an HIV consultant will tell us how a change in their clinical pathway helped a cohort of patients reduce the amount of travelling to and from the clinic, still manage their condition safely and give them back precious time and control.    https://www.bartscharity.org.uk/our-news/singing-sessions-to-improve-patients-lung-health/

Ooops! If you listened to episode 3 when it first came out you may have realised that the title didn't quite match the content. We've just updated the title and the show notes below, and stay tuned for when we'll be soon releasing an episode on how sustainable healthcare can be good for patients.   In a system where healthcare workers are continually described as overworked and burnt out, how can we expect them to find the time to act on the climate? In this episode we turn that assumption on its head, and, in fact, show how acting to reduce the environmental impact of healthcare can help staff find joy in their work again. Our two guests today are Tracy Lyons, founder of Pharmacy Declares and medicines optimisation pharmacist in Dorset, UK, and David Smith, general surgeon at North York General Hospital in Toronto, Canada.   The very worst thing is sometimes to have a problem you feel you can’t solve, and action mitigates anxiety: these are two of the many lessons that came out of today’s episode. We also touch on the different levels that you can start to take action at: from the small and tangible to influencing change at a system level.    Related links: https://cascadescanada.ca/  https://www.pharmacydeclares.co.uk/  https://twitter.com/TLyons00  

The podcast discusses issues of diagnostic accuracy, home testing, sustainability, and screening. It also explores the overdiagnosis of obesity and the need to educate students on overdiagnosis. The podcast mentions the Preventing Overdiagnosis conference and provides links to related resources.

Planet centred care is new podcast series for the BMJ exploring issues related to environmentally sustainable healthcare, aimed at all clinicians, and anyone working in healthcare, who want to make sure they can continue to help patients while not harming the planet.  In this episode we’ll discuss that first radicalising moment. That moment where you start to see all the things you can do to make healthcare more sustainable and how it is hard to un-see that. For everyone, that moment may come from a different place, or different perspective. Our guests for this episode: Gareth Murcutt who was at first reluctant until he saw the size of the impact he could make; Gwen Sims whose eyes were opened by moving health systems (and continents) and Alifia Chakera who didn’t expect to find a huge sustainability saving so close to home when she took up a new clinical role before the pandemic.  Hosts: Loren De Freitas and Florence Wedmore, the BMJ

In this episode, Nicola Wilson, lead clinical educator, and Maria Koijck, artist and former patient, discuss the importance of sustainable healthcare. They explore efforts towards waste reduction, including projects showcasing the amount of waste generated during medical treatments. The speakers emphasize the need to recognize patients as individuals and tailor healthcare approaches to their specific needs. They also highlight the challenges of changing glove usage during the pandemic and the importance of collaboration and staff appreciation in implementing change in healthcare.

The podcast discusses the results of the GMC's National Training Survey, revealing increasing levels of burnout in trainees and a lack of support for trainers. The hosts emphasize the importance of longitudinal data, highlight the challenges faced by trainees in Obs and Guiney, and stress the significance of longevity in training relationships. They also address the need for support and guidance for trainers in the medical field.

In this month's Talk Evidence, we're getting a little meta - how do we keep an eye on research to make sure it's done with integrity. Helen Macdonald is BMJ's Publication ethics and content integrity editor - and we quiz her about what that actually means on a day to day basis. Ensuring the integrity of research could be made both easier, and harder, by the ascendance of large language models, Ian Mulvany, BMJ's chief technology officer joins us to talk about how we can harness the power of this new technology.