Medicine and Science from The BMJ

Katie Sidle is a consultant neurologist at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, in London. She helped actor Eddie Redmayne in his portrayal of theoretical physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking in the film The Theory of Everything. She joins us to describe how that process worked, and what Motor Neurone Disease patients thought about how their condition was depicted. Read the feature: http://www.bmj.com/content/350/bmj.h483

Bone pain is the most common type of pain from cancer and is present in around one third of patients with bone metastases, currently, improvements in cancer treatments mean that many patients are living with metastatic cancer for several years. Christopher Kane, NIHR academic clinical fellow in palliative medicine at Leeds University School of Medicine, and Michael Bennett, St Gemma’s professor of palliative medicine at University College London join us to discuss the management of cancer induced bone pain. Read the full clinical review: http://www.bmj.com/content/350/bmj.h315

Private hospital chains have been “buying” referrals by offering clinicians lucrative packages, including free facilities in sought after locations. And the doctors’ regulator is turning a blind eye to those who are tempted, Reporter Jonathan Gornall joins us to discuss the investigation. Read the full report: http://www.bmj.com/content/350/bmj.h396

Multimorbidity presents a number of different challenges, for the patients living with the conditions, but also for the health professionals caring for them in systems that often are not designed with these more complex needs in mind. Emma Wallace, general practice lecturer, and Susan Smith, a professor of general practice at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland Medical School join us to discuss how to work within the system, and what their dream scenario for care would be. Read the full clinical review: http://www.bmj.com/content/350/bmj.h176

Philipe de Souto Barreto argues that, to reduce premature mortality, policies should focus on getting fully inactive people to do a little physical activity rather than strive for the entire population to meet current physical activity recommendations. Read the full analysis paper: http://www.bmj.com/content/350/bmj.h23

Dominique Thompson, GP and director of the Students’ Health Service at the University of Bristol, is concerned that young people's health is being neglected. BMJ Voices is a collection of readers’ experiences of working in the NHS. For this, The BMJ is seeking short audio submissions from UK listeners. These submissions will be published on thebmj.com. If you would like to contribute to this collection, please email a brief audio recording to voices@bmj.com or phone +44 (20) 3058 7427 and tell us what your main concern for the NHS is. Please include your name, job title, and place of work.

Rabies is the archytypical zoonotic disease, and only by vaccination in animals will we prevent infections in people. In two podcasts linked to our latest clinical review "The prevention and management of rabies"​ we'll be discussing how we can get there. In this podcast Sarah Cleaveland, professor of comparative epidemiology at the University of Glasgow discusses control​ling the disease in animals​.​ To find out about the clincial presentation listen to the accompanying podcast with ​Natasha Crowcroft, chief of infectious disease at Public Health Ontario Listen to the accompanying podcast: https://soundcloud.com/bmjpodcasts/rabies-in-humans Read the full clinical review: http://www.bmj.com/content/350/bmj.g7827

Rabies is the archytypical zoonotic disease, and only by vaccination in animals will we prevent infections in people. In two podcasts linked to our latest clinical review "The prevention and management of rabies"​ we'll be discussing how we can get there. In this podcast Natasha Crowcroft, chief of infectious disease at Public Health Ontario to discuss the human aspect of the disease, and in the second Sarah Cleaveland, professor of comparative epidemiology at the University of Glasgow explains animal control. Listen to the accompanying podcast: https://soundcloud.com/bmjpodcasts/rabies-in-animals Read the full clinical review: http://www.bmj.com/content/350/bmj.g7827

Until recently, hepatitis C screening was offered to people at increased risk of infection - such as intravenous drug users - but now, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended screening all people born between 1945 and 1965. Kenny Lin, associate professor of family medicine at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, and Jeanne Lenzer, an investigative health journalist from New York, explain why they worry that the evidence doesn't support this expansion. ead their analysis article: http://www.bmj.com/content/350/bmj.g7809

Drug development happens in stages – pre-clinical, phase I, II, III, and so on. But how much do trial participants know about what has happened before their enrolment to test for safety, and how much should they be told? Holger Pedersen from Denmark was one trial participant who tried to find information about the drug he was on, and was surprised at how little data had actually been collected, let alone shared – which has been detailed in an analysis article on thebmj.com He talks to Helen Macdonald, analysis editor for the BMJ about his experience. Read the analysis article: http://www.bmj.com/content/349/bmj.g6714