Medicine and Science from The BMJ

Waiting times in theatre can be a source of friction – but is the delay due to mandatory anaesthetic faff around time (MAFAT), or AWOL surgeons? Elizabeth Travis, and orthopaedic house officer in New Zealand and colleagues, have been trying to create and evidence base to argue the toss, and she joins me now to discuss her study, Operating theatre time, where does it all go? Read the full research: http://www.bmj.com/content/349/bmj.g7182

Those who rise to the top in medicine see themselves as hardworking extroverts with a caring nature, suggests an unscientific analysis of the answers given by contributors to BMJ Confidential. But ask about their pet hates and another, less nurturing, side emerges. We gathered 6 former confidentialists in The BMJ studio to moan over mince pies. Read Doctors: caring extroverts or self deluded chocoholics?: http://www.bmj.com/content/349/bmj.g7623

How much can you trust the advice given by TV doctors? A new research paper on thebmj.com has analysed over 40 episodes of popular American TV shows, to see if health claims are evidence based. This podcast is a bit different, as the authors host their own show - The BS Medicine Podcast, which tops the charts around the world - and they've given us permission to repost on The BMJ. Read the​​ full research: http://www.bmj.com/content/349/bmj.g7346

In AD 1028 King Canute tried to command the tide to turn back. History records that the king of all lands surrounding the North Sea got very cross, wet, and made a hasty retreat. Every day, in general practices across the country, dedicated practice teams get very cross when they are yet again unsuccessful at meeting the daily demand for appointments and the incoming tide of patient demand and expectation. Ron Neville, a partner in the Westgate Health Centre in Dundee joins us to discuss what his new appointment system learned from the soggy monarch. http://www.bmj.com/content/349/bmj.g7228

Winners of the Darwin Award must eliminate themselves from the gene pool in such an idiotic manner that their action ensures one less idiot will survive. Ben and Dennis Lendrem, and colleagues, have reviewed the data on winners of the Darwin Award over a 20 year period and they join us to discuss why men are idiots, and why their team is not the only ones to have noticed. www.bmj.com/content/349/bmj.g7094

One hundred years ago, Pennsylvanian surgeon Evan Kane penned a brief letter to JAMA in which he declared himself a rigorous proponent of the “benefic [sic] effects of the phonograph within the operating room.” Now David Bosenquet, a surgeon from University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff has written a Christmas editorial about the evidence for the benefit of music to patients. Read his editorial here: http://www.bmj.com/content/349/bmj.g7436 And share your perfect playlist with us at bmj.com/playlists

The UK’s austerity programme has disproportionately affected children and people with disabilities, says David Taylor-Robinson, a senior clinical lecturer in public health at the University of Liverpool. He joins us to discuss why the evidence shows the vulnerable are hit hardest by the cuts to public services, despite the UN conventions on human rights giving children and people with disabilities special protection. Read his full editorial: http://www.bmj.com/content/349/bmj.g7350

Blood transfusions have been identified as one of the most overused therapies both in the United States and the UK. In this podcast Lawrence Tim Goodnough, from Stanford University Medical Center's Transfusion Service, and Michael Murphy, from NHS Blood and Transplant, explain the physiological reasons why liberal blood transfusion will not benefit patients, and can potentially harm them. Read their full analysis: http://www.bmj.com/content/349/bmj.g6897

The BMJ has a new policy on competing interestings - from 2015 we will have zero tolerance for them in authors who write education articles or editorials. Cath Brizzell and Mabel Chew explain what that policy is about, and why we think it's important.

Eight months into the NHS’s top job, Simon Stevens’s intelligent refusal to enforce a “one size fits all” solution on the service’s ills is, so far, winning him the backing of staff. He talks to Gareth Iacobucci