Medicine and Science from The BMJ

This week Dulcie McBride, a consultant in public health at University College London, joins us to talk about the UK’s practice variation in referring to secondary care. Also Simon Wright, head of health at Save the Children, the BMJ’s Christmas charity, talks to Rebecca Coombes about how the money you donate helps health care in some of the world’s poorest countries.

This week we’re joined by Jack Wennberg, author of the Dartmoth Atlas of Healthcare. He and Fiona Godlee discuss his work, and what the UK can learn from the US. Also this week what do you buy a MAMIL (Middle Aged Man in Lycra) for Christmas?

In this week’s cracker of a show… Firstly, could how you park your car indicate your choice of specialty? Secondly, how a team of scientists managed to solve the mystery of the missing French monarch. And are doctors in ITU more likely to be oliguric, and at greater risk of acute kidney injury than their patients? We read a modern fable, which has an important message for the management of complex clinical collaborations. And finally, how much beauty is there in beauty sleep?

In the final BMJ podcast of 2010, David Payne asks the Independent’s Jeremy Laurance about the year past, and BMJ authors how they feel going into the one ahead. Also, Adama Traore tells us about the work Save the Children are doing in Sierra Leone. The charity has been instrumental in implementing free healthcare for women and children there, and we hear about their success.

This week we find out the best way to treat a Mesobuthus tamulus (indian red scorpion) sting. We also discuss the current state of healthcare in Iraq; and how Andrew Wakefield’s article linking the MMR vaccine and autism was not bad science, but deliberate fraud.

In this week’s podcast we hear from Tom Jefferson of the Cochrane Collaboration about the problem of publication bias – and a tool that could help researchers dowse for hidden data. Also, Brian Deer discusses his features and explains why it’s been so long from the original publication of Wakefield’s work in the Lancet to the revelations just published in the BMJ. And David Payne talks to us about the new BMJ iPad app.

Andrew Lansley said this week his NHS reforms are needed because the UK’s health outcomes are amongst the poorest in Europe. However John Appleby, chief economist at the King’s Fund, tells us why the comparisons are flawed. We also hear from Turkey’s minister of health, Recep Akdağ, on the strides his country has made in providing healthcare.

In this week’s podcast Theresa Marteau, director of the Behaviour and Health Research Unit at the University of Cambridge, wonders if a nudge is enough to change our health behaviours. Also this week, Aziz Sheikh, from the E-medicine Group at The University of Edinburgh, explains how telemedicine is going to be an integral part of future healthcare.

In this week’s podcast Andrew Farmer from the National Institute of Health Research, Health Technology Assessment programme (NIHR HTA), tackles uncertainty. Also, Andrew Clark from the University of Hull tells us that the case for administering oxygen isn’t air tight.

This week we find out about diabetes. Mabel Chew, our Sydney based associate editor, discovers why it’s important not to miss the diagnosis of type I diabetes in children. And we learn about a new therapeutic agent for type II diabetes: glucagon-like peptide-1 analogues.