Adrenaline auto injectors are used to treat life-threatening allergies, anaphylaxis, but there are severe supply issues with the brand leader, epipen, particularly with junior epipen and many parents are reporting problems when their children's devices need replacing. It's an anxious time for those caring for severely allergic children and Dr Margaret McCartney reviews the reasons for the shortage and the latest advice for worried parents. At the same time, epipen has come under fire from a UK coroner, who concluded during an inquest into the death of 15 year old Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, that epipens aren't fit for purpose because they don't contain enough adrenaline or have a long enough needle to deliver it properly. Consultant paediatric allergist at St Mary's Hospital, London and a researcher in children's allergies at Imperial College, Dr Robert Boyle, tells Mark there is widespread belief that the companies behind adrenaline auto injectors need to innovate and better designs are needed.Meningitis is every parent's nightmare. It can strike anyone at any age but around half of those with the most serious form, Meningitis B, are toddlers and young children. Two years ago, Ezra, who is now three and a half, contracted the disease. His parents, Cosmin and Serena from Carrick Fergus in Northern Ireland, tell Inside Health how this devastating illness spread so rapidly. Ezra's life was saved but septicaemia meant both of his legs, below the knee, were amputated, followed by the fingers on one of his hands. One of the paediatricians who looked after Ezra at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children was paediatrician Dr Thomas Waterfield. Inspired by Ezra, Tom worked with colleagues at Queen's University in Belfast to develop a rapid bedside test for Meningitis B. The LAMP test - Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification test - takes just an hour to identify the Meningococcal DNA and it doesn't need specialists to use it. The current lab test for the disease takes a minimum of 48 hours.Age related macular degeneration, AMD, is the leading cause of blindness around the world, with at least half a million people living with this condition in the UK alone. Treatment has hugely improved in recent decades, with regular injections helping to prevent progressive loss of vision. But intensive monitoring is necessary with monthly trips to hospital for patients for vision tests. Researchers at the Centre for Public Health at Queen's University, Belfast, are trialling ways to avoid these regular hospital visits - saving patients the journey and saving the NHS money. The Monarch Study will assess different ways that patients can monitor their own vision at home, using paper tests or more sophisticated ipad-style eye tests. Mark meets Patricia, who has wet AMD in one eye and dry AMD in the other, who's agreed to be part of the trial and talks to research optometrist Lesley Doyle and Chief Investigator, Dr Ruth Hogg, about the study. Producer: Fiona Hill

France delists Alzheimer's drugs, a move that is a world first, after concluding that the dangers of side effects outweigh any benefits. Mark assesses the evidence and hears the arguments from France and the UK including from the head of drug evaluation at the French Health Authority which is behind the decision. Plus a more holistic approach to hip fracture and a visit to a busy clinic in Oxford where research measuring quality of life after surgery aims to improve outcomes that really matter to patients. And Margaret McCartney on prostate cancer and the Stephen Fry effect

Until recently it was assumed that placebo pills would only produce a therapeutic benefit if patients didn't know that's what they had been given. But there are early suggestions that patients can still get symptom relief even when they're told that there is no active ingredient at all in the pills they've been given. So should placebo pills be openly prescribed to patients? Ted Kaptchuk, Professor of Medicine at Harvard University tells Mark he believes open-label placebo could, if evidence continues to accumulate, form part of the physician's therapeutic toolbox. But Inside Health's Dr Margaret McCartney urges caution. She says there is insufficient evidence about the long-term impact on symptoms. Nearly 500 people died on the transplant waiting list last year and if you're one of the 7,000 waiting for a life-saving organ, how would you feel if the organ on offer came from a donor infected with hepatitis C? Such organs are about to be available on the NHS and this radical change has come about because of the revolution in treatment for this potentially-serious blood borne viral infection. Yes recipients of Hepatitis C positive organs will be infected by the virus after transplant, but a short course of treatment, direct acting antivirals, will then cure them. Consultant kidney and transplant specialist Dr Adnan Sharif from Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham explains why patients on the waiting list should have this option available to them and Professor James Neuberger from the UK government's advisory committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs, tells Mark why SaBTO have recommended this policy change and are now keen to see it implemented. Back pain is common but most of us recover in a matter of weeks. For 10-20% of people though, the pain and discomfort doesn't go away and they suffer chronic pain throughout their lives. What many people don't know is the extent to which genes feature in back pain - it runs in families. Frances Williams is Professor of Genomic Epidemiology at Kings' College, London and a consultant rheumatologist at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Trust. She tells Mark about the genetic clues that emerged from the world's largest ever study of 500,000 individuals with chronic back pain across five countries.Producer: Fiona Hill

When is the best time to clamp a baby's umbilical cord? It is a controversial question that has perplexed maternity units for years but new evidence from Nottingham has changed practice at the hospital's busy labour ward. Mark Porter pays them a visit. Natural Cycles is a much promoted contraception app advertised as an alternative to more conventional methods. But the Advertising Standards Authority has ruled that claims of it being 'highly accurate' were misleading so Margaret McCartney expresses her concerns that the app doesn't live up to the hype. And once the initial enthusiasm of having a pedometer wears off do they keep people walking in the long term?

Four years ago, Peter, a retired engineer from Gloucestershire, suffered a small stroke and lost the ability to speak. He communicated by hand signals and writing notes to his wife, Carol. But this summer, as he tells Dr Mark Porter, he woke up one morning and, much to everybody's amazement, began to talk....and he hasn't stopped since. Later that same day, a second stroke was diagnosed but his newly-returned speech was unaffected. It's a remarkable story and Alex Leff, Professor of Cognitive Neurology at the Queen Square Institute of Neurology in London discusses Peter's experience but describes what usually happens when stroke patients experience aphasia. We're all familiar with devices like FitBits and gym monitors that measure your pulse rate but the latest development in wearable tech is a watch that monitors your heart. The latest Apple watch will offer ECG-like capabilities which can spot potentially worrying disturbances in heart rhythm. But Inside Health's Dr Margaret McCartney has serious concerns about the use of such tech for screening in healthy populations. If you're under 50 you've almost certainly had it. The heel prick test or NHS newborn blood spot screening programme is done during the first week of life and it's designed to detect nine different conditions before they can cause symptoms or irreversible damage in young children. Dr Elaine Murphy is a consultant in inherited metabolic diseases at the Charles Dent Metabolic Unit at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London and she tells Mark about the history of the heel prick test and describes the original condition, phenylketonuria or PKU, that the 1969 test was designed to detect. Producer: Fiona Hill

Every GP surgery should provide access to a dedicated social prescriber, according to the Royal College of GPs. Supporting peoples' non-medical needs - including housing, finance and social care - will, it is hoped, free up GP time for urgent medical care and at the same time, provide much-needed access to activities in the community. Arabella describes how social prescribing worked for her. A support worker helped her to join a choir, sort out finances and plan how to return to work after a period of serious illness. Dr Marie Polley, senior lecturer in health sciences at the University of Westminster and co-chair of the Social Prescribing Network (with Dr Michael Dixon) tells Dr Mark Porter that social prescribing will be embedded within medical and social care in the next decade as long as the voluntary sector is supported.Steroid cream and ointments - like hydrocortisone, clobetasone and betamethasone - are used to treat a number of skin problems. But for some patients long-term topical steroid use can lead to painful, disfiguring and debilitating skin flare-ups. Some call this condition topical steroid addiction. But consultant dermatologist Dr Tony Bewley from Bart's Health in London tells Mark that health care professionals prefer the term topical steroid withdrawal syndrome. He sees the condition fairly often in his clinic and reassures sufferers that there is treatment available. We're used to having our blood pressure checked using a cuff on our arms but we can also have high blood pressure in our lungs. Pulmonary hypertension tends to put our hearts under strain and causes breathlessness. It can be caused by a range of diseases but in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) the raised pressure is due to constriction of the blood vessels. This narrowing of the arteries makes it difficult for the heart to pump blood through the lungs, leading to breathlessness. Inside Health's Dr Margaret McCartney visits the Scottish national specialist centre for the disease at the Golden Jubilee Hospital in Glasgow's Clydebank. She talks to Lorraine who is living with the disease, to pulmonary vascular consultant Dr Colin Church and watches a team led by Dr Martin Johnson performing right heart catheterisation, the gold standard diagnostic test for the disease. Producer: Fiona Hill.

If you are taking low dose aspirin - typically 75 mg day - to protect against heart attack or stroke and you haven't been weighed then there is a good chance you are on the wrong dose. And from prevention to treatment; a new way of managing the most common form of stroke by grabbing the blockage in the brain and pulling it out. Charlotte Smith tells her story of a remarkable recovery from the procedure whilst she was pregnant with her second child. Plus a continuation of our guide to the help available when people lose the capacity to make decisions about their care. This week Mark Porter explains Best Interest Decisions and Lasting Power of Attorney. And GP Dr Margaret McCartney reflects on the Hadiza Bawa Garba case.

Does running damage your knees? And is cycling any better? Runner, cyclist, GP and Inside Health regular, Dr Margaret McCartney goes to the new Motion Analysis Lab at Glasgow's Jubilee Hospital and asks orthopaedic surgeon and competitive cyclist Jason Roberts about the latest evidence.Around 30,000 people a year suffer cardiac arrest - their heart suddenly stops pumping blood around their body - and fewer than one in ten survive. Paramedics and ambulance crews will give CPR and use a defibrillator to try to restart the heart, and for the past 50 plus years, most patients will be given a shot of adrenaline too. But a landmark new study funded by the government and run by Warwick Medical School reveals that giving adrenaline barely increases survival and almost doubles the risk of severe brain damage. Dr Margaret McCartney discusses likely changes to policy with Dr Mark Porter.It's said that eyes are the windows to the soul - and certainly looking into other peoples' is the key part of human interaction. But what if one of yours isn't real? Sixty thousand people in the UK have an artificial eye and Europe's largest maxillo-facial laboratory at Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead offers a bespoke service where specialists make individual eyes from live sittings. Susan lost one eye as a child and she tells Mark that her latest prosthesis is her favourite. Why? Because it's almost half the weight of eyes she's had fitted before. Dr Emma Worrall, principal prosthetist, has invented a lighter sphere. In a lightbulb moment sitting in a café stirring a sugar cube into her coffee and watching it melt, Emma tells Mark that she realised she could build the plastic sphere around sugar, drill a tiny hole, then melt the sugar out of the middle! Twenty patients at the hospital are now benefiting from lighter eyes (which means less surgery). And there's another plus. The new eyes float in the swimming pool and the sea!Producer: Fiona Hill.

The relationship between when babies are weaned and the amount of time they sleep has hit the headlines after a new study has been published. Now UNICEF has got involved. Margaret McCartney reviews the evidence. Also proof that seeing the same GP saves lives. Mark Porter meets the man behind new research on mortality and continuity of care, Sir Denis Pereira Gray, who also works in the same GP surgery as his father and grandfather did. And a guide to Mental Capacity, an issue that touches many people but is increasingly pressing as more families manage elderly relatives living with dementia. Plus research and the NHS charter.

Copycat biologic drugs, to treat conditions from arthritis and psoriasis to breast cancer and lymphoma, could save hundreds of millions of pounds off the NHS drugs bill. Called biosimilars, these close copies give the same clinical benefit at a fraction of the cost. Up to now the problem has been take-up, but a new initiative led by the specialist UK cancer centre, London's Royal Marsden, run across the NHS Cancer Vanguard, has demonstrated that patients can be switched effectively onto the cheaper drugs. Chief pharmacist at the Royal Marsden, Dr Jatinder Harchowal, who led the national staff education programme, tells Mark that getting clinicians and patients on board was key to achieving an 80% take up for the blood cancer biosimilar, rituximab. This month a biosimilar copy of the breast and stomach cancer drug, Herceptin (generic name trastuzumab) is being introduced to patients too. Imogen had sleep problems for almost 30 years and she admits that at times, her insomnia left her in a desperate state. For years she took sleeping tablets but she ended up increasing the dosage, to no effect. Eventually she found help at Queen Victoria Hospital's Sleep Disorder Clinic in East Grinstead. Mark visits the clinic and finds out from its Clinical Director Dr Peter Venn that sleeping tablets aren't the answer to insomnia and cognitive behaviour therapy, which Imogen used, is the best treatment.Scotland has led the UK nations in allowing early medical abortion at home. Wales in the past 10 days has followed their lead. So where does this leave England? Dr Margaret McCartney reports from Glasgow about the choice now available for Scottish women who opt for a medical termination. Since last autumn the second pill that induces the breakdown of the womb lining can be taken at home, a practice that already happens in Scandinavia and parts of the USA. Dr Audrey Brown, a consultant in sexual and reproductive healthcare, tells Margaret that the impetus for the change in practice in Scotland came directly from women who didn't want to make the second clinic visit for the second set of drugs and risk cramping and bleeding on the way home. A woman who has opted for early medical abortion at home in Scotland shares her experience with Inside Health.Producer: Fiona Hill.