Over the past few weeks, I have been offered massages, gym visits, vitamin supplements, make-up tips and consultations with cosmetic surgeons. All these generous invitations came from PR companies keen to create a media glow for their clients’ products. Since an awful lot of column inches seem to be devoted to genome testing at the […]
Continue Reading →Eye surgery? My view
Squeamishness is relative. I am unfazed by childbirth, urinary catheters and vomit. I am less good with injuries to the ends of fingers or toes, which always make me want to look away. My biggest fear, however, is of eyes. Operative ophthalmology, in particular, sets me on edge – the eyelid clamped back, the surrounds […]
Continue Reading →Weight gain
The ritual of weekly baby weighing clinics is unlikely to end anytime soon, and so I am delighted to learn that – at last- the old World Health Organisation baby weight charts are being ditched in favour of more evidence-based ones. Previously, the charts “smoothed over” the differences in normal childrens’ weight gain in the first […]
Continue Reading →Masking the problem?
We are living in uncertain times. Circumstances will probably have changed by the time this column appears, but whatever happens, swine flu will probably still be making headlines. People don’t like uncertainty, either as patients or doctors. It would be easier if we could predict the spread of disease reliably, or the effect of medications […]
Continue Reading →Trouble brewing
I live with an Irishman, which means that at home we drink Barry’s Tea. In my early married life I was “not allowed” this Irish brand, as apparently I did not appreciate it enough. Now, there is a supplier in Glasgow and we no longer have to import boxes of the elusive blend from Dublin. […]
Continue Reading →Crossing the guideline
Guidelines, guidelines. My desktop, bookshelves and floor are covered with them. Advising on everything from diabetes to incontinence, they come from multiple agencies in increasing sizes and scope. Some guidelines are excellent; they save doctors from a long trawl through the evidence and give directions in shorthand that everyone can understand. But Baroness Young, chair […]
Continue Reading →Prostate troubles
The New England Journal of Medicine recently published research findings on prostate cancer screening. The results, from my reading at least, showed that screening was not terribly useful. So I was bewildered by subsequent media coverage that urged men to exercise “their right” to a prostate specific antigen blood test or PSA. A number of […]
Continue Reading →Breast screening in the USA
Pleased to see that ripples from the UK have now reached the US.
Continue Reading →In praise of slow medicine
I have been inspired by Harry Eyres’s piece on Slow London in the FT over the weekend. So much of working in medicine feels like a sprint. Short and overbooked appointments, busy clinics, multiple bits of administrative work to be ticked, crossed, signed and dated; e-mails and correspondence to deal with, questions from patients and […]
Continue Reading →The nipple effect
“And so,” said my extremely pregnant friend while ordering lunch, “we’ve talked about it, and we’re going for nipple stimulation.” Nipples do not normally come up over coffee. I must have looked alarmed. No, no, my friend insisted, this was an evidence-based endeavour to bring on labour. She thought that I would approve. And what’s […]
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