There is growing demand for quality healthcare and political push for cost reduction. Medical errors, prescription mistakes, misdiagnosis also necessitate evaluation of healthcare for safety. Learning organization has been successfuly used in Japanese and other global businesses to improve quality. Can it improve healthcare quality?
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As a medical student I used to stand in awe of the junior doctors on ward rounds. Not only did these doctors, who were not that much further along in their training as I was, have a wealth of knowledge and seeming calm, confident manner, they also seemed to be able to recall masses of patient data purely from memory. ... Read More »

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This is the final installment of four that comprise the Henry A. Withers lecture. It addresses how doctors can be involved in reducing health disparities and increasing social justice, including the work of the BMA under the leadership of Sir Michael Marmot. It also discusses educating medical students and residents (and the relationship to the US ACGME's "Core competencies" and addresses the question of "Philanthropy vs. Government". ... Read More »

A surprising taste of Austrian healthcare at WONCA ... Read More »

Learning from other industries is important, airlines and pilots have been the common sources for healthcare; the oil industry, especially SHELL is also a very good source. THE CHALLENGE THROWN TO HEALTHCARE The oil company SHELL has an extremely high priority for safety. When SHELL do any construction work the area is ... Read More »

It was Mother Teresa who said "We, the unwilling, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much, for so long, with so little, we are now qualified to do anything with nothing.”
 
There are some aspects of this sentiment which are true for the legions of junior ... Read More »

Duty of candour: Voluntary or statutory? Candour is the quality of being honest and telling the truth, especially about a difficult or embarrassing subject [1]. When things go wrong and especially when patients are harmed whether it is due to natural circumstances or due to error by individuals or systems candour becomes ... Read More »