I was looking through the latest tweets on my twitter homepage the other day and found one of doc2doc's thought provoking entries. It was asking whether patients should be reimbursed by their doctors if appointments are delayed or cancelled. The opinion I formed straight away was one of utter disagreement, and I recall ... Read More »

A summary of what was discussed at the ABPI/BMJ Group Conference at BMA House in London. ... Read More »

Integrity is defined as a firm adherence to a code of specifically moral or artistic values. It constitutes one of society’s main fundaments, if not the angular one. Inappropriate authorship, which constitutes a break in research integrity, is unacceptable since it betrays research’s principles, duties and ethical responsibilities to both scientific and lay society.

In order to decrease the prevalence of inappropriate authorship, health research has implemented well-defined criteria for authorship as outlined by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) in its Ethical Considerations in the Conduct and Reporting of Research. A recent study reported a prevalence of articles with honorary authorship or ghost authorship, or both, of 21.0% (95% CI 18.0% to 24.3%). Sadly there is no data on the prevalence of inappropriate authorship among the 14 Mexican edited and currently MedLine indexed journals; further more only four of them explicitly outline and require proof of compliance with the ICMJE recommended criteria for authorship.

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                As an outsider I can’t really imagine the impact that the reforms are having. I never witnessed on my own skin a truly private healthcare system. For some reason there seems to be prevalence or a trend in the recent years to encourage privatisation of the ... Read More »

Today in Federal Parliament, the Lower House passed the "Carbon Tax" bill by a narrow majority and after 35 parliamentary enquiries over many years. It still has to be passed by the Senate but this is putting Australia onto a new road which will mean in the first year carbon here will cost $23 per ton and increase in ... Read More »

The Arab spring that has blossomed throughout the Libyan state has brought with it a renewed sense of hope for the future of a country whose past is embroiled with suffocating dictatorship. Indeed, the advance of the rebels into the Capitol Tripoli represents the people's open acceptance of a new Libya, one with democracy ... Read More »

Over on BMJ Blogs, BMJ investigations editor Deb Cohen discusses how to improve reporting of science and medicine in the media (see  http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2011/07/22/deborah-cohen-on-improving-health-reporting/ ). It's a hot topic, and one near to my heart. As she points out, one important point is to establish how ... Read More »

The recent article in the Student BMJ exploring doctors and capital punishment was an eye opener into an ethical dilemma that doctors in particular countries are immersed in. It is an issue we cannot blame for being unaware of. Practising in a country were legal execution has been outlawed means that is one less moral and ... Read More »

Professor Barbara Starfield in Montevideo, november 2010. Her greatest legacy may be her human quality. Her human size gives greater hierarchy to her powerful and generous scientific production. Tireless activist in favor to more and better health amd equity in health systems. A magnetic personality kind but firmly to ... Read More »

The coalition government’s health and social care bill will devolve responsibility for planning and “buying” health services to general practitioners, cutting primary care trusts and strategic health authorities out of the picture.   General practices are expected to band together into consortia, ... Read More »