BMJ print issue
This week
What's the effect of the quality and outcomes framework (QOF) on blood pressure monitoring and control in English general practices? What's the association between early head injury and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder? And how should we manage acute childhood malnutrition? Read Tony Delamothe's editor's choice, "A good QOFfing whine," and the print issue table of contents. All articles have already appeared on bmj.com as part of our continuous publication policy.
Research
Test, episode, and programme sensitivities of screening for colorectal cancer as a public health policy in Finland: experimental design
Although relatively low, the sensitivity of screening for colorectal cancer with the faecal occult blood test was adequate: 55% of cancers were detected in the detectable preclinical phase and 38% in the total target population in this Finnish study. An accompanying editorial says that screening should be tailored to available resources, local experience, and population characteristics. (Photo of colonoscopy procedure: AJ Photo / Science Photo Library)
News
Patient makes good recovery after bioengineered airway transplant
Surgeons in Spain have successfully transplanted a bioengineered human airway into Claudia Castillo, a 30 year old Columbian woman with a collapsed left main bronchus, caused by tuberculosis. The new airway, bioengineered from a donor trachea, was used to replace the woman’s diseased bronchus.
More news published on 21 November:
- One third of diagnoses of asthma in Canada are wrong, study finds
- Health inequities target will be met, claims health secretary
- More staff training needed to promote breast feeding when babies leave neonatal care
- Dutch health minister announces measures to enforce smoking ban
- International protocols are needed to boost public confidence in universal HIV testing
Podcast
Food labelling and public health
New York restaurant chains now have to include calorie contents on menu boards, menus, and item tags. Tom Frieden, commissioner of public health in New York, and nutritionist Marion Nestle, talk to Karen McColl about how how the new law is working out. Mike Rayner, founder and director of the British Heart Foundation Health Promotion Research Group, talks to David Payne about how this initiative might translate to the UK.
See also:
Comment
Fairness of financial penalties to improve control of Clostridium difficile
Sarah Walker and colleagues from research institutes in Oxford, Cambridge, and London, say that a recent initiative to encourage trusts to reduce C difficile infections has resulted in a perverse incentive. In the worst case situation, trusts can be heavily penalised if they go over the set target by just a single extra case, and, in general, penalties are very hard to avoid completely.
Obituary
Obituary: Ronald Mark Davis
Doug Kamerow remembers the life and career of Ron Davis, the late president of the American Medical Association and one time North American editor of the BMJ, who was a life long crusader against smoking and founding editor of the journal Tobacco Control: "Looking back at Ron Davis's too brief 52 years of life it is clear that he had an unusual talent for bridging divides - between trainees and practising doctors, public health and medicine, the sick and the well, and even the US and the United Kingdom."
Comment
Who's watching the watchdogs?
Doctors should be wary of the increasing entanglement of medical journalists and the drug industry, warn Lisa Schwartz, Steven Woloshin, and Ray Moynihan.
Other comment published on 19 November:
Video
Credit contraction offers opportunity to close gaps in health inequities
Michael Marmot, chairman of the World Health Organization’s commission on social determinants of health, discusses the impact of the world's financial crisis on global health and his wish list for US president elect Barack Obama.
Education
Endgames
This week's instalment of our weekly educational clinical quiz is now live. Compiled from peer reviewed contributions from readers, it covers clinical medicine and statistics. There's also a prize quiz, pulled from the BMJ's sister product OnExamination.
This week's Endgames articles:
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