Medicine and Science from The BMJ

The BMJ Interview - Andrew Pollard on the Oxford/Astra Zeneca vaccine

14 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Andrew Pollard is Director of the Oxford Vaccines Group - who, along with Astra Zeneca, have developed an modified adenovirus vaccine for SARS-CoV-2. ...

Wellbeing - where to turn for emotional support during the pandemic

12 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The Samaritans have traditionally been there for people in a crisis, those who are on the verge of ending their life by suicide - but during this pand...

Food aid - helping providers support the health of their users

08 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The growth in the need for food aid, in the UK, has been staggering. That's why The BMJ has chosen the Independent Food Aid Network (IFAN) as its annu...

Coronavirus second wave - The UK’s fourth lockdown

06 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Recorded Tuesday 5th Jan 2021 As the UK enters lockdown, again, schools are closed, the NHS struggles under the surge of cases, new variants of SARS-...

Listening is the first part of research

05 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The BMJ has long campaigned for better patient and public participation in research, making the case that it leads to better outcomes for patients and...

A (non-systematic) evidence review of 2020

03 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

As 2021 hoves into view, we look back at a year of extraordinary evidence. Helen Macdonald is joined by Joe Ross, one of The BMJ's research editors, ...

The Deep Breath talking wellbeing evidence round-up of the year.

01 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In this end-of-year podcast from Deep Breath In, we're bringing you a light hearted look back at 2020, and trying to remember some of the non-covid-19...

Talking Christmas evidence - how Christmas research is chosen

28 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

If you've had time to digest this year's Christmas edition of The BMJ, you might have wondered how those papers get into The BMJ. Well in this Talk E...

Wellbeing - Human factors, and Christmas Logistics

24 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

How do human behaviours affect patient outcomes? And what has that got to do with Christmas? Graham Shaw, director of Critical Factors, and Peter Bre...

Food insecurity in the 6th largest economy

23 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Every year, the BMJ has a charity appeal - we’ve regularly focused on organisations like MSF, or Lifebox - providing support to areas of the world w...

The soundscape of a hospital

22 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Until hear death in 2019, Annabel and her husband James Weaver, spent a lot of time together in hospitals - in patient and outpatient wards, waiting ...

Rob Poynton wants you to pause

18 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Robert Poynton is an associate fellow of the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford, and author of books designed to help people work in wa...

Coronavirus second wave - Should we cancel Christmas?

16 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

As London and some neighbouring counties move up to tier 3, and Germany, Italy and The Netherlands impose tighter restrictions over over the coming da...

Inside a vaccine trial

14 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The last few weeks we’ve been feverish in our coverage of vaccines - the evidence base for them is, how they’ve been evaluated and licensed, and w...

Talk evidence covid-19 update - poor public messaging, and vaccine approval data

11 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The vaccines are being rolled out - but approval is still on an emergency basis, and the evidence underpinning those decisions is only just becoming a...

Coronavirus second wave - the vaccine’s here, but the pandemic isn’t over

08 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

As the first people outside of a trial have started receiving Pfizer's sars-cov-2 vaccine, including Matt, but that's not the end of the story for the...

Lockdown lessons from an Antarctic winter

04 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Anne Hicks, is an emergency medicine consultant in Plymouth, and for 16 years was the medical director for the British Antarctic Survey (she stepped d...

Corona virus second wave - Fears for tiers

02 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

As the first vaccine for corona virus is approved, and England joins the other nations of the UK outside of full lockdown, we are all entering tiers o...

Calum Semple - the efficacy of mass testing in Liverpool

01 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The government has decided to pursue a strategy of mass-testing in Liverpool, in a pilot to see what effect that has on containment of corona virus. ...

Why the government is being sued over PPE contracts

26 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The BMJ is a champion of openness and transparency in research, in clinical practice and in health policy. However, if you’ve kept and eye on the j...

Coronavirus second wave - recentring patients in our covid-19 response

24 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

As further promising news emerges of vaccine effectiveness, although still with no data published, and as plans emerge for the return home of universi...

Talk evidence covid-19 update - uncertainty in treatment, uncertainty in prevention

21 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Uncertainty abounds - even as we get better data on treatments, with the big RCTs beginning to report, and new trials on masks, the evidence remains u...

Wellbeing - What we’ve learned from treating doctors

20 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Clare Gerada and Zaid Al-Najjar have been treating doctors for a while now, through the NHS Practitioner Programme. In that time they have noticed s...

Coronavirus second wave - vaccines, how ready is the needle to hit the arm?

17 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Covid-19 continues its grip on the Northern Hemisphere alongside news of a vaccine trial showing real success at first glance. In this second wave upd...

How well did hospitals perform for their staff during covid?

13 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In the first wave of covid-19, hospitals started to reconfigure space and services, to provide rest areas and food for staff, to help them cope with t...

Coronavirus second wave - viral transmission and a vaccine announcement

11 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Covid-19 continues its grip on the Northern Hemisphere alongside news of a vaccine trial showing real success at first glance. In this second wave upd...

A lump in the throat with Nick Hamilton, Deonne Dersch-Mills and Bonnie Kaplan

05 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

A lump in the throat is a classic GP presentation, but one that often causes a lot of worry. Many people are struggling with high levels of anxiety an...

Coronavirus second wave - Making the lockdown work

03 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

As the second spike in covid-19 cases grows, we want to take stock of what's happening in the NHS. In these second wave updates, clinicians from prima...

Talk evidence covid-19 update - talking risk, remdesivir, and relevant research

30 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In this talk evidence covid-19 update, we’re taking on risk - how do you figure out your individual risk of dying from the disease? Try QCovid, but ...

Chris Whitty on the challenge of winter, lockdown, and following the science

29 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Chris Whitty probably needs no introduction to our UK audience - he's the chief medical advisor to the UK government, has played a pivotal role in sha...

Coronavirus second wave - what the modelling say about slowing transmission

27 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

As the world sees an upsurge in infections, this "second wave" feels different to the first - we have a much better understanding of the biology of th...

Deep Breath In - EUPD with Leisha Davies, Soumitra Burman-Roy and Marie Stella McClure

22 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Personality disorder is often referred to as the “Cinderella” diagnosis of mental health. Around 1 in 20 people is estimated to have a personality...

Second wave updates - How it’s affecting practice now

21 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

As the second spike in covid-19 cases grows, we want to take stock of what's happening in the NHS. In these second wave updates, clinicians from prim...

Wellbeing - Dreading the second wave

20 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The "second wave" of covid is hitting the UK, and clinicians are anticipating a spike in demand in the NHS. The inevitability of that is weighing on N...

Economics for Drs - what you need to know to understand UBI and a jobs guarantee

16 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

As the economic fall out of covid-19 starts to bite, attention is turning to how the state can support everyone - especially if the pandemic turns int...

Coughing kids with Tim Spector and Edward Snelson

08 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Persistent coughing in children is always a challenge, both for parents trying to describe and measure the cough, and for doctors making a diagnosis. ...

Talk Evidence covid-19 update - antigen testing and developing non drug evidence

05 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In this Talk Evidence covid-19 update, Jon Deeks, professor of biostatistics at the University of Birmingham gives us an update on testing technology....

A way for healthcare to become net-zero for carbon

02 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

David Pencheon, Renee Salas and Ed Maibach join us to talk about how healthcare can, and should, take leadership on climate change. With a few except...

’Flu vaccine season - with Nikki Turner and Jeff Kwong

24 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

With the annual flu season looming, GPs are anticipating a frenzy of vaccinations, perhaps more so than ever this year. As so many 'flu and respirato...

Talk evidence covid-19 update - covid in kids, and the winter cold season

23 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This episode was recorded on 18 September - just before the news came out about the new lockdown measures. We’ll hear Carl and Helen’s thoughts, b...

Nudge it

21 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Nudging seemed to be all the rage a few years ago - a way of changing individual behaviours to help people make better choices, about their diet, exer...

Anthony Fauci - on changing science, long-covid, and political intrusion into health agencies

18 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Anthony Fauci needs no introduction, as head of the NIAID for almost four decades, and the U.S. government's leading advisor on infectious diseases...

Talking about obesity with Stephanie deGiorgio and Naveed Sattar

10 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Fatphobia has been described as society’s last ‘ism’. Whilst our understanding of weight and health has changed over time, there is still a stig...

Wellbeing - Mask shaming

05 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The social norms that guide our behaviour in the world aren’t often quick to change - but the imperative to wear a mask in public has rapidly taken ...

Talk Evidence Covid-19 Update - Lockdown, a spoonful of honey, and weight loss

28 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

There are have been local lockdowns in the UK, in places such as Oldham, Birmingham, Manchester – but what is the criteria for making that decision?...

Time For A Pill Check With Anne McGregor And Tara Stein

28 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Contraceptive pill check-up appointments used to be simple and straightforward for GPs, and frequently felt like a welcome reprieve from more complex ...

Wellbeing – The joy of socks

21 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In Australia, a staggering 25% of doctors have had thoughts of suicide in the past 12 months, a recent survey said. Mental health problems are higher ...

What Do We Know About Long Covid

20 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Trisha Greenhalgh, professor of primary care health sciences at the University of Oxford has been a powerhouse of covid-19 evidence synthesis. She pul...

Talk evidence covid-19 update - Living meta-analysis and covid uncertainty

15 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

1.00) Carl has been looking at PCR testing, and explains why it picks up both viable SARS-cov-2, but also fragments of it’s RNA - leading to potenti...

Thinking about vitamin D with Andrew Grey and Tom Chatfield

13 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Interest in vitamin D, and it’s association with a range of health outcomes continues - at least if the regular flurry of papers on the subject that...

Talk Evidence covid-19 update - How well have physical distancing measures worked?

31 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Fresh outbreaks of covid in Europe and a wave of infections in the United States have been in the news this week, highlighting the renewed need for so...

“Trust me, I’m a GP” with Karen Praeter and Rhea Boyd

31 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In light of the publication of the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review (the Cumberlege report) in early July, which assessed the u...

Wellbeing – addiction during lockdown

30 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Lockdown has been such a stressful period that many healthcare professionals developed abnormal behaviours to cope. Addiction is one such behaviour, b...

Marian Knight - Improving obstetric outcomes with a single dose of antibiotics

25 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This time of year we would usually be doing some podcasts from the BMJ awards - but the pandemic has delayed our plans. We’re still working on ackn...

David Pencheon - measuring the climate impact of the NHS

25 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This time of year we would usually be doing some podcasts from the BMJ awards - but the pandemic has delayed our plans. We’re still working on ackn...

Covid public health - Data is fundamental

22 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

As the pandemic play out, we’ve seen ways in which the collection of covid data - and it’s sharing, has been flawed, with reports in the UK that l...

Talk Evidence covid-19 update - How will we know if a vaccine works?

17 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Vaccines have been in the news this week - but when you dig into the stories, it turns out that the hype is about phase 1 trials. We're a long way fro...

Tackling racism with Annabel Sowemimo, Shani Scott and Joan Saddler OBE

16 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The signs and symptoms of racism have long permeated our society, and are embedded in our clinical practice and medical education. Recent events in th...

Making the drug and device system fit for patients

15 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

A series of medical scandals prompted Jeremy Hunt, former UK health secretary to launch the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review - ...

What are the chances of an American vaccine?

10 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

US President Donald Trump has been pushing hard for an American vaccine against Covid-19. He's named the program Operation Warp Speed, which has many...

Wellbeing – how to say no

08 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

We all know that healthcare professionals are stretching themselves to provide the care that’s needed right now. But there are instances when you mi...

Talk Evidence covid-19 update - drop in excess deaths, HIV drugs, academic promotion

03 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Talk Evidence we're hearing about how the death rate has dropped below average, disappointment about HIV drugs for covid-19 treatment, ...

Lowering the shield with Julia Marcus and Carol Liddle

02 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The relaxation of the COVID-19 lockdown regulations is raising a lot of questions, both for doctors and for patients. This week, we discuss how the la...

David Michaels - Doubt is an industry tactic

01 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

For a long time, the BMJ has been interested in conflicts of interest and how that skews the research base. We also heard in our podcast on "Big Tan...

Covid-19 in the U.S. - returning to work in a pandemic

26 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In the third part of our series of podcasts “Corona Virus as Seen Through a US Lens,” features editor for The BMJ, Joanne Silberner, talks to Dr. ...

Talk Evidence covid-19 update - dexamethosone, testing, rehabilitation after covid.

25 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week we're looking beyond the press release for dexamethasone, the long awaited review of antibody testing, and how well people are recovering af...

Mala Rao on the UK’s new race in health observatory

17 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Earlier this year, the bmj published a racism in medicine issue - the issue was guest edited by Lord Victor Adebowale, chief executive of the NHS Conf...

Resetting General Practice with Martin Marshall, Jenny Doust and Toyin Ajayi

17 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In this week’s episode, our focus is on what the post-COVID world of general practice might look like. The pandemic has exposed the inequalities in ...

The corona virus pandemic in South America

15 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

At the end of May, the WHO said that South America has become the new epicentre of the covid-19 pandemic. The majority of those with covid are in Br...

Wellbeing - the art of the staycation

15 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

n normal times, around this time we’d start thinking about weekend breaks and summer holidays abroad. More than most healthcare staff and other key ...

Talk Evidence covid-19 update - surgisphere data, and protests in a pandemic

12 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week, we’re asking questions about surgisphere data, and how it might have got into such high impact journals, we’re also talking about the p...

Wellbeing - how Burmese Buddhism can help

10 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

How might Burmese Buddhism help deal with pandemic stress? Christopher Bu drew on his familial heritage and the tradition of practicing mindfulness to...

Talk evidence covid-19 update - second wave and care home failings

08 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode of Talk Evidence, we'll be finding out if second waves are inevitable (or even a thing), how the UK's failure to protect it's care hom...

Counting the ways Donald Trump failed in the pandemic

05 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The Trump administration was left a playbook for pandemics when they entered the Whitehouse, but even before covid-19 was a threat systematically dism...

Testing times with James McCormack and Jess Watson

04 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

For GPs, testing patients is their “bread and butter”. This week, we discuss the “better safe than sorry” attitude towards testing, which is s...

Talk evidence covid-19 update - remdesivir redux, the overwhelming volume of research

03 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

That remdesivir study has finally been published - what does it say and is it as independant as claimed. Also, as the world's focus turned to covid, s...

Ray Moynihan - Declarations of interest in healthcare leaders

29 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

*Non covid content alert* While the last couple of months have been covid-19 focused, the work of the beforetimes carries on - including a topic the...

Wellbeing – how to write a wellbeing prescription

27 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

How might stress affect your performance as a healthcare worker? That’s the question that Mark Stacey, a consultant obstetric anaesthetist in Card...

Public health response to covid-19 - data integrity and the importance of international comparison

26 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This last week has seen questions raised about the integrity of some of the epidemiological data being produced by US states, and as rates continue to...

Talk Evidence covid-19 update - strategies to end lockdown, more testing

22 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week we're focussing on what kind of information we need to be able to collect and use as the country transitions out of lockdown - and why local...

Talking about dying from covid with Scott Murray and Katherine Shear

21 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

With COVID-19 still ongoing, and at the forefront of the minds of doctors, patients and members of the public alike, difficult conversations are takin...

Pandemics from history - how they inform our response now

21 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Does history count as a non-pharmaceutical intervention? Much of our view on what to do in this pandemic has been influenced by the 1917 Spanish 'flu ...

Adam Kucharski, using viral epidemiology to combat fake news

19 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Hydroxychloroquine is in the news again - as Trump and some news organisations are pushing it as a treatment, despite evidence (published in The BMJ) ...

Talk evidence covid-19 update - answering questions with big data

17 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Big data is being crunched to help us tackle some of the enormous amount of uncertainty about covid-19, what the symptoms are, fatality rate, treatmen...

Soumya Swaminathan - WHO’s chief scientist is trying to fix research during a pandemic

14 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

If you’re a regular listener to our podcasts, you’ll have heard how Covid is exposing the cracks in our systems of healthcare - from showing how p...

Wellbeing – how to deal with the post-emergency crash

13 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The first peak of the pandemic has passed, the situation in hospitals is more manageable. While healthcare workers are preparing for the long haul, Ab...

Public health response - Lifting thelockdown

12 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

We’re at the point in the pandemic that restrictions on the way people live and work are being relaxed around the world, but how that changes safety...

Talk evidence covid-19 update - natural history of covid, include patients in guidelines

09 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

For the next few months Talk Evidence is going to focus on the new corona virus pandemic. There is an enormous amount of uncertainty about the disease...

Wellbeing – coping with Covid fatigue

08 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

We are more than six weeks into the lockdown and if you were to gauge the mood of the nation, it would be one of fatigue. It started as an all-hands-o...

Coping with Covid with Monica Schoch-Spana and Jud Brewer

06 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In this week’s episode, we discuss bystander guilt, convergence, brain hacks and “how you can sneeze on someone’s brain from anywhere in the wor...

Frontline stories - caring for non-covid patients

05 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

As the pandemic plays out - hospitals are reconfigured to increase critical care capacity, outpatient clinics become virtual, and elective procedures ...

Talk Evidence covid-19 update - lack of testing transparency, how to give good debate

04 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

For the next few months Talk Evidence is going to focus on the new corona virus pandemic. There is an enormous amount of uncertainty about the disease...

Wellbeing – how one junior doctor found a way to support frontline staff

29 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

How can we help frontline clinicians? Sometimes medics may feel uneasy or even guilty and that they could be doing more. That was what a junior doctor...

Public Health Vs The Economy

28 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Around the world, as the covid pandemic plays out, and some countries are starting to ease their restrictions, this narrative of the economy and publi...

Frontline stories - working as a GP during covid

27 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

As the pandemic plays out - the way in which doctors in the UK practice is changing, hospitals are reconfigured to increase critical care capacity, GP...

Talk Evidence covid-19 update - covid ethics, waste and a minimum RCT size

24 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

For the next few months Talk Evidence is going to focus on the new corona virus pandemic. There is an enormous amount of uncertainty about the diseas...

Teleconsulting with Trish Greenhalgh and Fiona Stevenson

22 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

A new podcast from The BMJ, to help GP's feel more connected, heard, and supported. Subscribe on; Apple podcasts - https://bit.ly/applepodsDBI Spotif...

Feeling the fear with Iona Heath and Danielle Ofri

22 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

A new podcast from The BMJ, to help GP's feel more connected, heard, and supported. Subscribe on; Apple podcasts - https://bit.ly/applepodsDBI Spotif...

Wellbeing – advice from a military medic to frontline clinicians

22 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

There is no doubt that anxiety levels that clinicians are feeling during this pandemic are high. One military medic believes the current situation i...

Talk Evidence covid-19 update - Remdesivir, care homes, and death data

17 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

For the next few months Talk Evidence is going to focus on the new corona virus pandemic. There is an enormous amount of uncertainty about the diseas...