The BMJ Podcast

The UK government published its report Childhood Obesity: a Plan for Action, in August 2016. A new analysis article takes them to task for the inadequacy of that response to a growing problem.

Neena Modi is a professor of neonatal medicine, at Imperial College London, and president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, and joins us to discuss what that report should have contained.

Read the full analysis:

http://www.bmj.com/content/356/bmj.j762

Evidence shows using electronic health records can increase efficiency, and reduce preventable medical errors - but only if they are used properly. However, in the US, the president of the American Medical Association calls them almost unusable.

In this debate, Richard Hurley is joined by George Gellert, Regional Medical Informatics Officer at CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Health System and Edward Melnick, Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Yale, who debate whether US doctors should be using electronic medical records.

Read the related article:

http://www.bmj.com/content/356/bmj.j242.

Surrogate endpoints are commonly used in clinical trials to get quicker results, however Michael Baum, emeritus professor at University College London, worries that by not focusing on real outcomes - length of life, and quality of life - that these are being used to justify expensive treatments which may not benefit patients.

Read the full analysis:

http://www.bmj.com/content/355/bmj.i6286

In an ideal world, policies would be evidence based - but governments are made of humans, who have positions and ideologies and moral bases.

In this podcast Anthony Painter, from the RSA will be talking about why universal basic income may work, but who’s proponents cross ideological barriers, and writer and philosopher AC Grayling explains how economic arguments become moral crusades.

A universal basic income: the answer to poverty, insecurity, and health inequality?

http://www.bmj.com/content/355/bmj.i6473

Morality and non-medical drug use

http://www.bmj.com/content/355/bmj.i5850

In the UK, junk food advertising is banned on children’s TV - but manufactures are still able to target children in other ways.  A recent report from the WHO  "Tackling food marketing to children in a digital world", takes a look at the issue.

In this podcast we're joined by João Breda, programme manager for nutrition physical activity and obesity at the regional office for Europe of the World Health Organisation, and Mimi Tatlow-Golden, lecturer in childhood studies and developmental psychology at the open university, and the lead author on the report.

Read the full report:

http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/disease-prevention/nutrition/publications/2016/tackling-food-marketing-to-children-in-a-digital-world-trans-disciplinary-perspectives-2016

Lily was diagnosed at 14 years old with stage four Hodgkin's lymphoma and received six rounds of chemotherapy and two weeks of radiotherapy. She survived but now lives with the long term effects of that therapy - and joins us to discuss how it has impacted her quality of life.

We're also joined by Saif Ahmad and Thankamma Ajithkumar, oncologists from Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, who give advice for generalists on late effects of anticancer chemotherapy that may affect quality of life.

Read the full clinical review:

http://www.bmj.com/content/354/bmj.i4567

"I say to all Australian doctors - young, old, the political and the apolitical - that on this depends not just our ethical credibility as a profession, but our shared humanity. "

Following the leaked emails published in The Guardian newspaper, alleging abuse of asylum seekers detained by the Australian government on the Pacific island of Nauru, David Berger joins us again to say it is time that doctors take a stand and march to protest against this treatment.

Read his full editorial:

http://www.bmj.com/content/354/bmj.i4606

Listen to the head to head debating if doctors should boycott working at the detention centres:

https://soundcloud.com/bmjpodcasts/should-doctors-boycott-working-in-australias-immigration-detention-centres

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has embraced a new model of drug testing and marketing called “adaptive pathways”, allowing new drugs for “unmet medical needs” to be launched on the market faster, on the basis of fewer data.

While industry claims this is necessary, an analysis on thebmj.com looks at the assumptions underlying the new pathway, and raises concerns about the negative impact on patient safety and the cost of healthcare.

To discuss, we're joined by Courtney Davis, senior lecturer at King’s College London, Peter Gøtzsche, director of the Nordic Cochrane Centre and Joel Lexchin, a professor at York University in Toronto.

Read the full analysis:

http://www.bmj.com/content/354/bmj.i4437

Andrew Elder, a professor at the University of Edinburgh talks about likelihood ratios in diagnostic testing, and how they’re helpful in thinking about how context changes the predictive value of a test.

This is part of a wider discussion on the evidence behind clinical examination of the cardiovascular system https://soundcloud.com/bmjpodcasts/evidence-for-examination

Read the full clinical review:

http://www.bmj.com/content/354/bmj.i3309

We’re taught that patients' ideas, concerns, and expectations are central to a successful consultation, but has ICEing gone too far?

A “What your patient is thinking” article published this week talks about the pressure that asking questions in the wrong way can put on a patient.

Sophie Cook, education editor for The BMJ, is joined by the author of that article - The BMJ’s patient editor, Rosamund Snow, and by Roger Neighbour, former president of the royal college of general practice, and author of "The Inner Consultation".

http://www.bmj.com/content/354/bmj.i3729