Student BMJ articles from April 2004

Student BMJ archives from April 2004

All change.(editor's choice)(Editorial)
April 1, 2004... Ten new states join the European Union in May prompting fears about the accessions' impact on health care. Some people think that there will be an influx of people to the United Kingdom from these countries, leaving a deficit of doctors there...

What's new in the studentBMJ: The studentBMJ is changing in line with its readership and developments in medical education.(editorials)(Editorial)
April 1, 2004... Starting this month the studentBMJ and studentbmj.com have changed their content to reflect our growing international audience and the changing face of medical education. The internet now plays an important part in education and medical...

Why do doctors use treatments that do not work? Jenny Doust and Chris Del Mar argue that doctors use treatments for many reasons--including their inability to stand idle and do nothing.(editorials)
April 1, 2004... One of the surprising things about James Lind's celebrated trial of citrus fruit for scurvy was not just that he ignored the evidence from his own trial but that in clinical practice he continued to advocate treatments that he himself had...

Medical students in Africa.(Medics worldwide: news from the IFMSA)(Obafemi Awolowo University)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Last month saw an important meeting of African medical student leaders hosted by students from Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria. The theme of the meeting was "Consolidating our efforts for a better African medical student movement?"...

Big changes for medical education in Europe.(Medics worldwide: news from the IFMSA)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... The Bologna process is moving to harmonise higher education across Europe, increasing student mobility for Europeans and non-Europeans. But hardly anyone has considered the effect that the reforms could have on medical education. This July, a...

Why stay at home?(Medics worldwide: news from the IFMSA)
April 1, 2004... A trip to a medical student congress or event in another country can broaden your knowledge of people and cultures as well as science and medicine. There are many events to choose from. Send a blank message to...

Dirty water creates an education drain.(news)(unclean water consumption affects health of students)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... A lack of clean water and sanitation is a leading cause of 104 million children worldwide being unable to attend school, says a new report, The Education Drain, published by the charity WaterAid. The report shows that many children in...

Ireland bans smoking in pubs and restaurants.(news)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Ireland will become the first country in the European Union to ban smoking in all pubs and restaurants when new regulations come into force on 29 April as part of a wider ban on smoking in the workplace. Exemptions have been granted to...

Drug resistant tuberculosis soars in eastern Europe.(news)
April 1, 2004... Multidrug resistant tuberculosis in parts of eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union is 10 times as common as in most parts of the world, a new report from the World Health Organization said this week. The report, which is WHO's third...

Retired academics wanted for developing world.(news)
April 1, 2004... Retired academics wanted for developing world--The World Medical Association has called for retired medical academics to teach in developing countries. Around half of all higher education students live in developing countries, but these...

People with sickle cell disease should be screened for pulmonary hypertension.(news)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... People with sickle cell disease should be screened for pulmonary hypertension--A team of US researchers has recommended that people with sickle cell disease should also be screened for pulmonary hypertension. This recommendation came after...

Medecins Sans Frontieres sends help to the Canary Islands.(news)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Medecins Sans Frontieres sends help to the Canary Islands--Medecins Sans Frontieres has set up a field hospital on the shoreline in Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands to treat immigrants arriving by sea from Africa. Last year, more than 7800...

Nigerian states boycott west African polio campaign.(news)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Nigerian states boycott west African polio campaign--Some northern Nigerian states have boycotted the West African polio immunisation campaign, claiming the vaccines are unsafe and could cause sterility and HIV/AIDS. Experts from the World...

New UK doctors cannot handle smoking cessation.(news)
April 1, 2004... A new study across 24 medical schools in the United Kingdom has shown that most newly qualified UK doctors are ill equipped to deliver smoking cessation and rehabilitation interventions. The study, published in Tobacco Control...

Patient groups slam dentists' Botox plan.(news)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... UK NHS dentists are branching out into cosmetic surgery, treatments, but patients' groups are reacting angrily. With private treatment costing about 200 [pounds sterling] ($360; 300[euro]) a session, NHS pressure group Health Emergency says...

Information for students with disabilities.(news)
April 1, 2004... Eleven UK medical schools still do not provide adequate disability related information on their websites despite being made aware of this a year ago, according to a new report the Sequel to Pushing the Boat Out. (1) The study, which also...

Emotions revealed: recognising facial expressions: in the first of two articles on how recognising faces and feelings can help you communicate, Paul Ekman discusses how recognising emotions can benefit you in your professional life.(education)
April 1, 2004... There are seven emotions that are expressed on the face in the same way in every, different culture (box 1). (1) These universal facial expressions are innate; they are not learnt. This explains why congenitally blind people show the same...

Essential microbiology: Suneeta Kochhar, Matthew Strutt, and John Philpott-Howard guide you through the key principles of clinical microbiology.(education)
April 1, 2004... Microbiological investigations are crucial to optimally manage infections and infectious diseases. Depending on the results, medical staff can give the appropriate treatment to target the infective organism and minimise the spread of...

Acute care: volume resuscitation: in the third part of our acute care series, Nicola Cooper explains volume resuscitation.
April 1, 2004... Normal versus abnormal fluid needs Doctors learn about average daily fluid needs at medical school, but often little is taught about fluid needs in illness. The average 70 kg person needs about 3 litres day to cover insensible losses and...

10 minute consultation: persistent crying in babies: a young mother presents with her 12 week old son, complaining that he "cries all the time." She also has a three year old daughter who was "never a problem.".(education)
April 1, 2004... What issues you should cover Elicit the mother's views--What does she think the problem might be? Take seriously any specific concerns she has. How experienced is she? For example, does she appreciate that the duration and frequency of...

Picture quiz: a teenage problem.(education)(treating children's fractures)
April 1, 2004... A left handed 17 year old presented to the emergency department after falling on to the dorsal aspect of both hands. He was complaining of pain and loss of function in both hands. He was not taking any drugs and had no relevant past medical...

Imaging competition.(education)
April 1, 2004... Look at the images, answer the questions, and win a prize. The first six correct answers drawn win each win a prize of 50[pounds sterling]. Please send your answers to dcohen@bmj.com with the word "Competition" in the subject line. Include...

How to care for survivors of torture; all doctors in the United Kingdom can expect to see patientsat some stage in their career who have been tortured.(careers)
April 1, 2004... Imagine you are a junior doctor in east London. Your next patient comes in complaining of chronic hack pain. You ask more questions about the history of the pain, and he breaks down into tears. He goes on to explain that he is seeking asylum...

Let us prey ... In today's world of easy access to information, it is becoming more common for doctors to be the stalker's target. Ronan McIvor gives some advice to help minimise your risk of being stalked by patients and also what to do if you are being stalked.(careers)
April 1, 2004... Have you ever wondered on how many lists and databases your name and personal details are stored? Some are obvious, such as professional and financial organisations, others less so. Personal information is relatively easy to come across. I...

Surgeon under fire: after war broke out in Chechyna, plastic surgeon Khassan Baiev helped his fellow citizens until he fled to the United States.(profile)
April 1, 2004... Khassan Baiev was born in 1963 in Alkhan Kala, a suburb of the Chechen capital of Grozny. Raised in a religious family, he became a schoolboy champion in sombo (a form of wrestling) and judo. As a teenager, Khassan learned self control: "My...

The advice zone.(careers)
April 1, 2004... Got a career or university related problem that needs answering? Can't find the right person to point you in the right direction? log on to the advice zone at www.bmjcareers.com/advicezone to post a question or to see if one of our experts...

Paper plus: does prescribing heroin help addicts? Leanne Tite considers how randomised controlled trials were used to investigate whether heroin addicts may be better off being given heroin rather than methadone.(papers +)
April 1, 2004... Objective--To determine whether supervised medical prescription of heroin can successfully treat addicts who do not sufficiently benefit from methadone maintenance treatment. Design--Two open label randomised controlled trials. ...

European views about accession: Ioana Vlad finds out what our European colleagues in both member and accession states think about workflow between member states come 1 May.(spotlight on)
April 1, 2004... The United Kingdom is gearing up for an "invasion" of doctors from the accession states (Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, the Slovak Republic, and Slovenia) come I May 2004, (1) but what are the...

Free for all: do you rush off to attend a free lunch and talk on hospital placements? Or is your white coat weigted down by a pocket full of free pens? Upasana Tayal looks into the cost of these freebies.(life)
April 1, 2004... Holding your Viagra pen, you start your essay on your Suscard Buccal paper, with your Imigran ruler, Pulmicort pencil, Diflucan rubber, and Ziagen highlighters close at hand. All is going well as you type up your masterpiece, then drama...

Painting the future: Sanjit Bagchi and Prasun Chaudhury caught up with doctor, artist, and researcher Lizzie Burns during her recent exhibition in India as part of the Medical Research Council's Medical Research Revealed project.(life)(Interview)
April 1, 2004... You might expect to find file quirky strokes of cyan, magenta, or burnt sienna in Lizzie Burns's paintings hanging in a trendy gallery. But the former 29 year old cancer researcher from Oxford University hopes her artworks, illustrating the...

On the good ship Anastasis: "bringing hope and healing the poor." Doctors on board the Anastasis operate on people who need it most. Abi Boys spent a year away from her medical degree to help out.(life)
April 1, 2004... Heat and humidity hung in the air; about 2000 hopeful people filled the dusty street outside the national stadium in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The people were hoping for life changing surgery from the doctors onboard the mercy ship. As the...

SARS one year on: Bella Dave considers the impact of severe acute respiratory syndrome.(spotlight on)
April 1, 2004... In late 2002, reports of a new severe respiratory disease began to emerge from Guangdong in southern China. Now defined as severe acute respiratory disease (SARS), explosive outbreaks in Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam, Canada, and China...

Timeline of events.(spotlighton)(SARS outbreak)(Chronology)
April 1, 2004... 2002 16 Nov--Cases of SARS appear in Guangdong, China 2003 14 Feb--Chinese Ministry of Health informs WHO of an outbreak of an unknown acute respiratory syndrome consistent with atypical pneumonia 21 Feb--Guangdong doctor...

Are ribbon campaigns making us loopy? Michael Fitzpatrick, a general practitioner, claims that disease awareness increases anxiety--and newspaper and magazine circulations--much more than it increases diagnosis.(life)
April 1, 2004... "And finally, today is colorectal cancer awareness day so here's our health correspondent--wearing the campaign's distinctive melaena coloured ribbon--to tell us about a new 'do it yourself' colonoscopy technique." Perhaps not this week,...

Ribbon development: with so many now to choose from, do ribbons make people more disease aware--or just more confused?(life)
April 1, 2004... Walk down any high street and you will see them pinned to assorted lapels in pink, red, tartan, and blue. This proliferation of looped empathy ribbons may be heartening, but it is also confusing. Not only are there too many colours to...

Where have all the men gone? The number of men choosing to become doctors is dwindling.(life)
April 1, 2004... During the past few years many of you will have noticed that the number of male medical students has been steadily diminishing. Although most medical schools try to widen participation among people from ethnic minorities and disadvantaged...

Balint groups: psychosocial nonsense or a real insight into the doctor-patient relationship?
April 1, 2004... We have all come across them, but how should we react? That patient who keeps returning to their family doctor, with volumes of notes, numerous letters from specialists, but no disease is ever found. Or the patient who has not visited the...

Bedside Stories: Confessions of a Junior Doctor.(book)(Book Review)
April 1, 2004... Every junior doctor has his or her own collection of hilarious, dark, and tragic anecdotes, and every doctor despairs about ward politics, working hours, and other stresses of the NHS. Under his pseudonym, Michael Foxton has entertained and...

What's on the web? Volunteer opportunities.
April 1, 2004... When looking for a volunteer opportunity far from home, the web is one of the most helpful tools. There are many opportunities on the internet, and you get to specify all the details, from the type of work to the duration and location. ...

Pain: passion, compassion, sensibility: a Wellcome Trust exhibition at the Science Museum, London SW7; from 13 February until 20 June 2004; admission free www wellcome.ac.uk/pain; www.sciencemuseum.org.uk.
April 1, 2004... Pain. Pleasure. Religion. Catharsis. This exhibition considers all these things, but, above all, pain. "This exhibition is about the cultural place of pain and how science and other ways of drinking have shaped our beliefs, our understanding,...

Kitemarks won't cure "cyberchondriacs".(Viewpoints)
April 1, 2004... My first experience of "internet print out syndrome" was in a suburban general practitioner's surgery. The syndrome seemed to affect essentially healthy people who wanted to go to the doctor to have a lengthy discussion about minor symptoms....

Learning in English makes sense.
April 1, 2004... Some Egyptian critics are sceptical about the dominance of English in the medical world. They say that teaching in a foreign language is a remnant of imperial times which should be removed. We are independent and our language should be too. I...

Is oral sex really sex?(Eyespy: eyespy brings you the latest quirky medical stories from around the world)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... >> Is oral sex really sex? Not according to 164 university students who took part in a study published in the Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality (2003; 12:87-96). The students also felt that when sex was manual, online, or via the phone it...

Chinese doctors have removed three sewing needles which have been embedded in a man's brain for nearly 29 years.(Eyespy: eyespy brings you the latest quirky medical stories from around the world)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... >> Chinese doctors have removed three sewing needles which have been embedded in a man's brain for nearly 29 years. Doctors think they were likely to have stuck ill the patient's brain through a membranous space in the skull when he was a...

How potent is your sperm?(Eyespy: eyespy brings you the latest quirky medical stories from around the world)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... >> How potent is your sperm? Now you can find out with the help of researchers from Glasgow and Sheffield universities... and a wind tunnel. Researchers have patented a machine that measures fertility, which is based on techniques used to...

A study has found women judge the attractiveness of other women more harshly when at their most fertile.(Eyespy: eyespy brings you the latest quirky medical stories from around the world)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... >> A study has found women judge the attractiveness of other women more harshly when at their most fertile. The 57 female students tested, along with male controls, were asked to look at colour photos of 35 female and 30 male faces. ...

Eyespy was glancing at the Portugese website www.correiomanha.pt and saw that surgeons at the Levante Rehabilitation Centre in Valencia, Spain, have managed, for the first time ever, to implant a forearm in a patient's lower limb.(Eyespy: eyespy brings you the latest quirky medical stories from around the world)
April 1, 2004... >> Eyespy was glancing at the Portugese website www.correiomanha.pt and saw that surgeons at the Levante Rehabilitation Centre in Valencia, Spain, have managed, for the first time ever, to implant a forearm in a patient's lower limb. The...

Is a widely available low cost digital camera all you need for detecting the x ray features of common respiratory diseases, such as tuberculosis, in developing countries?(Eyespy: eyespy brings you the latest quirky medical stories from around the world)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... >> Is a widely available low cost digital camera all you need for detecting the x ray features of common respiratory diseases, such as tuberculosis, in developing countries? Three radiologists and a respiratory physician independently read...

Personal digital assistants (PDAs) seem popular in US residency programmes.(Eyespy: eyespy brings you the latest quirky medical stories from around the world)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... >> Personal digital assistants (PDAs) seem popular in US residency programmes. Both an online survey and follow up interviews found that residents used personal organisers (featuring calendars, address books, and to do lists) to keep track of...

A new book called The Strange Case of the Walking Corpse by Nancy Butcher has hit the shelves and chronicles the most bizarre and disturbing cases detailing what can go wrong in the human body.(Eyespy: eyespy brings you the latest quirky medical stories from around the world)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... >>A new book called The Strange Case of the Walking Corpse by Nancy Butcher has hit the shelves and chronicles the most bizarre and disturbing cases detailing what can go wrong in the human body. Diseases explained include Alice in wonderland...

The family of late country and western singer Johnny Cash has stopped advertisers using his hit song "Ring of Fire" to promote haemorrhoid relief products.(Eyespy: eyespy brings you the latest quirky medical stories from around the world)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... >>The family of late country and western singer Johnny Cash has stopped advertisers using his hit song "Ring Of Fire to promote haemorrhoid relief products. Merle Kilgore, who cowrote the song with Cash's wife, June after, had given the...

The personality profiles of a sample of 313 UK doctors seem to differ significantly from those of the normal UK adult population, particularly on how people like to take in information and learn about things.(Eyespy: eyespy brings you the latest quirky medical stories from around the world)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... >> The personality profiles of a sample of 313 UK doctors seem to differ significantly from those of the normal UK adult population, particularly on how people like to take in information and learn about things. This mismatch highlights the...

A man swimming offshore near Sydney was bitten by a two foot long Wobbegong shark.(Eyespy: eyespy brings you the latest quirky medical stories from around the world)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... >> A man swimming offshore near Sydney was bitten by a two foot long Wobbegong shark. When the shark refused to let go, he swam to shore, walked to his car, and drove to the local surf club with the shark still attached. On seeing the...

Chairman's statement.(report on health policy)
April 1, 2004... The past year has been an eventful one throughout the UK. In England, a new health secretary with a new style has taken over. Major contract negotiations involving GPs, consultants and medical academics have been successfully completed, the...

Review of the year.
April 1, 2004... The BMA now has the real opportunity to move on from the difficulties of 2002-03. Then, the successful conclusion of negotiations on both the general medical services contract and the new contract for consultants seemed in doubt. But we are...

Representing members.
April 1, 2004... General practitioners committee GPs were finally able to vote on the new contract in June 2003, following several months of problems. Negotiations had initially concluded in February and GPs were sent the new GMS contract, Investing in...

Gaining influence.
April 1, 2004... Ethics Medical ethics today In December 2003, the BMA published Medical ethics today: the BMA's handbook of ethics and law. The book reflects queries raised by students and practising doctors. It runs to over 800 pages and has a...

Serving members.
April 1, 2004... Scotland The BMA continues to be a key player in shaping and influencing improvements in healthcare provision for the people of Scotland. The Scottish Parliament has led the way in forming good legislation on health issues. The...

Finances.(subscription rates )
April 1, 2004... The charts below highlight the major trends in the association's financial results in recent years. The audited financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2003, which will be presented to the annual representative meeting, are...

BMJ Publishing Group.
April 1, 2004... Highlights of 2003-04 for the BMJ Publishing Group include the launch of BMJ Learning the continuing development of Clinical Evidence and BestTreatments; and the increasing profile given to patients' views in the BMJ and BMJ Journals. At the...

Research grants.
April 1, 2004... Presidency Council has considerable pleasure in recommending to the representative body that Dame Deirdre Hine DBE FRCP FFPHM be elected president of the association for 2005-06. Gold medal For his distinguished contribution to...

Report of the directors.(British Medical Association )
April 1, 2004... Council members, who are also the directors, present their report and the financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2003. Principal activities The principal activity of the British Medical Association ("Association") is to...

Treasurer's report.(British Medical Association)
April 1, 2004... 2003 has been a satisfactory year for the Association's finances. The total operating deficit is close to the planned amount for the year, even though there was above budget expenditure on employment costs and significant campaign costs of...

Audit committee's report.(British Medical Association)
April 1, 2004... During the year, the Audit Committee has comprised four members, namely: John Bishop (Chair),James Appleyard, Rachel Hooke and Brian Keighley. In addition, the Treasurer, David Pickersgill, and the Finance Director, Leigh Whittingham,...

Independent auditors' report to the members of the British Medical Association.
April 1, 2004... We have audited the financial statements which comprise the profit and loss account, the balance sheet, the cash flow statement, the statement of total recognised gains and losses and the related notes which have been prepared under the...

Financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2003.(British Medical Association)
April 1, 2004... Financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2003 Income and expenditure account for the year ended 31 December 2003 BMA ...