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Mashup Score: 40
Patients are often the beneficiaries of medicine, but they can be its victims too. Most people in the western world are likely to know by their 60s that they have at least one chronic condition or risk factor, if not several. As they age further the number of these will almost certainly increase, along with regular check-ups, investigations, and an escalating amount of treatment. Some of the effects of this may be positive in terms of a person’s longevity and quality of life, although good nutrition, housing, education, and a decent income are likely to have been more important. Over time, however, their risks of harm will also become greater. These may include …
Source: www.bmj.comCategories: General Medicine News, General HCPsTweet
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Mashup Score: 8“Excited delirium”: can the world lose this controversial term, which is accused of covering up deaths in police custody? - 2 day(s) ago
Updating of medical guidance on the term has been brought forward, The BMJ learns, in the latest sign of the tide turning against its use. Chris Stokel-Walker explores whether “excited delirium” is ever fit for purpose—and what should happen next When George Floyd died in police custody in Minneapolis in May 2020, the circumstances of his death while being restrained became the focus of significant controversy. Police officers attending the scene said that Floyd was experiencing “excited delirium,” which some people say can cause a person to become so agitated and delirious that they die. That was why he died, the police claimed. The phrase “excited delirium” was used by two doctors working in Miami in the 1980s to describe what at the time were unexplained deaths of several black women.1 The doctors believed that drugs may have played a role in their death. In reality, the dead women weren’t victims of drug overdoses or “excited delirium”: they had been murdered by a serial killer.2 S
Source: www.bmj.comCategories: General Medicine News, General HCPsTweet
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Mashup Score: 9US states with abortion bans attract fewer applicants for residency positions, study finds - 2 day(s) ago
In 2023 fewer graduates of US medical schools applied to residency programmes in states that banned abortions than to those in states where abortion remained legal—the second year in a row this has happened, the Association of American Medical Colleges has reported.1 US medical students typically apply for residency positions during their fourth year in medical school, with about 20 000 using the college’s electronic residency application service (ERAS). The analysis was performed for the 2022-23 application cycle. In June 2022 the US Supreme Court ended the constitutional right to abortion and returned decisions to the individual states.2 As of 1 April 2024, the association’s report said, …
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Mashup Score: 12
Famine in Sudan is a real prospect unless there is an increase in the flow of humanitarian funding and aid to the war torn country, the United Nations and other agencies have warned. Thirteen months of civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have left more than 8.6 million people displaced with more than two million fleeing to neighbouring countries.1 Farming and food production have been severely disrupted and nearly three quarters of Sudan’s health facilities are out of service – looted, destroyed, or with no one left to staff them. As a result 25 million people – half the country’s population – now need humanitarian assistance of some kind, with 18 million facing acute food insecurity, according …
Source: www.bmj.comCategories: General Medicine News, General HCPsTweet
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Mashup Score: 0Body mass index and all cause mortality in HUNT and UK Biobank studies: linear and non-linear mendelian randomisation analyses - 2 day(s) ago
Objective To investigate the shape of the causal relation between body mass index (BMI) and mortality. Design Linear and non-linear mendelian randomisation analyses. Setting Nord-Trøndelag Health (HUNT) Study (Norway) and UK Biobank (United Kingdom). Participants Middle to early late aged participants of European descent: 56 150 from the HUNT Study and 366 385 from UK Biobank. Main outcome measures All cause and cause specific (cardiovascular, cancer, and non-cardiovascular non-cancer) mortality. Results 12 015 and 10 344 participants died during a median of 18.5 and 7.0 years of follow-up in the HUNT Study and UK Biobank, respectively. Linear mendelian randomisation analyses indicated an overall positive association between genetically predicted BMI and the risk of all cause mortality. An increase of 1 unit in genetically predicted BMI led to a 5% (95% confidence interval 1% to 8%) higher risk of mortality in overweight participants (BMI 25.0-29.9) and a 9% (4% to 14%) higher risk of
Source: www.bmj.comCategories: General Medicine News, Hem/OncsTweet
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Mashup Score: 18
Upholding international humanitarian law and ending the weaponisation of aid and medical supplies is critical to protecting the health of people with diabetes during disasters and conflicts, say Alicia J Jenkins and colleagues Globally, more than eight million people have type 1 diabetes (T1D) and need multiple daily insulin injections1 and many millions more have other forms of insulin requiring diabetes. Insulin is essential for life, particularly for people with T1D. Children or adults with T1D will most likely die within a week without insulin. In disasters and conflicts, the combination of internal displacement, disruptions to daily routines, food insecurity, emotional trauma and fear, and other illnesses or injuries make people with T1D especially vulnerable to life threatening episodes of hypoglycaemia or diabetic ketoacidosis. Nations must individually and collectively fulfil their obligation to uphold human rights and humanitarian law to ensure access to insulin and medical su
Source: www.bmj.comCategories: General Medicine News, General HCPsTweet
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Mashup Score: 105Association of ultra-processed food consumption with all cause and cause specific mortality: population based cohort study - 3 day(s) ago
Objective To examine the association of ultra-processed food consumption with all cause mortality and cause specific mortality. Design Population based cohort study. Setting Female registered nurses from 11 US states in the Nurses’ Health Study (1984-2018) and male health professionals from all 50 US states in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (1986-2018). Participants 74 563 women and 39 501 men with no history of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, or diabetes at baseline. Main outcome measures Multivariable Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals for the association of ultra-processed food intake measured by semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire every four years with all cause mortality and cause specific mortality due to cancer, cardiovascular, and other causes (including respiratory and neurodegenerative causes). Results 30 188 deaths of women and 18 005 deaths of men were documented during a median of 34 and 31 y
Source: www.bmj.comCategories: General Medicine News, Expert PicksTweet
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Mashup Score: 14Diagnosing cancer in English community pharmacies - 3 day(s) ago
Stephen Bradley and colleagues argue that plans to involve community pharmacies in diagnosing cancer are unlikely to transform cancer detection in primary care Cancer is diagnosed at more advanced stages, and consequently with poorer outcomes, in the UK than in many other high income countries.1234 Although these disparities have been observed over decades, worsening access to general practice appointments, particularly since the coronavirus pandemic, has led to concern that people with cancer symptoms are experiencing additional delays to diagnosis. Achieving timely diagnosis for many cancers is crucial to improving outcomes as even relatively short delays are associated with reduced likelihood of survival.5 Involving community pharmacy in detecting symptomatic cancer has long been proposed as a means of expediting diagnosis.6 In 2022 England’s NHS announced ambitious plans to enable community pharmacists to arrange tests for possible cancer symptoms,7 although the ongoing pilot schem
Source: www.bmj.comCategories: General Medicine News, General Journals & SocietTweet
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Mashup Score: 52Who is accountable for the medical unemployment crisis? - 3 day(s) ago
The story of vaccination against human papillomavirus in teenage girls is one of success. Cervical cancer rates have dropped markedly in all socioeconomic groups (doi:10.1136/bmj-2023-077341).1 An equitable implementation plan has achieved equitable benefits (doi:10.1136/bmj.q996).2 A less good health story is the murky use of dubious medical labels to deflect from unlawful death. “Excited delirium,” a term used to explain protestor George Floyd’s death in police custody, is now banned in California and Colorado and removed from police forms in the UK (doi:10.1136/bmj.q1047).3 What binds these extremes is the role of the leadership of health professionals and health systems (doi:10.1136/bmj.q1033 doi:10.1136/bmj.q1069)—the power to do good alongside culpability or complicity in harm. Health professionals need the right environment to …
Source: www.bmj.comCategories: General Medicine News, General HCPsTweet
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Mashup Score: 52Who is accountable for the medical unemployment crisis? - 3 day(s) ago
The story of vaccination against human papillomavirus in teenage girls is one of success. Cervical cancer rates have dropped markedly in all socioeconomic groups (doi:10.1136/bmj-2023-077341).1 An equitable implementation plan has achieved equitable benefits (doi:10.1136/bmj.q996).2 A less good health story is the murky use of dubious medical labels to deflect from unlawful death. “Excited delirium,” a term used to explain protestor George Floyd’s death in police custody, is now banned in California and Colorado and removed from police forms in the UK (doi:10.1136/bmj.q1047).3 What binds these extremes is the role of the leadership of health professionals and health systems (doi:10.1136/bmj.q1033 doi:10.1136/bmj.q1069)—the power to do good alongside culpability or complicity in harm. Health professionals need the right environment to …
Source: www.bmj.comCategories: General Medicine News, General HCPsTweet
"I like to think of generalism as “big picture” medicine" Generalism should be seen as essential in the work of every doctor, says @johnlauner https://t.co/xSmhQ8Cel7