{"title":"Smartphone and social media harms: why we failed in our duty of care","authors":"Kamran Abbasi","doi":"10.1136/bmj.r658","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.r658","url":null,"abstract":"The Netflix series Adolescence is hard to escape. One of the judges at our South Asia Awards in Delhi last weekend told me that his family were gripped by the drama about a teenage schoolboy in England who, influenced by the “manosphere,” murders a female student.1 While the universally acclaimed series might have further explored the harms posed by the manosphere (doi:10.1136/bmj.p2947),2 it makes us confront some difficult issues, themes that resonate powerfully around the globe. One of these is smartphone use by children and the access it gives them to social media. Where should we stand on this? Many of us began by viewing social media and smartphones as a force for good. The benefits, we imagined, outweighed the harms. And perhaps that’s still true …","PeriodicalId":22388,"journal":{"name":"The BMJ","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143766388","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Tackling obesity: government must learn from failures in tobacco control","authors":"Chelsea C Omeni-Nzewuihe","doi":"10.1136/bmj.r649","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.r649","url":null,"abstract":"The UK government’s tepid response to the House of Lords Food, Diet, and Obesity Committee report on the obesity crisis is concerning,1 particularly its refusal to exclude food companies from policy discussions in the face of such clear conflicts of interest. The rising burden of obesity related cardiovascular disease is especially concerning in light of The BMJ ’s recent investigation into …","PeriodicalId":22388,"journal":{"name":"The BMJ","volume":"4 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143766386","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Roger Elston Sturdy","authors":"Roderick Bowering","doi":"10.1136/bmj.r611","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.r611","url":null,"abstract":"Roger was born in Bournemouth and took a gap year—travelling across Africa alone and meeting his parents in the Middle East where they were on holiday—before going to Cambridge. After qualifying from Guy’s Hospital he did registrar posts in London at the Maudsley and St George’s hospitals. He was …","PeriodicalId":22388,"journal":{"name":"The BMJ","volume":"19 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143758011","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Pierre Christian Ip-Yam","authors":"Roger Ma-Fat","doi":"10.1136/bmj.r631","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.r631","url":null,"abstract":"Christian Ip-Yam was born in Mauritius, the eldest of four sons. He attended Royal College Port Louis, a prestigious state grammar school in the island’s capital. Being academically gifted and diligent, he was awarded the Mauritian state scholarship in 1979 and applied successfully for medicine at Manchester Medical School where he was a friendly, easy going, and …","PeriodicalId":22388,"journal":{"name":"The BMJ","volume":"36 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143758010","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Transitions of care are often traumatic for patients and must be improved","authors":"Helen Cowan","doi":"10.1136/bmj.r650","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.r650","url":null,"abstract":"Healthcare services, patients, and families can work better together to improve care transitions, writes Helen Cowan My husband lives with a spinal cord injury. Hospital admission can be traumatic when I’m excluded despite being his carer.1 I’m privy to information about his care that can’t be gleaned in a single handover with clinicians. I’ve felt unwelcome during the admission process, and healthcare staff haven’t treated me as an expert partner in care. Transitions involve patients and families moving between different clinical contexts—but too often their experiences and expertise are lost or undermined in the process. Problems with admissions and transition are seen across care settings and patient groups. Al Aynsley-Green, the first national clinical director for children in government, has expressed his concerns about patients receiving chaotic care and scant communication, which is often inappropriate for their age group or condition. He tells of a young woman with a complex health condition being cared for in a cramped overflow hospital bay alongside older people with dementia and then in a single room on a male ward. Her mother felt compelled to stay at the bedside.2 Follow-up is also a …","PeriodicalId":22388,"journal":{"name":"The BMJ","volume":"32 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143758009","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"UK welfare reforms threaten health of the most vulnerable","authors":"British Medical Journal Publishing Group","doi":"10.1136/bmj.r660","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.r660","url":null,"abstract":"This editorial by McCartney et al ( BMJ …","PeriodicalId":22388,"journal":{"name":"The BMJ","volume":"75 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143758076","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"David Oliver: What functions should remain within NHS central government agencies?","authors":"David Oliver","doi":"10.1136/bmj.r630","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.r630","url":null,"abstract":"The latest major reorganisation of the NHS’s government departments and central agencies1 begs the hypothetical question of which functions can best or only be served by central bodies operating at national level. Hypothetical or not, I do have to give the question some empirical constraints. First, data from the British Social Attitudes survey2 and other big datasets such as the Health Foundation/Ipsos rolling polls3 on public perceptions of the NHS show little support for a wholesale shift away from a tax funded, universal, free-at-point-of-care health service and continuing support for the NHS’s founding principles, even though public satisfaction with the current service is at a record low.4 Second, even within universal healthcare systems in high income nations with publicly funded services rather than insurance or copayment models, the NHS is arguably the industrialised world’s most centralised.56 Several others have more devolution of power and accountability to regional administration, …","PeriodicalId":22388,"journal":{"name":"The BMJ","volume":"28 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143758008","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Finding the right treatment for severe depression","authors":"Tony Frais","doi":"10.1136/bmj.r478","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.r478","url":null,"abstract":"Tony Frais found himself unprepared for the diagnosis of severe depression, and for the challenge of trying different treatments Waking in the middle of a dream, I felt a palpable click in my brain. Suddenly I felt very unwell. It was the same uncomfortable feeling you get when you are on the downhill part of a roller coaster. I got out of bed very scared of what was happening to me. I decided to book an appointment with my GP. My expectation was that I would be prescribed a pill and that would be the end of my discomfort. It never crossed my mind that any of this would be related to my mental health. I had no symptoms or concerns before this. My GP referred …","PeriodicalId":22388,"journal":{"name":"The BMJ","volume":"23 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143758159","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Improving gynaecology with trauma informed care","authors":"Valerie E Humphreys","doi":"10.1136/bmj.r632","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.r632","url":null,"abstract":"The need for shared decision making and informed consent in gynaecology is not new.1 When the Supreme Court enshrined it in law in Montgomery v Lanarkshire Health Board,2 it was not doing anything revolutionary; these concepts were already part of General Medical Council guidance.3 But practical implementation was, and is, problematic. Good communication with a sympathetic and empathic listener is crucial for …","PeriodicalId":22388,"journal":{"name":"The BMJ","volume":"104 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143758012","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"John Launer: Watch out for that indulgent smile","authors":"John Launer","doi":"10.1136/bmj.r629","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.r629","url":null,"abstract":"I spend a lot of time teaching communication skills, although I prefer to call them interactional skills, which suggests more of a two way street. Much of what I cover relates to speaking and listening, although you can’t ignore body language too: eye contact, sitting position, and so on. One experience I mention quite often is seeing a video of my own consultations for the first time. I was horrified to see how much I fidgeted, played with my pen, and looked at the computer—and how much more distracting this was for the patient than stillness. Since then, I’ve always …","PeriodicalId":22388,"journal":{"name":"The BMJ","volume":"216 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143758075","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}