Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Medicine and Science from The BMJ

In this magazine episode, we talk about the forever chemicals in our blood, how to protect patients from cosmetic procedures gone wrong, and the long-standing dearth of LGBTQ+ data.

 

Per- and poly-fluoro-alkyl substances, also called PFAS or "forever chemicals", have become ubiquitous in our environment over the last 70 years. As the UK government launches a new epidemiological study into human exposure, we discuss the persistent biological effects of PFAS and what this means for long-term health outcomes.

 

Also this week, we turn our attention to the up-and-coming new restrictions in England targeting non-surgical cosmetic procedures. But will these proposed changes actually protect the public from unscrupulous providers? We discuss the problems with regulation in a profit driven market, and what it means for patient safety.

 

Finally, while health outcomes for LGBTQ+ people are known to be worse than the general population, the extent of that gap, and what’s causing it, are still difficult to study. Basic data collection is shockingly poor. We hear why that is, and what’s needed to fill the gap.

 

Guest List:

Tony Fletcher – Honorary associate professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Alexandra Mullock – Senior lecturer in medical law at the University of Manchester

Joel Bates – Research assistant at King’s College London

 

Reading:

PFAS: the persistent problem of forever chemicals and health

Delayed regulation of non-surgical cosmetic procedures threatens patient safety

The NHS doesn’t routinely collect data on LGBTQ+ health, even though meaningful improvements can’t happen without it

In this episode of the Medicine and Science podcast, we dive into a cross-border public health mystery and hear about the loneliness of the resident doctor.

Canada recently lost its measles elimination status following a major outbreak of over 2,000 cases that began in late 2024. It's essential that public health agencies can track the virus as it moves through a population - but how do they do it? Two public health physicians from Ontario join us to explain how they went into full investigatory mode. We discuss how genomic sequencing, contact tracing, and vaccination data came together to form a detective story that exposes the vulnerability of under-vaccinated populations, the porous nature of international borders, and what it will take to regain elimination status.

Then, we turn to the ongoing retention and morale crisis among resident doctors in the UK. A new BMJ opinion piece points to a possible different fuel for the discontent: workplace loneliness. We explore how rotational placements are stripping away crucial support networks, isolating young doctors on the wards, and what must be done to restore vital connectedness to the profession.

Guest List:

• Dr. Sarah E. Wilson – Public Health Physician in Toronto, Ontario.

• Dr. Miriam Klassen – Medical Officer of Health in Stratford, Ontario.

• Alex Mafi – Resident doctor in London 

Reading List:

• Impact of a large measles outbreak associated with transmission in the Americas and Canada’s loss of measles elimination status: descriptive cohort study 

• Loneliness at work: We need to restore connectedness for resident doctors 

In this podcast, we explore one of 2026's key issues - the way in which climate and conflict are interacting to endanger human health. 

Neta Crawford, professor of international relations at the University of St Andrews has been studying how war contributes to climate change, despite the difficulty in obtaining clear information - as most military emissions are exempt from reporting under Kyoto-era rules, She explains why mandatory transparency, reduced reliance on military solutions, and a change to defense doctrines are necessary.

Mohammed Aba Aji, post-doctoral research associate at Washington University argues that rising spending on the military - nearly $3 trillion and increasing for 11 years, is diverting resources from health, education, and climate adaptation. He explains why the only way to tackle this is to redefine defence away from property and infrastructure to human flourishing.

Reading list

War and military mobilisation are drivers of climate change

Increasing defence expenditure may cost us our security

Countering the arms industry as a commercial determinant of health

 

 

*This episode was republished on 24th of October, to correct the final mp3

In this episode of podcast we explore two clinical dilemmas - unrecognised drug side effects, and the outcomes from hip and knee replacements.

When an unrecognised adverse drug effect is mistaken for a new symptom, the resulting prescribing cascade can end in polypharmacy and potentially preventable patient harm. New research on nearly 2.3 million adults in Ontario, has found 24 high-priority, potentially inappropriate prescribing cascades—including laxatives after iron, pain relievers following statins, and sedatives after cholinesterase inhibitors. Paula Rochon, Jerry Gurwitz, and Antonio Cherubini, three of the study's authors join us to discuss.

Over 100,000 hip and, 100,000 knee replacements are performed annually in the NHS, and health systems are investing hundreds of millions to rapidly scale robot-assisted surgery, but is this expensive new tech delivering better patient outcomes? Two target trial emulation papers, using the UK's National Joint registry aim to find out if robots are better at join replacement. Hassan Mohammad, one of the papers' authors shares their findings, and Teppo Järvinen joins the conversation to discuss challenging orthopaedic surgery standard practice.

Guest List Prescribing Cascades Discussion

• Paula Rochon, Geriatrician, senior scientist, and professor at Sinai Health and the University of Toronto.

• Jerry Gurwitz, Geriatrician, researcher, and professor of Medicine at UMass Chan Medical School.

• Antonio Cherubini, Geriatrician and clinical eesearcher at Università Politecnica delle Marche and INRCA (Istituto Nazionale di Riposo e Cura per Anziani) 

Robotic Hip & Knee Arthroplasty Discussion

• Hassan Mohammad, academic clinical lecturer in orthopaedics at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry

• Teppo Järvinen, orthopaedic surgeon and professor at the University of Helsinki, and Head of the Finnish Centre for Evidence-Based Orthopaedics (FICEBO) in Finland.

BMJ.com Reading List Research Papers

• Exploring high priority potentially inappropriate prescribing cascades in older adults: population level retrospective cohort study

• Early national comparison of robotic versus conventional knee replacements for arthritis using National Joint Registry data: target trial emulation study

• Early national comparison of robotic versus conventional hip replacements for arthritis using National Joint Registry data: target trial emulation study

• Robot assisted hip and knee arthroplasty: It is high tech, but is it better?

Referrals for ADHD and autism assessments have reached unprecedented levels, leaving NHS waiting lists stretched into years and families struggling to access support. But is the rise driven by a genuine increase in neurodevelopmental conditions, increased awareness, or systemic overdiagnosis?

This prompted the government to commission the Independent Review into Mental Health Conditions, ADHD, and Autism; and we're joined by vice Chair of that review, Professor Sir Simon Wessely, Regis chair of psychiatry at King’s College London.

In this episode, we discuss: Community prevalence vs. administrative prevalence, the roles of underdiagnosis, misdiagnosis and overdiagnosis. Why the current focus on diagnosis is a mistake, and why environmental factors are really key to the changes we're seeing. We also cover thecore recommendations of the report.

 

Read the full report:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/independent-review-into-mental-health-conditions-adhd-and-autism-final-report

Last year, in July 2025, the independent review of the physician associate and anaesthesia associate roles, carried out by professor Gillian Leng, was published.

The review followed the contentious role out of PAs in the NHS - where their scope of practice differed across trusts, and GP practices, and concerns were raised about clinical safety.

Some of the key recommendations were around seeing undifferentiated patients, training needs, and supervision - and we spoke to Gill at the time, and the government accepted her proposals.

But questions remained about exactly how some of those recommendations might work.

Today, with the publication of a draft clinical protocol - and we clarify some of those questions.

The VAERS system in the US monitors adverse events following vaccines, but a new investigation on BMJ.com has found problems with the data mining systems used to spot patterns - and more worryingly, that the agencies involved were alerted about the issues, and didn’t take steps to fix the problem.

David Willman, Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist, joins us to explain what he found.

 

Also this week, while the UK parliament still seems divided on assisted dying, in Switzerland it has been allowed for over 80 years - making it an normalised part of medicine. New research has asked patients why they have decided to seek help in ending their lives, and analyses those motivations.  Two authors of this work, Claudia Gamond, a palliative care physician who leads the palliative and supportive care department at the University Hospital in Lausanne, and  Solenne Blanc, a PhD student in sociology, join us to explain what they found.

 

Reading list

US officials knew covid vaccine safety system was flawed—but turned aside the FDA doctor who alerted them

 

How patients explain and make sense of their decision for assisted suicide in Switzerland (the Exit Project): qualitative exploratory study

Something different for the podcast today: a live event. It’s the inaugural BMJ lecture, in partnership with the Academy of Medical Sciences and hosted at the historic Royal Academy of Arts.

We want to talk about the big issues facing healthcare professionals around the world - and we’re starting with one of the biggest: how do we make decisions in the face of real risk and genuine uncertainty?

Well, who better to talk through those big questions than the man who had to try to navigate those risks and uncertainties during the pandemic?

Chris Whitty is England’s Chief Medical Officer and Chief Medical Adviser to the UK Government, advising on all aspects of healthcare. He is also a professor of public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, where he was director of their Malaria Centre.

In his lecture, Professor Whitty argues that medical training must better prepare doctors to manage risk, highlighting that "higher risk decisions, and accountability for these, have moved to later in training", causing a "substantial and sudden step up" in risk for new consultants. He acknowledges AI’s potential to speed up clinical diagnostics, but warns against public-facing AI tools that present diagnoses with false certainty while ignoring medical risk and uncertainty.

Read the related Opinion article: "We must be more systematic about risk holding throughout doctors’ careers"

This recording is available to view on YouTube.

Back in 2024, the BMJ revealed how more than half of the members of the UK government's Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition, had declared financial interests with food and drinks companies.

A tightening of the rules followed, but two years after our initial investigation, we have returned - and we found that nearly a third of nutrition advisors still have significant ties to the food industry.

Chris Van Tulleken, professor of infection and immunology at University College London, and author of the book “Ultra Processed People”, joins us to explain why he thinks ongoing industry ties are bad for the UK's health.

 

Also this week. We have tight regulation of medical tech in the UK, but new AI tools don’t fit neatly into that existing process - and so the government has set up a National Commission on the Regulation of AI in Healthcare, 

Alastair Denniston, and Henrietta Hughes, who headed that commission, join us to explain how AI should be monitored, how we can ensure it's safety, and who should be responsible when something goes wrong.

 

Reading list:

A third of UK government’s nutrition advisers are still paid by food industry, including Coca Cola and Nestlé

National Commission into the Regulation of AI in Healthcare: Recommendations for a future regulatory framework

The next few months might be an inflection point for GPs in England and Wales 

Our strong primary care system is often credited in the success of the NHS - But changes to how that system works are currently underway. Legislation is quietly proceeding through parliament that will reorganise the way in which local care is structured, and those changes are raising concerns for GPs.

To talk about how we build a stronger primary care system, and stronger NHS we're joined by:

• Victoria Tzortziou Brown, president of the Royal College of General Practitioners
• Sam Everington, a GP in East London, and a non-executive director of NHS England
• Kamila Hawthorne, GP in South Wales, and chair of National Academy for Social Prescribing

We also take the opportunity to hear about where social prescribing fits into this new picture, and why our panel think it's important in changing the UK's health.

Reading list

Building a stronger NHS: an open letter from past and present presidents and chairs of the Royal College of General Practitioners

In this week’s podcast we’ll be hearing a lot about exams - the bane of many doctor’s training lives, exams that determine your future are scattered through medicine and can cause a huge amount of anxiety and stress…

 

John McLachlan, professor of medical education at the University of Lancashire, has carried out four reviews of medical exams. He explains what happens to the people who have been marked wrongly, why he thinks re-sits should be done differently, and why multiple choice questions are still in use.

 

Over the Summer there have been extensive protests from the young people of India, the “Cockroach Janta Party” has led demonstrations across the country, sparked by allegations of cheating in India’s “NEET” exams - the federal tests taken by applicants to India's medical training.

 

Rohan Krishnan, orthopaedic surgeon in Delhi, and chief of the Federation of All India Medical Association, and Kathir Karuppiah, a house surgeon in Tamil Nadu, join us to explain where India's medical admissions tests are failing students.

 

We’ll also hear about new research into Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy in NFL players.  Daniel Daneshvar is associate professor at Harvard Medical School, and he and his co-authors have examined the brains of 338 former players, with the goal of determining how many of them died with CTE neurodegeneration. He joins us to explain his findings, and what it means for competitive sports players and others who play contact sports.

 

Reading list:

 

“Cockroach” victory: India’s education minister resigns over medical exam scandal linked to 12 suicides

 

Prevalence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy at death in National Football League players: retrospective population based cohort study, 2008-21

This week we’re focusing on how healthcare is using AI systems. The NHS is firmly set on a course of AI integration, with NHS England committing £10 billion of taxpayer funds to the cause over the next three years. The pressure to implement AI in our hospitals is intense. But, how can healthcare leaders know what makes for a good AI adoption strategy? Victor Montori and Jon Tilburt are physicians from the US’ Mayo Clinic. They join us to lay out what they are calling the ‘five red flags’ that any organisation needs to consider in its AI rollout.

 

The UK is already having this conversation. The National Commission into the Regulation of AI in Healthcare released its initial report in June of this year. Among its findings was a call for a ‘lifecycle-based approach’ to regulation. To explain what this means, as well as how doctors can be equipped to ‘surveil’ AI systems as conditions evolve, we’re joined by the co-authors of a new BMJ editorial - Mark Ball from the University of Derby, and Elvira Perez Vallejos from the University of Nottingham.

 

And lastly, we talk about a research paper from last week that sparked off some concern. Researchers at Stanford University in California have used generative AI to design novel bacteriophage viruses. But, what have these scientists actually accomplished, and how can we put the right safeguards around the technology? Simon Clarke, associate professor in cellular microbiology at the University of Reading, explains the breakthrough and lays out its real implications.

 

References:

We can, but should we? Red flags for hasty, low integrity AI integration into healthcare

Regulating AI in healthcare: a moving target

Developments in AI designed viruses demonstrate why such research must be done in the open

Bipolar disorder affects almost 40 million people worldwide, but finding the right treatment is complex, and nearly half of patients struggle to follow their prescribed treatment plans.

 

In the first part of this episode, we discuss new research which aims to help patients and their doctors identify the right treatment. Michele De Prisco, psychiatrist and researcher at the Fundació de Recerca Clínic Barcelona-Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques, joins us to discuss his team's comprehensive umbrella analysis of bipolar disorder treatment options.

 

Also this week, with the malaria vaccines RTS,S and R21 passing regulatory hurdles, and becoming available for populations around the world, the fight against malaria is shifting. Gillian Turner, Principal Research Associate at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, explains the logistical challenges of the malaria vaccine rollout and what steps are needed next to control the disease.

Reading list:

 

Evidence based interventions for bipolar disorder across phases and age groups

 

Scaling up Malaria Vaccines in Africa

This week we focus on the external forces that shape medicine and healthcare. 

Global health is changing, after the reduction in financing from wealthy nations, the global community are beginning to implement reforms to improve the situation. However, any change will be unsuccessful until we tackle the fundamental structures that govern outcomes, argue Daniel Bernal-Serrano and Omar Gabriel Torres Valencia from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. They join us to explain how economic forces, wealth distribution, and market dynamics undermine health outcomes.

We also learn about the rapid rise in private equity financing of healthcare in the UK, and the dangers that poses to healthcare quality. Bernd Rechel is a researcher at the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, and explains how different countries are handling this drive for healthcare profit extraction.

 

Reading list:

• Private equity involvement in UK healthcare
• Reforming global health architecture requires confronting its political economy

In this week's podcast - the Sensitivity of Patient Questionnaires: If you've ever asked a patient to fill out a Patient Health Questionnaire (like the PHQ-9) to assess their mental health and wondered exactly how much of a change it can actually detect, new research just published on bmj.com sets out to answer that question. We're joined by Brett Thombs, Professor in the department of Psychiatry at McGill University

Also this week, Are Doctors Scared of Death? BMJ Careers Editor Abi Rimmer sits down in the studio with Richard Coker, Emeritus Professor of Public Health at LSHTM. Drawing from his early days as an HIV doctor during the onset of the AIDS epidemic, and later with infectious disease outbreaks in South East Asia. Professor Coker discusses the profound experiences of the end of his patients lives that shaped his new book, Timor Mortis: How We Live with Death.

Reading list:

Minimal detectable change of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9, Patient Health Questionnaire-8, and Patient Health Questionnaire-2`

Known for his use of devolved powers, during his tenure as Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham now has the opportunity to bring his local blueprint to the national stage. But what does this mean for the future of health and social care?

Our panel explore the deeply rooted health inequalities tied to the social determinants of health, the disconnect between local decision-making and national infrastructure, and the urgent need to extend the ability to access social care to more of England's population.

We're joined by

• Michael Marmot: Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London (UCL) and author of the landmark Marmot Review.

• Sarah Woolnough: Chief Executive of the health think tank, The King's Fund.

• Matt Sutton: Professor of Health Economics at the University of Manchester.

Reading List

• Devolution can create new opportunities for better health

• Will devolving powers to mayors close England’s health gap?

• Andy Burnham’s goal of good growth could be a health-creating mission that supports environmental action

• The King's Fund responds to Andy Burnham’s comments on social care 

Discrimination in NHS Hiring: We examine the troubling success rates of Black and Asian doctors when applying for NHS jobs. Deputy news editor, Gareth Iacobucci speaks to Anthony Emmanushares his analysis on why discrimination persists in the medical workforce and what recent reports reveal.

The Ethnicity Data Gap in Research: While sex and gender are reported in 99% of trials, ethnicity is reported in only 48%. Bianca Brijnath, Professor of Health Communication in Society at La Trobe University, joins us to discuss a newly published framework aimed at standardizing the capture and reporting of ethnicity data in clinical trials.

The Evidence Revolution: We celebrate how evidence-based medicine (EBM) has set the gold standard for other areas of science. Mun-Keat Looi, The BMJ’s International News and Features Editor, speaks with Nature editor and science journalist Helen Pearson about her new book, Beyond Belief: How Evidence Shows What Really Works.

Reading List

Black and Asian doctors are up to 30 times less likely to be offered medical training posts in some specialties, data show 

Measurement of ethnicity in clinical trials: Delphi survey and consensus statement 

Beyond Belief: How Evidence Shows What Really Works by Helen Pearson

Who actually owns our health data once it is stored in the cloud? And how do we balance the global push for open medical research with the need to protect local populations from data extraction? Kamran Abbasi sits down with Trudie Lang, Professor of Global Health Research at the University of Oxford and David Strain, Associate Professor of Cardiometabolic Health at the University of Exeter. Together, they dive into the complex ethical and legal landscape of data sovereignty - unpacking the loopholes that could allow the US government access to NHS data, and how medical research in resource poorer settings can be extractive of data. They set out the case for data sovereignty, and how it could practically work while not stifling essential international research collaboration Read the related articles on BMJ.com: The CLOUD Act: NHS data must be safeguarded from US interests by David Strain A commitment to act on data sharing by Kamran Abbasi Data sharing must evolve towards data sovereignty by Trudie Lang

Two NHS maternity reviews have been published over the past few weeks. The biggest ever conducted, involving nearly 2500 families, investigated services at Nottingham university hospitals NHS trust. It was led by senior midwife, Donna Ockenden, and its findings on poor and avoidable harm to babies and mothers have reverberated throughout UK healthcare.

This was followed immediately by publication of an independent investigation into maternity and neonatal services in England, conducted by Valerie Amos, which states that the UK's poor maternity care is "on a scale that shames our society".

We speak to  Kate Duhig, clinical senior lecturer at  Kings College London, and Marian Knight, professor of of maternal and child population health at the University of Oxford, about why we keep having reports saying the same thing, but little action to solve the problem.

As many wealthy nations have stepped back from previous aid promises, a new force has emerged to fill the gaps: private finance. David McCoy is professor of global public health at the United Nations University, and explains why turning to investment banks, wealth funds, and private equity in the pursuit of universal health coverage might cause more problems than it solves.

 

Reading list:

Dangers of finance capital in healthcare

Amos maternity review: Doctors must work differently as units “no longer fit for purpose,” but report is dogged by controversy

Nottingham maternity review: 520 mothers and babies were seriously harmed on “toxic” ward, damning inquiry finds

Australia has been in the vanguard of legislation to try and reduce the influence of social media on children and young people - their ban for under 16s was introduced on the 10th of December 2025, to great fanfare, and a lot of interest around the world.

But how effective are these bans at keeping children away from social media?

New research just published on BMJ.com has looked at that question of efficacy - finding that children are using the most simple tactics to evade the ban.

To dicuss what that means, we're joined by two of the authors of that research Courtney Barnes and Luke Wolfenden from the University of Newcastle, Australia.

We’re also joined by Amrit Purba, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and Louise Holly, from the Digital Transformations for Health Lab, in Geneva, who have written commentaries to go with that research.

 

Reading list

Assessing early effects of Australia’s Social Media Minimum Age Act on adolescents’ social media use 

Learning from Australia’s social media age restriction policy  

Early data from Australia indicate that social media companies can’t be relied on to protect children 

The US military’s Operation “Epic Fury” highlighted the devastating cost of using artificial intelligence for rapid military planning. Thomas Adamkiewicz, associate professor at Morehouse School of Medicine, and Zulfiqar Bhutta, Robert Harding Inaugural Chair in Global Child Health at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, to discuss why international humanitarian law is lagging dangerously behind technology, and why we urgently need a new era of legal frameworks to govern AI use in war.

 

Direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising of prescription medicines is strictly illegal everywhere in the world except for the United States and New Zealand. Deborah Cohen, investigative journalist, joins us to explain how global social media platforms are making borders porous, allowing Hollywood celebrities and high-profile influencers to broadcast drug endorsements directly into the feeds of UK citizens.

 

Finally, Between 2020 and 2023, the UK government allocated £1.7 billion specifically intended for frontline doctor training. However, a deep-dive investigation has revealed that a staggering £400 million of that funding is completely unaccounted for - David Hutchison, paediatrics registrar, and Jonathan De Oliveira, GP trainee, join us to describe what they found.

Reading List

• AI warfare demands a new era of humanitarian law
• Bad influencers: How social media imported US-style drug advertising to the UK
• “Black hole” of medical student funding

The heated debate on prostate cancer screening boils down to one question: should men be routinely screened?

Two recent position statements from the UK’s national screening committee published in the BMJ show that screening decisions are steeped in complexity. 

The benefits of screening may be easier to grasp, but the harms of overdiagnosis and overtreatment are given less attention. Can we close the divide between the public and academic discourse?

 

Guest: Sian Taylor-Phillips is professor of population health at the University of Warwick and a member of the UK national screening committee.

 

Further Reading:

• UK National Screening Committee position statement on surrogate outcomes in cancer screening trials
• Prostate cancer screening: Committee rejects calls for mass testing programme despite pressure

More interviews from the BMJ on our Youtube channel.

New estimates of Global Patterns in Neonatal, Child, and Adolescent Mortality have been published - and while there has been a huge improvement, those gains are in danger - and we’re seeing worrying trends.

 

Kate Strong, a Scientist at the World Health Organization and Lucia Hug, a specialist in statistics and monitoring for UNICEF, join us to explain the data - and why they are worried about our ability to measure this in the future.

 

Helen Sharman is the first British Astronaut to make it to space - this week she was at the Royal College of GPs giving the General Medical Council's annual Marx lecture. She joins us to discuss how research in space might impact healthcare on Earth, and what the NHS can learn from cosmonaut teamwork. 

 

Finally, The government and doctors in England are not getting on well - we’ve had a series of strikes from the resident doctors, GPs are in dispute about the imposition of a new contract, and now consultants are being polled on industrial action.  BMA Consultants Committee co-chairs Shanu Dutta and Helen Neary explain why.

 

Reading list

 

Neonatal, Child, and Adolescent Mortality

Global, regional, and national levels and trends in under 5, infant, and neonatal mortality during 1990-2024 with scenario based projections to 2030

Global, regional, and national levels and trends in older child, adolescent, and youth (5-24 years) all cause mortality from 1990 to 2024: modelling study

Systematic estimates of global causes of neonatal and under 5 mortality in 2000-24: secondary data analysis using bayesian multinomial logistic regression

Estimates of global causes of death for children and adolescents aged 5-19 in 2000-24: secondary data analysis using bayesian multinomial logistic regression

 

Full interview on YouTube:

Why NHS Senior Doctors in England Are Considering Strike Action

Does healthcare have a moral emergency?

In this episode of the Medicine and Science podcast, Kamran Abbasi sits down with healthcare leaders Maureen Bisognano, president emerita of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and Bob Klaber, director of strategy at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, to discuss why they're calling the lack of humanity in medicine an emergency.

We ask why this dangerous imbalance between the rational (efficiency, data, and metrics) and the relational (human connection, empathy, and listening) has developed in modern medicine. We also learn how simple changes, like asking "What matters to you?" instead of just "What's the matter?, can help us put the humanity back into healthcare.

 

Reading list

Read the BMJ Article: Healthcare's moral emergency: reconnecting healthcare with its mission and purpose

Michael West on workforce kindness

Amy Edmondson on psychological safety

Len Berry on cancer care & kindness

 

It has been a tumultuous time in UK health politics. UK Health Minister ,Wes Streeting, has freshly resigned. What does this mean for his newly introduced NHS Modernization Bill as it heads through Parliament?

Together with Hugh Alderwick, Director of Policy and Research at the Health Foundation, we unpack the bill's sweeping centralization of power, the abolition of NHS England, and the contentious role for US tech firm Palantir in the new NHS.

And, we explore a major milestone for women's healthcare. A condition affecting an estimated 170 million women globally has officially been renamed from Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) to Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome (PMOS). Rachel Morman, Chair of the PMOS charity Verity, joins us to explain why dropping "cysts" from the name is a vital step toward recognizing this as a complex, multi-system condition, and how this co-designed change will fundamentally reshape diagnosis, treatment, and future research.

Further reading:

Health Bill brings NHS management back into government

PMOS: What's in a name? Everything

PCOS name change to PMOS must be managed to avoid confusing patients, says expert

Twitter was launched 20 years ago, followed quickly by the iPhone and Instagram. Today, nearly 60% of the world’s population uses social media. Medical experts are sounding the alarm on the potential for these platforms to cause systemic harm. This past year has seen large events in the legal and public health battle against tech giants, with millions of dollars awarded in damages to child victims. Why has pinning down these companies proven difficult? And, what are the parallels between the social media industry and the historical tactics of "Big Tobacco"?

Guests:

Matthew Bergman is a practicing attorney and the founder of the Social Media Victims Law Center, as well as a professor at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon.

Ilona Kickbusch is an editorial board member of the BMJ and a visiting professor at the Digital Transformations for Health Lab at the University of Geneva, specializing in the commercial determinants of health.

Further reading:

From tobacco to TikTok: what public health litigation history tells us about holding social media accountable

What is the evidence for social media addiction?

The BMA has released their long awaited review of the Cass report. The original report looked at the provision of NHS gender identity services for children and young people, and involved a review of the science underpinning those services. It also set out a plan to improve care for gender diverse young people. 

We talk with David Strain of the BMA’s board of science to discuss their findings, and hear why they were critical of the Secretary of State, Wes Streeting's response to Cass’s review. And, we hear about new research published with The BMJ that aims to help children with autism. The researchers used a non-invasive magnetic stimulation technique to target specific regions of the brain, with the goal of promoting sociality. We discuss the benefits, and how this technique might translate to treatment plans for patients.

Guests:

David Strain is an associate professor in cardio-metabolic health at the University of Exeter and Chair of the BMA’s Board of Science.

Benjamin Becker is a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Hong Kong, specializing in brain-based interventions for mental disorders.

Further reading:

Puberty blockers: BMA critique vindicates Cass review but questions government “overreach”

Accelerated non-invasive brain stimulation in childhood autism

 

 

The new trade deal struck between the UK and US came into force in April. 

The deal will

• double the amount that the NHS spends on new medicines, by the end of 2036 (from 0.6 - 0.6% of GDP).
•  increase the threshold that the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) sets for drug approvals - which will allow more to be approved, but will also allow companies to charge more for their pharmaceuticals,
•  include a change to the rebate the NHS receives, to ensure that the extra drug spend occurs.

Cumulatively this will increase our drug spend by £56 billion in the next 10 years, which will have to come out of current healthcare spending - which experts are calling a catastrophe for the NHS.

Joining Kamran Abbasi to discuss are Sally Gainsbury, a senior policy analyst Nuffield Trust and Karl Claxton, professor of economics at the University of York. We also hear from Francis Ruiz, policy analyst at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Reading list

The UK government must publish a detailed impact assessment of the costs and benefits of the US-UK medicines partnership

A budget apart: the case for ringfencing medicines in the UK

 

 

 

 

A blockbuster MS drug undergoes FDA re-evaluation. We explore the story of Ocrelizumab, a treatment for primary progressive multiple sclerosis, following a patient petition that highlighted internal disagreements among agency reviewers regarding its efficacy.

We look to Sweden, where new research involving sibling pairs separated by adoption investigates how early-life environments shape long-term health and social outcomes.

Finally, we revisit the dominant medical narrative on Alzheimer’s disease. Why is it so difficult to move towards comprehensive treatments? Has the focus on amyloid plaques hindered our understanding of other critical factors like vascular health and social inequality?

Peter Doshi is a senior editor at The BMJ and an associate professor of pharmaceutical health services research at the University of Maryland.

Erik Peterson is an associate professor at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, specializing in psychiatric epidemiology and adoption studies.

Carol Brayne is a professor emerita of public health medicine at the University of Cambridge and a leading expert in the epidemiology of dementia.

Reading List:

Multiple sclerosis: Could Roche's bestselling drug Ocrevus be doing more harm than good in women with primary progressive MS?

Home environment conditions during childhood and psychosocial outcomes across three generations in Sweden: population based adoption-discordant sibling comparison study

 

Covid 19 was the last Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). Our guests in this podcast think that the Trump Administration should be declared the next one.

Joining Kamran Abbasi are, Fatima Hassan,  human rights lawyer and Director of the Health Justice Initiative in South Africa, and Matthew Herder, Director of the Health Justice Institute at Dalhousie University in Canada explain why they think that the actions and consequences of the Whitehouse meet the bar for WHO to delcare an emergency

We examine the global consequences of recent US policy shifts, including:

• The withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO) and its implications for international health governance.

• Significant funding cuts to global health programs, including PEPFAR and the CDC, and how these disruptions affect life-saving HIV and TB treatments in the Global South.

• The rise of "unhinged nationalism" in health policy, from North American measles outbreaks to the extraction of trade concessions in exchange for medical aid.

• The role of US health leadership in fueling vaccine hesitancy and dismantling scientific research at the NIH.

 

Reading list:

• Trump and his administration as a public health emergency of international concern

• Why the expanded global gag rule is a deadly triple tripwire for recipients of US foreign aid

• The power of the markets: the scandal that keeps on taking

Coming up in this week’s episode:

The 15th Strike: As the latest six-day walkout by resident doctors in England concludes, the BMJ's news team examines the state of the ongoing dispute over pay and training places.

Iain Beardsell, consultant in emergency medicine in Southampton explain why he thinks reintroducing compassion could be the key to tackling the systemic issues facing emergency departments

And finally, The BMA announces major changes to how it represents doctors in private practice - we hear why they think the US has some better legislation around health insurance than the UK.

 

Reading list:

• Resident doctor strikes: Streeting demands to “meet with the organ grinders” as latest action ends
• The BMJ interviews Jack Fletcher 
• Make compassion visible in emergency medicine again
• BMA boosts support for private practice as NHS failings prompt more patients to pay for care

The BMJ published a negative result this week. A new trial focuses on a peer support intervention for improving breastfeeding rates in the UK, but finds no major improvement. We hear from the lead author who tells us what went wrong, and the insights that can still be drawn from apparent ‘failures’.

Next we turn our eyes to shisha smoking in the UK. With shisha or “hookah” cafes on the rise, we explore the smoking habit in more detail. What are the effects on health? And why are UK laws poor at regulating the practice?

 

Kate Jolly is professor of public health and primary care at the University of Birmingham.

Zainab Hussain is a UK-based freelance journalist writing on behalf of The BMJ.

Links:

• Peer support intervention (ABA-feed) to improve breastfeeding: UK based, multicentre, parallel group, randomised controlled trial
• Shisha tobacco’s availability is rising. Why does UK smoking policy fail to tackle it?

The UK Covid Inquiry released Module Three of its findings this month. It lays out in startling detail the lived experiences of NHS staff and patients who bore through the pandemic. In the report’s words: ‘healthcare systems coped with the pandemic, but only just’. The BMJ speaks to Kevin Fong, anaesthetist lead for major incidence planning at UCL hospitals, to break down Module Three’s most important takeaways. And, invasive surgical cosmetic procedures are on the rise in the UK, with regulation patchy at best. From botox and fillers, to tummy tucks and breast surgeries, we hear about the gaps in patient protections that leave space for harm. Kevin Fong is a consultant anaesthetist, broadcaster, and anaesthetist lead for major incidence planning at UCL hospitals. Danielle Griffiths is an author and lecturer at the University of Liverpool’s School of Law. Alexandra Mullock is an author and senior lecturer in medical law at the University of Manchester. UK Covid Inquiry Module Three Report Regulating invasive cosmetic procedures to reduce harm | The BMJ

The Gulf states are not large producers of pharmaceuticals or healthcare products - but the oil they supply, and the transport infrastructure they have built, are key components in a worldwide logistical network that underpin all of the pharmaceutical and other medical consumables we use.

From critical NHS shortages like Bone Cement for orthopedic surgery, to persistent IV fluid supply crises plaguing Australian hospitals, we discuss how the conflict in Iran will affect fragile healthcare logistics.

Joining us today are 

• Mark Dayan, Brexit programme lead at the Nuffield Trust) on NHS procurement problems 
• Anny Huang, doctor and journalist in Brisbane,on the three-year  IV fluid shortages in Australia.
• Prashant Yadav a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, on the potential global effects of the Iranian conflict on international supply chains.

Reading list

Global bone cement shortage: NHS could cancel or delay knee and hip operations

How Australia survived a sudden shortage of IV fluids

Where the Iran War Could Disrupt Pharmaceutical Supply Chains

 

The lure of health influencers and AI chat bots is strong. More and more people are placing trust in them to answer their health problems, misplaced trust - as we know these AIs can misinform.

At the same time, people are struggling to access the NHS, and when they do doctors have little time or the right tools to unpick complicated science, and challenge misunderstandings.

So in this roundtable, we’re asking, are we in danger of the NHS making the problem of misinformation worse, and what can we do to combat that.

Joining Kamran Abbasi, the BMJ’s editor in chief are:

• Deborah Cohen: Freelance Journalist; Senior Visiting Fellow at LSE Health
• Kamila Hawthorne: Chair of the National Academy for Social Prescribing
• Nnena Osuji: Consultant haematologist and CEO of North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust

Chapters

• [00:00] The rise of health influencers
• [03:55] Patient satisfaction and the NHS
• [05:58] The "Infodemic" and clinical impact
• [11:04] Digital literacy and health inequalities
• [16:40] Questions from the audience

 

Reading list:

• Cohen D. Bad Influence: How the Internet Hijacked Our Health. Oneworld Publications; 2026.
• Satisfaction with NHS hits record low, but public still back founding principles - The BMJ

In this episode, Dr Katie Bramall, Chair of the BMA’s General Practitioners Committee, joins the podcast to discuss her concerns surrounding the new GP contract imposed by the UK government.

GP contract overhaul: What's included and how has it been received?

Helen Salisbury: Another imposed GP contract

As public health officials warn about rising emissions from urban wood burning, a BMJ investigation finds that just under a third of UK councils in high use areas have faced pressure from the stove industry to tone down or withdraw campaigns.

Almost a third of UK children live in poverty. Leading expert Michael Marmot weighs in on the UK’s "steepest rise" in child poverty among OECD countries and why local government "Marmot Cities" like Coventry and Manchester are taking the lead where national policy falls short.

And, a new BMJ collection has just been published on child mental health in conflict zones. 1 in 5 children globally live in conflict zones, creating a staggering mental health toll. We hear about community-led interventions.

 

Reading list:

• The growing threat of domestic wood burning stoves—and industry’s legal attempts to shut down clean air campaigns
• Michael Marmot: Labour has reneged on its child poverty promises
• Child mental health in conflict settings

In this episode, we investigate the alarming resurgence of measles across North America and the UK. While cases are falling across much of Europe and Asia, North America is seeing explosive outbreaks fueled by vaccine hesitancy and political shifts. We break down the 2026 crisis: Why London is the epicenter and how the UK lost its "Measles Elimination Status". An in-depth look at outbreaks in Ontario, Alberta, Texas, and Mexico. How returning travelers—not migrants—are actually driving the spread. The impact of "shared clinical decision-making" and current US health leadership on vaccine access.

Kamran Abbasi is joined by:

Angela Rasmussen - Virologist, University of Saskatchewan.

Azeem Majeed - Professor of Primary Care and Public Health, Imperial College London.

In this week’s episode, we challenge long-held medical narratives, starting with how the healthcare system manages life after a cancer diagnosis. While medical advancements mean more people are surviving cancer than ever before, many patients report a "cliff-edge" experience where coordinated care effectively vanishes once primary treatment ends. We are joined by Dr. Rosalind Adam, an Academic GP at the University of Aberdeen, who argues that it is time to stop viewing cancer as a discrete, one-off episode and instead integrate it into routine chronic disease management. 

Next, we dive into a landmark study from Sweden that is overturning the conventional notion of autism as a predominantly male condition. Historically, autism has been cited as having a 4:1 male-to-female ratio, but new data suggests this gap may be a byproduct of timing rather than biology. We speak with Dr. Caroline Fyfe, a medical epidemiologist at the University of Edinburgh, and Dr. Natasha Marrus, a child psychiatrist at Washington University in St. Louis. They discuss their analysis of 2.7 million individuals, which revealed a significant female catch-up during adolescence, showing that by age 20, the diagnosis ratio approaches 1:1. The team explores why girls are so often missed in childhood and what this shift means for the future of sex-sensitive diagnostic practices.

Reading List

For more details on the research discussed in this episode, you can access the full papers on bmj.com:

• Cancer is a chronic disease: why don’t we treat it as one? Adam R, Hogg DR, Ritchie LD, Nekhlyudov L. BMJ 2026;392:e086624.
• Time trends in the male to female ratio for autism incidence: population based, prospectively collected, birth cohort study. Fyfe C, et al. BMJ 2026;392:e084164.

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The House of Lord's amendments to England and Wales assisted dying bill might be causing a constitutional crisis. Lords have tabled 1,277 amendments—which is a record for any equivalent bill in history - and over half of those came from just seven peers.

This has led to accusations of "delaying tactics" or "filibustering" to run down the clock deliberately and run this bill off the road. Although some of these amendments have been described as unworkable, repetitious and unnecessary; others reflect serious, legitimate concerns, around the prevention of coercion, how to identify victims of domestic abuse and the broader impact on the disabled community, and whether it’s wise to introduce assisted dying while palliative and social care services are so stretched.

300 territories around the world, allow physician assisted death - so we asked experts from Canada and California to reflect on those objections, and if there is any evidence of this issues arising where they live.

James Downer is Professor and Head of the Division of Palliative Care at the University of Ottawa, and Catherine Forest is clinical associate professor of family medicine at the University of California San Francisco.

 

Reading list:

Scrutiny of the assisted dying bill is vital but obstruction in the House of Lords could mean it never becomes law

Deborah Cohen's new book "How the internet hijacked our health" explores the profound impact of the internet on our wellbeing.

In this conversation with BMJ Editor, Kamran Abbasi, they discuss the ways in which online information can both empower and mislead, the role of big tech in shaping our wellbeing and the complex and disturbing ways wellness influencers are becoming more trusted than the NHS.

With insights drawn from extensive research and a deep understanding of the digital landscape, Deborah Cohen sheds light on the critical issues at the intersection of technology and healthcare, and challenges anyone who consumes health information online to think differently about what they're doing.

We’re 18 months into the Labour government, and their changes to the NHS are beginning to be felt. In the 10 year plan that they launched last year, they announced three planned shifts for the health service. 

Firstly, they pledge to move care from hospitals to the community, an increased focus on prevention rather than sickness, and shift from analogue to digital with an improved NHS app where patients can access records, seek advice and control some aspects of their care. However, accessing primary care and getting a GP appointment is still a key area of concern for patients and healthcare staff. 

In a new research paper on bmj.com, a group of researchers have performed a qualitative study asking 70 patients about their experiences of accessing primary care in England. We're joined by Hugh Alderwick and Luisa Petigrew from the Health Foundation to discuss what the findings mean for the 10 year plan.

Also this week, online gambling is a growing problem. The immediacy of access, combined with advertising and push notifications, and a proliferation of new gambling companies, undermines traditional ways of managing a gambling addiction.

A new analysis argues that these new forms of online gambling requires new forms of regulation. Spencer Murch from the University of Calgery offers some ideas on how that could work.

 

Reading list

Experience of access to general practice in England

Policies to increase access to general practice may have unintended consequences

Online gambling requires greater government regulation

This interview is available in video form: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yNO47EfuEM

​‪ @RichardJMurphy‬, political economist and tax campaigner, joins Kamran Abbasi, Editor in Chief of The BMJ.

In the UK an ongoing dispute between resident doctors and the Labour Government saw doctors go on strike in mid-December. With Winter pressure piling on and cost-of-living on the rise, do doctors have a credible case of pay rises? And more broadly, how can the economic situation of the NHS be improved?

00:00 Introduction 01:30 Doctor Pay Claims 04:33 Inflation Measures 07:29 Affordability Crisis 09:48 Market Forces Arguments 12:52 NHS Affordability 15:00 Youth Unemployment 19:14 Political Priorities 23:10 Neoliberal Capitalism 27:35 Mixed Economy Alternative 32:32 Prescription for NHS

The class of GLP-1 agonist drugs including Ozempic gained a wide reputation for weight loss in 2025. However, it's well established that weight regain is a common result after people stop their doses. We report on new research which aims to quantify what is happening in the here-and-now for patients who stop using these and similar drugs.

Weight regain after cessation of medication for weight management: systematic review and meta-analysis 

 

Also, The BMJ reports on news from Gaza. The Israeli government has issued new directives to strip 37 NGOs of their licences to provide essential aid to the population. This includes Médecins Sans Frontières, the charity directly supporting many of the critically important hospitals in the territory. Gaza is experiencing an especially harsh Winter and MSF warn that this measure could leave Palestinians without lifesaving medical care.

Gaza: Israel moves to ban dozens of aid groups in "cynical and calculated" move  Gaza in winter: 29 day old baby dies of hypothermia amid dire conditions

 

The BMJ’s annual appeal is supporting the work of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). Around the world, MSF teams are providing maternity care, containing outbreaks, and performing vital surgeries. In areas overwhelmed by conflicts and natural disasters, more lives can be saved when we are in the right place at the right time.

Donate today at https://msf.org.uk/bmj-annual-appeal-2025

This episode is available in video form on YouTube: https://youtu.be/1cGrD47eZSk  American science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson joins Kamran Abbasi to discuss climate disaster, the need for political imagination, and science fiction's vision for health.

Kim Stanley Robinson is the acclaimed author of a trilogy of novels, exploring the terraforming and settlement of Mars. His most recent novel, 'Ministry for the Future', was published in 2020.

'Ministry for the Future' sets out a vision for real solutions to our climate crisis, covering global finance, the animal kingdom, rising sea levels, energy production and much more. The book imagines a Ministry that begins its work in 2025.

Five years after publication, with 2025 past and gone, The BMJ spoke to Robinson to explore how closely the novel's vision for the future has reflected reality.

01:00 BMJ's New Climate Change Initiative 01:21 Kim Stanley Robinson's Ministry for the Future 04:02 The Role of Political Violence in Climate Action 10:50 The Concept of the Carbon Coin 12:51 The Importance of Global Collaboration 27:32 The Role of Medicine in Climate Change 32:33 Youth and Climate Activism 37:53 Hope and Despair in Climate Action 41:29 Conclusion and Future Works

Read more about The BMJ's climate coverage in the latest issue: https://www.bmj.com/content/392/8479

It’s time for 2025’s festive fun!

Practicing medicine can be a very visceral experience - and the English language can’t always adequately capture the sights, sounds, smells. So Matt Morgan, intensivist and BMJ columnist, is creating medical neologisms, and joins us to share a few.

Madhvi Joshi, a GP in London, has written about longevity science, and we hear how the “biohacking” of internet influencers like Bryan Johnson is making its way into the consultation.

Navjoyt Ladher and Tim Feeny take us though this year’s festive research, and are joined by Anupam Bapu Jena from Harvard, who has been looking at self censorship in the time of Trump, and Melanie de Lange, from the university of Bristol, who has been investigating the impact of daylight savings time.

Reading list:

A dictionary for medicine’s unnamed moments https://www.bmj.com/content/391/bmj.r2476

Science of longevity medicine  https://www.bmj.com/content/391/bmj.r2536 

Changes in diversity language in National Institutes of Health grant awards https://www.bmj.com/content/391/bmj-2025-087222 

Acute effects of daylight saving time clock changes on mental and physical health in England https://www.bmj.com/content/391/bmj-2025-085962 

In this episode, we hear how Generative AI is making it into the consultation room - but not through NHS endorsed routes - surveys suggest that ⅔ of doctors are using AI, for backoffice tasks - but also increasingly for information and diagnosis.

 

David Navarro, a research fellow in generative AI at the Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Charlotte Blease, associate professor at the Participatory eHealth and Health Data Research Group at Uppsala University, and Marcus Lewis, GP in London, reflect on what we know about the real way in gen AI is being used - and what “triadic care” (doctor, patient and AI) will mean for the future of the therapeutic relationship.

 

We also hear from Teppo Järvinen, professor of orthopaedic surgery at Helsinki University, about surgical subacromial decompression - a 10 year follow up of a double blinded placebo controlled trial, confirms that surgery is no more effective than standard care. Yet surgical interventions continue - we hear why.

 

Finally, we go to a Cholera clinic in Nigeria, where Médecins Sans Frontières are running cholera treatment centres, which you can help by donating to our Christmas appeal.

 

Links

Generative AI and the clinical encounter

 

The BMJ appeal 2025-26: Inside MSF’s response to cholera in Nigeria: a day in the life of an emergency doctor

 

Arthroscopic subacromial decompression versus placebo surgery for subacromial pain syndrome

There is an enormous amount of research on treatment for ADHD - pharmaceutical and otherwise. But not all of those trials, or meta-analyses, are of high quality; and not many compare the whole literature. 

Now a new umbrella review - a review of reviews - tries to give a broad overview of the whole evidence base. Corentin Gosling, associate professor at the Université Paris Nanterre, joins us to set out the benefits and harms of ADHD therapies.

 

Also, the BMJ’s been investigating the employment of doctors on “local” contracts in the NHS - and our latest look at this exposes what some have described as a “gig economy”, with doctors plugging rota gaps but missing out on training, development, and salary progression. Rebecca Coombes, head of journalism at The BMJ explains more.

 

Finally, Tom Frieden is former head of the US Centers for Disease Control, and current CEO of Resolve to Save Lives - he’s written a new book on public health. He joins us to talk about what actually improves health at a population level, and why the current US administration’s approach to staffing the CDC is leaving the country open to danger.

 

Reading list

Benefits and harms of ADHD interventions: umbrella review and platform for shared decision making

Revealed: Thousands of NHS doctors are trapped in insecure “gig economy” contracts

 

 

"Damning” and “unforgivable failures” is how some papers headlines reacted to criticism of former UK prime minister Boris Johnson in the second of 10 reports from the UK Covid Inquiry.

Under pressure, in 2001 Boris Johnson announced a covid inquiry led by a former judge, Baroness Hallett. Each report is examining a different area of the pandemic's impact, and module 2 is about decision making and political governance.

The report describes inertia, toxic cultures, and an inability to learn lessons - disfunction that contributed to many extra deaths. 

To dissect the report and discuss what needs to change, we're joined by;

• Rebecca Coombes - The BMJ’s head of journalism
• Kevin Fong - anaesthetist and lead for major incident planning at University College Hospital
• Matthew Flinders - Professor of Politics and Public Policy at the University of Sheffield

 

It’s the BMJ’s annual climate issue - and in this episode, we’ll be hearing about more ways in which climate mitigation is good for health.

 

Firstly, climate change is fuelling conflict, and exacerbating the impact it has on fragile healthcare systems. Andy Haines, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and Barbora Sedova, from Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, discuss how climate and conflict intersect, and what they think needs to be done to combat it.

 

“Car spreading”, the recent tendency for cars to become bigger and heavier is not only harming the climate, but it’s also harming pedestrians.  Anthony Laverty, associate professor of public health at Imperial College London, and trauma surgeon Cleo Kenington explain why SUVs are more lethal in accidents, and why France is bucking the trend in sales.

 

Finally, Jocalyn Clark, the BMJ’s international editor joins us to talk about women’s health innovation and why tech bros aren’t the people to be leading it.

 

Reading list:

 

The climate issue: Brazil and the climate crisis

 

Tackling the complex links between climate change, conflict, and health

 

Reducing the harms from ever larger cars

 

Transforming women’s health through innovation