Richard Smith: Hope is hazardous
None of us knows how we will respond when we are given the diagnosis of a life-limiting illness, just as young men in the First World War did not know how they would respond when commanded to go “over...
View ArticleTime to assume that health research is fraudulent until proven otherwise?
Health research is based on trust. Health professionals and journal editors reading the results of a clinical trial assume that the trial happened and that the results were honestly reported. But about...
View ArticleThe opioid crisis, the Sacklers, and the role played by doctors
Richard Smith reviews Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty and concludes that the US opioid epidemic could not have happened without doctors and the whole medical establishment...
View ArticleRichard Smith: The role of digital health in keeping health systems...
To survive and prosper long term, health systems must be financially, socially, and environmentally sustainable. All health systems face a challenge in being sustainable in that costs rise ahead of...
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Richard Smith: What is a life worth?
“What is a life worth?” is a question that nobody can answer and should perhaps remain unanswered. But there are circumstances in which it is in everybody’s interest to give an answer, not an answer in...
View ArticleRichard Smith: COP26 needs to happen in-person but must be as safe as possible
Holding a global in-person meeting like COP26, the annual UN meeting on climate change due to be held in Glasgow in November, is a major challenge in the middle of a pandemic. But, as things currently...
View ArticleRichard Smith: What’s it like to have dementia?
Having watched our mother lose her memory over a dozen years to the point where she doesn’t know who we are, my brothers and I wonder what goes on in her head. What’s it like to have dementia? We can...
View ArticleAcademic medicine and publishing from developing countries
Samiran Nundy, Atul Kakar, and Zulfi Bhutta have published a book titled How to Practice Academic Medicine and Publish from Developing Countries? A Practical Guide. It’s a book that will be extremely...
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Richard Smith: An old man attempts day one of the Ride for Their Lives
When I leave Clapham soon after dawn to join the Ride For Their Lives, I’m not entirely sure where I’m going, although I know it’s “at the back of King’s Cross.” I have two worries: one that I’m going...
View Article“I head to Glasgow an optimist,” John Kerry tells students at LSE
In an inspiring speech to students at the London School of Economics (LSE), John Kerry, United States special presidential envoy for climate, spelt out the urgency of tackling climate change—“the...
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