MADRID, Spain (AP): Rafael Nadal says Novak Djokovic will need to be vaccinated to keep playing if the governing bodies of tennis make coronavirus shots obligatory once they become available. Nadal told the Spanish newspaper La Voz de Galicia this...

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC): Former Windies fast bowler Kenny Benjamin says that cricket in the Caribbean is suffering from players’ lack of loyalty and commitment and that intervention is required to save the sport. The Antiguan called for coaches...

Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) general secretary Dalton Wint says that any potential changes to the Concacaf hexagonal round for the FIFA World Cup qualifiers could present challenges to the nation’s aim of qualifying for Qatar 2022. Wint’s...

The UK’s austerity programme has disproportionately affected children and people with disabilities, says David Taylor-Robinson, a senior clinical lecturer in public health at the University of Liverpool. He joins us to discuss why the evidence shows the vulnerable are hit hardest by the cuts to public services, despite the UN conventions on...

One hundred years ago, Pennsylvanian surgeon Evan Kane penned a brief letter to JAMA in which he declared himself a rigorous proponent of the “benefic [sic] effects of the phonograph within the operating room.” Now David Bosenquet, a surgeon from University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff has written a Christmas editorial about the evidence for the...

Waiting times in theatre can be a source of friction – but is the delay due to mandatory anaesthetic faff around time (MAFAT), or AWOL surgeons? Elizabeth Travis, and orthopaedic house officer in New Zealand and colleagues, have been trying to create and evidence base to argue the toss, and she joins me now to discuss her study, Operating...

Until recently, hepatitis C screening was offered to people at increased risk of infection - such as intravenous drug users - but now, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended screening all people born between 1945 and 1965. Kenny Lin, associate professor of family medicine at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, and...

Rabies is the archytypical zoonotic disease, and only by vaccination in animals will we prevent infections in people. In two podcasts linked to our latest clinical review "The prevention and management of rabies"​ we'll be discussing how we can get there. In this podcast Sarah Cleaveland, professor of comparative epidemiology at the University of...

Multimorbidity presents a number of different challenges, for the patients living with the conditions, but also for the health professionals caring for them in systems that often are not designed with these more complex needs in mind. Emma Wallace, general practice lecturer, and Susan Smith, a professor of general practice at the Royal College of...

Bone pain is the most common type of pain from cancer and is present in around one third of patients with bone metastases, currently, improvements in cancer treatments mean that many patients are living with metastatic cancer for several years. Christopher Kane, NIHR academic clinical fellow in palliative medicine at Leeds University School of...

Karen Grépin, assistant professor of global health policy at New York University, has been examining the pledges made by the international community to help fight the ebola virus outbreak - was it really too little, too late? Read her full analysis: http://www.bmj.com/content/350/bmj.h376

In our accompanying roundtable discussion,we hear views from a group of patients and clinicians based largely in the UK on the actions required  to advance  progress towards providing patient centred care. To extend the conversation we talked to members of the BMJ's international patient advisory panel and other patient advocates - and what...

Participants in our discussion on person centred care in January agreed that a change in culture and better use of technology could benefit both patients and doctors. At the roundtable: Fiona Godlee (chair), editor in chief, The BMJ Tessa Richards, senior editor, patient partnership, The BMJ Rosamund Snow, patient editor, The BMJ Navjoyt Ladher,...

Michelle Sinclar, a GP in Hampshire who is concerned that GP premises aren't fit for purpose and limit her ability to provide fully rounded patient care. BMJ Voices is a collection of readers’ experiences of working in the NHS. For this, The BMJ is seeking short audio submissions from UK listeners. These submissions will be published on...

Jackie Applebee is a GP in Tower Hamlets in London, and is concerned that the way the GP funding formula is working doesn't take account of the earlier health needs of people in deprived areas. For more about the Tower Hamlets Save Our Surgery campaign, visit their facebook page https://www.facebook.com/SaveOurGPsurgeries BMJ Voices is a...

In this podcast Alexandra Barratt, professor of public health at the University of Sydney, discusses how questions about overdiagnosis in breast cancer screening programmes were first raised 45 years ago, and why it has taken so long for the concept to become mainstream. Read her full analysis: http://www.bmj.com/content/350/bmj.h867

Bastiaan Bloem, consultant neurologist at Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Netherlands, discussing his revolutionary approach to patient centred care. Read more from the summit: http://www.bmj.com/content/350/bmj.h1172

Abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) are usually asymptomatic until they rupture, which is fatal in more than 80% of cases. Screening aims to detect the aneurysm before it ruptures, enabling preventive surgery and hence reducing morbidity and mortality. However, preventive surgery has a mortality of 3.9-4.5%. As the prevalence of risk factors, ie...

BMJ Voices is a collection of readers’ experiences of working in the NHS. For this, The BMJ is seeking short audio submissions from UK listeners. These submissions will be published on thebmj.com. Patrick Keating, a GP from Enfield, is concerned that small practices are under pressure to increase list size, but aren't able to muster resources to...

Katherine Henderson is the clinical lead of the emergency department at St Thomas's hospital in London. She worries that lack of ward space is having a domino effect throughout A and E and is the cause of increased waiting time for both patients and ambulances. If you would like to contribute to this collection, please email a brief audio...

In the US the licence, or marketing authorisation, for alteplase is limited to 0-3 hours after onset of stroke, but some other countries - including the UK and Australia - have extended the licence to 4.5 hours. In an analysis article on thebmj.com Brian Alper, vice president of evidence based medicine research and development at Dynamed, and...

The movement to make data from clinical trials widely accessible has achieved enormous success, and it is now time for medical journals to play their part. From 1 July The BMJ will extend its requirements for data sharing to apply to all submitted clinical trials, not just those that test drugs or devices. The BMJ's Elizabeth Loder explains what...

Cervical screening programmes in many countries stop at around the age of 65 and much of the focus is often on younger women. However, comparatively little attention has been given to older women despite the fact that they account for about a fifth of cases each year and half of deaths. In this podcast Susan Sherman, a senior lecturer in...

The National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death (NCEPOD) has been examining the treatment of acute GI bleeds in England's NHS. Two of the authors, Martin Sinclair, consultant surgeon, and Simon McPherson, consultant vascular radiologist, join us to talk about their findings. Read the full...

For decades research has shown that discrimination, harassment, and exclusion are pervasive experiences for staff from black and minority ethnic (BME) backgrounds in the National Health Service. In this podcast, the authors of a recent analysis article in The BMJ talk about the evidence for discrimination, what the NHS has done and is doing, and...

Pleural effusions are common, with an estimated 1-1.5 million new cases in the United States and 200 000-250 000 in the United Kingdom each year. Rahul Bhatnagar, academic clinical lecturer at the University of Bristol, describes how pleural effusions may be investigated and treated in the community and secondary care, with a particular focus on...

They have a big impact on the diet of American citizens, and those of most Western nations, so why does the expert advice underpinning US government dietary guidelines not take account of all the relevant scientific evidence asks Nina Teicholz. Read the full investigation: http://www.bmj.com/content/351/bmj.h4962

Europe's common agricultural policy (CAP) on sugar is due to change, and Emilie Aguirre, from the UKCRC Centre for Diet and Activity Research at the University of Cambridge, argues that an influx of cheap high fructose corn syrup (HFCS, isoglucose) into the European market will have a negative effect on on the health of the continent. Read the...

Medicine has long been a rewarding career, but doctors say the profession needs to overcome the frustrations of working in the NHS to ensure it remains so. During the Big Debate at BMJ Live in London last week six speakers argued for and against the motion, “This house believes that medicine is the best career in the world.” After presentations...

When healthy volunteers are scanned as part of a research project, unexpected findings, with uncertain implications, can be thrown up. Joanna Wardlaw, professor of applied neuroimaging and honorary consultant neuroradiologist at the University of Edinburgh, joins us to discuss how her group deals with these incidental findings, and what...

In the podcast, we’ll hear from Kevin Hines the survivor of such an attempt, and Alys Cole-King, a psychiatrist who wants to break down the stigma of suicide. Originally broadcast in 2010 For more on suicide risk assessment and prevention, read our latest clinical review: http://www.bmj.com/content/351/bmj.h4978

The UK Parliament's Health Select Committee's recent report on childhood obesity says 1 in 5 children are obese by the time they leave school. The committee calls for legislation to turn the tide by taxing sugary drinks, a pre-watershed ban on junk food advertising, and investment in public health. We joined Sarah Wollaston, conservative MP for...

Francesca Conway, from the Department of Primary Care and Public Health at Imperial College London is co-author of an article on diagnosis of COPD. She joins us to discuss the major guideline recommendations, and highlights where they concur and where they differ. Read the full article: http://www.bmj.com/content/351/bmj.h6171

The claim that cancer screening saves lives is based on fewer deaths due to the target cancer. Vinay Prasad, assistant professor at Oregon Health and Science University, joins us to argue that reductions in overall mortality should be the benchmark and call for higher standards of evidence for cancer screening. Read the full...

Around half of people aged over 75 meet the diagnostic criteria for chronic kidney disease (CKD), but there is debate about what this means for patients as only a proportion of elderly people with CKD will have clinically important outcomes as a result. In this podcast, Dr Arif Khwaja argues that for CKD in the elderly, we should focus on...

James Smoliga, from High Point University, North Carolina, and Ken Rundell, from The Commonwealth Medical College, Pennsylvania, join us to discuss how to test for, and manage, exercise induced bronchoconstriction, and particularly how to distinguish it from other respiratory conditions. Read the full review at...

Iqbal Malik, consultant cardiologist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in London, joins Mabel Chew to discuss the role of angioplasty and stenting in patients with stable angina. Read the full article online: http://www.bmj.com/content/352/bmj.i205

This week, junior doctors in England have taken industrial action for the second time in as many months after failing to reach agreement with the government over their proposed new contract. Tom Moberley and Abi Rimmer, from BMJ Careers, went to the picket lines at Northwick Park Hospital, and University Hospital Lewisham to talk to the doctors,...

How should health professionals engage with this increasingly popular but unproved practice? Aubrey Cunnington, a consultant paediatrician from Imperial College London joins us to discuss. Read the full editorial: http://www.bmj.com/content/352/bmj.i227

“Juliet”, a woman living in London, was diagnosed with a mysterious illness in November 2015, Ian Cropley, a consultant in infectious disease from The Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, was there to investigate. In this podcast, we find out how Zika, once a little known virus causing a rash and fever, has subsequently become a global health...

As the junior doctors in England strike, concerns for the workforce are foremost in the minds of those running the NHS. A summary is available here: http://www.bmj.com/content/352/bmj.i1510 In The BMJ roundtable, recorded at the Nuffield Trust Health Policy Summit on Friday 4 March 2016, we asked our participants if they think the NHS is in...

Gareth Iacobucci talks to Candace Imison, director of policy at The Nuffield Trust, about the problems facing GPs, and how primary care could be changed. "5 minutes with... Candace Imison": http://www.bmj.com/content/352/bmj.i1378

However well intentioned, working in detention centres amounts to complicity in torture, says David Berger, a district medical officer in emergency medicine at Broome Hospital in Australia. However, Steven Miles, chair in bioethics at the University of Minnesota thinks that they play an important role in telling the world about conditions in...

As France has moved in recent weeks to clear camps where migrants stay while trying to cross illegally into Britain, Médecins Sans Frontières has just opened a new one. Sophie Arie talks to Caroline Gollé, medical coordinator at the Médecins Sans Frontières​ La Linière camp​. Read more about the camp: http://www.bmj.com/content/352/bmj.i1696

James Barrett, president of the British Association of Gender Identity Specialists, and Nina, a trans woman, join us to discuss how difficult it can be for trans people to access gender clinics, and what barriers are faced by the community after their transition has been completed. Read James Barrett's personal...

In February World Health Organization (WHO) declared the microcephaly epidemic in South America an international public health emergency. Today, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the CDC, has confirmed that it’s is Zika virus which is causing that microcephaly.  The outbreak was originally spotted in Recife, in Brazil, and it’s...

Medical error is not included on death certificates or in rankings of cause of death. Martin Makary, professor of surgery at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, joins us to explain why we don't measure medical error, and why it is so important that we start. Read the full analysis: http://www.bmj.com/content/353/bmj.i2139

Providing information to enable informed choices about healthcare sounds immediately appealing to most of us. But Minna Johansson, GP trainee and PhD student at the University of Gothenburg, argues that preventive medicine and expanding disease definitions have changed the ethical premises of informed choice and our good intentions may...

Global evidence indicates that mandated treatment of drug dependence conflicts with drug users’ human rights and is not effective in treating addiction. Karsten Lunze, associate professor at the Boston University School of Medicine, joins us to describe the evidence, and why he is convinced seemingly counter intuitive hard reduction...

Delirium is common in the last weeks or days of life. It can be distressing for patients and those around them. A clinical update explains why successful management involves excluding reversible causes of delirium and balancing drugs that may provoke or maintain delirium while appreciating that most patients want to retain clear cognition at the...