A theme issue for medics and an increasingly health informed public

BMJ moves towards a more patient-friendly publication

What might it be like to practise medicine in 10 years' time—and how best should a medical journal reflect that? We have been wondering what the BMJmight look like by 2013—not just whether it will still appear in print or only on the web, but whether it should still be aimed primarily at doctors. Perhaps it should appeal to the new and growing audience of well informed patients—and, indeed, an increasingly health-savvy general public as well? We are planning an experiment in our issue of the journal next June which will aim for the first time to appeal to a wider audience than just the medical profession.

This is not a gimmick: it is born out of a conviction that the interaction between the public and the medical profession will change markedly in the …