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This week
What's the problem with evaluating surgical techniques? How are British libel laws threatening scientific debate? How should extremely premature babies be managed? To find out more about this week's BMJ print issue, read Fiona Godlee's editor's choice, Keep libel laws out of science , and the print issue contents. All articles have already appeared on bmj.com as part of our continuous publication policy.
Podcast
Doctors on the fringe
It's the time of year when professional comics and student drama groups start worrying about their Edinburgh Festival act. Doctors have long been stalwarts of the circuit, and this week we caught rising stars the medico-comedy duo Amateur Transplants between rehearsals to ask them about balancing comedy and medicine. Rebecca Coombes chats to veteran of the stage Phil Hammond about his career. Also, Tom Nolan joins us to talk about the latest on swine flu and Annabel Ferriman takes us through this week's news.
Research
Overdiagnosis in publicly organised mammography screening programmes
In populations offered organised screening for breast cancer, overdiagnosis (the detection of cancers that do not cause death or symptoms) was 52%, which equates to one in three breast cancers being overdiagnosed, according to this systematic review of incidence trends. The accompanying editorial confirms that the question is no longer whether, but how often overdiagnosis occurs.
Research
Filaggrin gene defects and risk of developing allergic sensitisation and allergic disorders
This systematic review and meta-analysis found that filaggrin gene defects increase the risk of developing allergic sensitisation, atopic eczema, and allergic rhinitis. Restoring skin barrier function in filaggrin deficient people in early life may help prevent the development of sensitisation and halt the development and progression of allergic disease.The accompanying editorial says that distinguishing different genotypes of allergy will be a major step forward, and it could revolutionise the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of allergy in children.
News
US National Institutes of Health issue guidelines on stem cells
The US National Institutes of Health have released rules about the use of embryonic stem cell lines in research funded by the institutes. This follows Barack Obama’s decision in March to remove the ban introduced by the previous US president, George Bush, on using federal funds to support embryonic stem cell research.
Research
Effect of unsupervised home based proprioceptive training on recurrences of ankle sprain
A simple training programme, based on a series of balancing exercises, can cut the risk of recurrent ankle sprains by 35% in athletes who have sustained an acute sports related injury to the lateral ankle ligament and could lead to huge savings in medical and lost productivity costs, according to this randomised controlled trial from the Netherlands.
Comment
Libel law in the UK
Researchers, funders, editors, and publishers, have to be cautious as they are increasingly being exposed to the risk of legal action by disgruntled manufacturers or interest groups. In this editorial, Harvey Marcovitch argues that scientific disputes should take place in the pages of journals, not in court.
Also published on 9 July:
Education
The role of specialists in managing the health of populations with chronic illness: the example of chronic kidney disease
Turning the traditional referral system on its head by providing unsolicited, risk driven nephrology consultations is an effective strategy for increasing the quality of medical management of patients with chronic kidney disease in the primary care setting and improving the cost effective use of nephrology services. This approach may be broadly applicable to other specialty areas, say nephrologist Brian J Lee and care management analyst Ken Forbes in this quality improvement report from US healthcare delivery system Kaiser Permanente Hawaii.
Also published on 8 July:
Student BMJ
What's new for medical students?
How can you use the internet to stay up to date with medical developments? This month the Student BMJ shows you how to get the most out of webfeeds, podcasts, and social bookmarking. Other recent articles include a student's account of living with obsessive-compulsive disorder and why all medical students need to act on climate change . Have a look and let us know what you think.
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Blog
Daily swine flu update
Tom Nolan is the clinical community editor of doc2doc, the BMJ's professional networking community, and a trainee GP. In his new swine flu blog, he provides updates and insights into the situation as it evolves.
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