As we approach a new year, Marc Wortmann, Executive Director of Alzheimer’s Disease International, outlines the World Health Organization’s comprehensive Global Action Plan for tackling dementia, and explains why this plan is so important for the future of dementia care and research.
A research article recently published in the journal Advances in Simulation, describes a simulation game called ‘hand-it-on’ that can be used to spark discussions on how non-technical skills can influence the work processes in healthcare. Here, author of the article, Peter Dieckmann, tells us how the game works and discusses its uses and benefits.
A recent article collection in BMC Medicine titled ‘Clinical insights into the human microbiome’ explores the most recent and exciting findings on how the microbiome shapes physiological responses and affects treatment. Here, Omry Koren, Guest Editor of the collection and Silvio Pitlik take a look at the history of clinical microbiology as well as the delay in the adoption of microbiome data into the mainstream of clinical practice.
Multicentre randomized trials are complex projects and the need for a formal check to ensure its progressing how you would hope, generally known as an ‘internal pilot’, is becoming more common. However, an article published today in Pilot and Feasibility Studies questions this terminology and here, lead author Jonathan Cook answers questions on why they raised these concerns and how they hope the community might respond.
In a recent study published in BMC Medicine, we set out to explore the way that decisions are made surrounding infection management. We report a study to map the decision making process of medical physicians in secondary care for acute infection management and investigate factors which may hinder or facilitate the effective use of antibiotics.
Published today in Research Involvement and Engagement, a new study looks at patients’ motivations and interests in research and asks why they aren’t being involved in every stage of the research process. Here, the authors discuss their findings, sharing responses from patients and presenting ideas on how to get patients more involved.
A wait-list controlled trial published today in BMC Medicine provides the evidence for use of volunteer support intervention in palliative care. Here, author Catherine Walshe discusses the key challenges encountered at the design and recruitment phases of the trial. Please be aware that some of the references in this blog require a subscription to read the full text.
The ISRCTN registry was invited to present findings on improving outcome measures listed in clinical trial records at this years COMET VI meeting in Amsterdam. Here, Alison Cuff discusses what she learned about the exciting research in this area and possible future developments.
Published today in BMC Medicine, a new meta-analysis examines the evidence on the association between magnesium intake and the risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and all-cause mortality. Using data from more than a million people across nine countries it is the largest study of its kind to date. Here lead author Dr. Fudi Wang tells us more.
BMC Medicine recently attended the American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) 2016 meeting in Atlanta. Here we present some of the highlights of the conference, including exciting new developments and important challenges in the field of tropical medicine.