Medicine and Science from The BMJ

If you’ve been in a high street pharmacy or supermarket recently, chances are you’ll have seen home test kits for all sorts of indications; blood sugar level, vitamin deficiencies, thyroid function, and even some forms of cancer. A new series of article in The BMJ revealing serious concerns with the reliability of these home tests, and raises questions about their regulation. Jonathan Deeks, professor of Biostatistics at the University of Birmingham, joins us to discuss what these tests are, and how his team have rated their usability. Also this week, the sad death of a child in Liverpool from measles highlights the growing outbreak in the UK - and this may be one of the first times many doctors have come across the infection. Frances Dutton, GP at the Small Heath Medical Practice reminds us how to recognise the sign of the infection.   Reading list Direct-to-consumer self-tests sold in the UK in 2023 [https://www.bmj.com/content/390/bmj-2025-085547] How to recognise and manage measles [https://www.bmj.com/content/388/bmj-2024-079895]

Professor Gillian Leng, President of the Royal Society of Medicine was asked to carry out an independent review into the role of physician and anaesthetic associates. She sits down with Kamran Abbasi, editor in chief of The BMJ, to discuss her findings. In the UK, the rollout of physician associates, NHS staff who took on some of the tasks of doctors, has been both haphazard and controversial. Originally copied from similar roles in the U.S., British PAs were introduced in the early 2000s. The level of clinical responsibility they were asked to take on began to vary around the country, driven mostly by the workforce needs of individual Trusts. The lack of clarity about their roles lead to disquiet with doctors, worry for patients, and an increasingly toxic debate on social media. * 01.00 What is the Leng Review? * 10:00 Recommendation one: Renaming * 14:00 Recommendation two: Easier identification * 16:00 Recommendation three: How to work? * 20:00 Recommendation four: Diagnosis * 25:00 Recommendation five: Oversight & Regulation * 32:00 Prescribing and ordering ionizing radiation? * 40:00 A failure of workforce planning and vision ? * 49:00 The NHS 10 year plan

This week we’re focusing on the NHS. On the 3rd of July the UK’s Prime Minister, Kier Starmer finally announced the NHS’ 10 year plan. His Labour government laid out a vision for where the healthcare service should head over the next decade. The announcement has been met with mixed responses. The plan has some good ideas - but a lack of vision combined with scarcity of detail leave many questions about how well its aims can be implemented. In this podcast we're joined by 3 experts to dissect the details of this plan * Jennifer Dixon is chief executive of the Health Foundation * Katie Bramhall-Stainer is a working GP, and chairs the BMA’s General Practice committee. * David Oliver is a consultant geriatrician, and a columnist for the BMJ Reading list News analysis: What is the NHS 10 year plan promising and how will it be delivered? [https://www.bmj.com/content/390/bmj.r1405] Editorial: Government’s 10 year plan for the NHS in England [https://www.bmj.com/content/390/bmj.r1396#:~:text=The%20plan%20fleshes%20out%20the,physiotherapists%2C%20care%20workers%2C%20and%20social] David Oliver's column: The NHS 10 year plan—more a set of ambitions than a plan [https://www.bmj.com/content/390/bmj.r1398.full]

Rebecca Coombes interviews Dr. Tom Dolphin, consultant anaesthetist and newly elected chair of the BMA Council. Watch this interview on our YouTube. [https://youtu.be/zSeWEwWXC1Q]

Last December, The BMJ published an investigation into the 2009 PLATO trial - exposing serious problems with that study’s data analysis and reporting.  Our follow up investigation has shown that those data problems extend to other key supporting evidence in AstraZeneca’s initial application to regulators. Peter Doshi, senior editor in the BMJ’s Investigations unit, and Rita Redberg, cardiologist and Professor of Medicine at UCSF and former editor of JAMA Internal Medicine, join us to explain what this means for scientific integrity, and trust in the FDA's approval processes.   Also in this episode. A group of international authors are arguing that weightloss advice given in primary care might actually be doing more harm than good - it’s ineffective and potentially reinforces damaging stigma.  To explain why they came to that conclusion we're joined by Juan Franco editor in chief of BMJ EBM, and a practicing GP in Germany, and Emma Grundtvig Gram, from the Centre for General Practice at the University of Copenhagen Reading list Doubts over landmark heart drug trial: ticagrelor PLATO study [https://www.bmj.com/content/389/bmj.r1201] Ticagrelor doubts: inaccuracies uncovered in key studies for AstraZeneca’s billion dollar drug [https://www.bmj.com/content/389/bmj.r1201] Beyond body mass index: rethinking doctors’ advice for weight loss [https://www.bmj.com/content/389/bmj-2025-084654]