Kamran Abbasi

BMJ doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.q1419 (Published 27 June 2024) Cite this as: BMJ 2024;385:q1419 Kamran Abbasi

Stephen Bradley, a GP, wants his computer to work (doi: 10.1136/bmj.q1171 He wants artificial intelligence (AI) to help make mundane and sometimes complex tasks easier. When was a drug started, why, and by whom? He wants help checking on outstanding care and reviews, as well as filling in reports and benefit claims. What about identifying clinical problems from a summary care record and making the most of clinical guidelines? None of this is fancy AI, the bleeding edge of innovation's bleeding edge. But it's the humdrum functionality that would improve the lives of health professionals and patients.

Have you heard that stem cells can develop into any type of cell in the body? It's a claim that's been “very rigorously disproven,” says Charles Murry from the University of Washington in Seattle (doi: 10.1136/bmj.q1581 Undaunted, private companies are asking parents to pay anything from £550 to £3000 to bank cord tissue. The promise is that, when needed later, these “pure and plastic” cells can become any body tissue and can even be “used to regrow entire organs.” Harvesting umbilical cord blood seems to be much more of a commercial opportunity than a beneficial one for health.

Last year I spoke at Kensington Aldridge Academy. My task was to inspire the schoolchildren. I may or may not have succeeded, but the children certainly inspired me. They were full of hope and a clear sense of a better world. Their questions and comments were intelligent and insightful, and it was my favourite speaking engagement of 2023. Kensington Aldridge Academy is at the foot of Grenfell Tower.

BMJ doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.q2211 (Published 10 October 2024) Cite this as: BMJ 2024;387:q2211

Are doctors good patients? Or are they a danger to themselves? Doctors, as legend has it, are apt to downplay or mistreat their own symptoms. Stories abound of cardiologists self-diagnosing heartburn and dying from a heart attack, general surgeons disregarding their acute abdomen. Being in the know can be hazardous. Even if they survive a misdiagnosis doctors can be awful patients, asking too many or too few questions about their welfare, interfering too much or too little in their own care. Andrew Elder, president of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, reminds us that medicine is difficult (doi:

BMJ doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.q2330 (Published 24 October 2024) Cite this as: BMJ 2024;387:q2330

BMJ doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.q2399 (Published 31 October 2024) Cite this as: BMJ 2024;387:q2399