Contents: February 2005

Editorials

bmjlearning.com
Kieran Walsh explains how the BMJ Publishing Group's website can help medical students learn

A guide for electives
Have you ever been away on a medical placement and felt completely out of your depth? Rebecca Hope did and helped to devise and write an advisory elective pack for medical students

News

Mosul suicide bomber was a medical student

Rich nations should pay more to developing countries

In brief...

Generosity after tsunami could threaten neglected crises

Medics worldwide: news and opportunities from the IFMSA

Rejecting political correctness

Education

10 Minute consultation: Family history of breast cancer

Beginner's guide to genetics: Cancer genetics
In the fifth part of our series, Adrián J González and colleagues take you through the genetic basis of cancer

First aid: Prehospital care
In the first of a series about first aid, Martin S Roth and colleagues concentrate on prehospital assessment

Clinical case series

Pub medic: Dioxin poisoning
Viktor Yushchenko, the eventual winner of Ukraine's recent presidential elections, was poisoned with dioxins during the election campaign. Raghav Chawla explores the scandal and finds out more about dioxins.

A bad leg

Careers

International education
After extensive travel and work overseas, John Yudkin helped to set up the International Health and Medical Education Centre at University College London. Padimasayee Papineni finds out about his work and what spurs him on

Understanding personality type: How do you like to live your life? Judging and perceiving
In the fifth article of her series, Anita Houghton sheds light on how we like to live our lives in the external world, whether organised and scheduled, or spontaneous and flexible

Rating jobs with JobScore

Life and loathes of a new doctor

The advice zone

Papers

Paper plus: Suicide in patients with schizophrenia: a nested case control study
Denmark's former high suicide rate has fallen in the general population. Leanne Tite explains how a nested case-control study was used to investigate whether there was also a fall in people with schizophrenia

Life

The eye of the storm
Bala Karunakaran went to Kilinochchi Hospital in northern Sri Lanka to help set up a maternity operating clinic and research how the region had been affected by civil war but found himself in the midst of a huge emergency relief operation. He shares his experiences of the tsunami

How would you cope in the media spotlight?
How would you manage the full glare of the media if you were involved in a high profile case and journalists were pursuing you? Dawn Boyall and Matthew Lee from the Medical Defence Union have some practical advice

Rethinking your elective
Your elective can be an exciting experience. But have you ever considered it from an ethical perspective? J Jaime Miranda and Sarah Finer offer some tips on making your elective a productive and beneficial experience for all

Hajj: journey of a lifetime
Each year thousands of Muslims make the pilgrimage to the Sacred Mosque in Mecca. Abdul Rashid Gatrad and Aziz Sheikh outline some of the health implications of undertaking this sacred journey

A field guide to experts
Experts are common but not well understood. Andrew D Oxman and colleagues introduces novice expert spotters to the essentials of artifexology--the study of experts

Rat race
Living in poorly maintained accommodation, students may find themselves playing host to hundreds of unwelcome visitors--rats. Ellen Welch and Geoff Gill give you the lowdown on these common pests

Letters

Doctors should focus on quality rather than quantity

We lack knowledge on the effects of alcohol

Article on junior doctors' pay was misinformed

Muslims should avoid causing offence

No praying if you've eaten garlic

Reviews

The Human Body Revealed

Vera Drake

From the front line

Evidence based medicine should be taught in medical schools

Eyespy: February 2005