Contents: April 2006

Editorials

Funding the global control of bird flu
The $1.9bn pledged to control avian influenza in Beijing in January may be peanuts, but it’s more than what the World Bank asked for, writes Jennifer A Roberts

The ACUTE initiative
Universities need to establish formal acute care training programmes in their curriculums, as Gavin Perkins and Julian Bion discuss

News

Namibia: eager for its own doctors

News Bites

Medics worldwide: news and opportunities from the IFMSA
Jana Kammeyer president, International Federation of Medical Students' Associations, president@ifmsa.org

Education

From medical student to junior doctor : maintaining good health during the “baptism of fire”
Long working hours, sleep deprivation, and fatigue are just a few examples of the stressors experienced by junior doctors. In the seventh article of our series, Geoffrey Robinson and colleagues give advice on how to overcome these problems

ABC of wound healing: Venous and arterial leg ulcers
Venous ulceration

Clockwatching
Impress your mates at the pub with your startling repertoire of esoteric medical knowledge

Things you really should know about: bird flu
Do you know your H5N1 from your H3N2? Laura Halpin, Farah Janmohamed and Sanjay Patwardhan consider some of the commonly asked questions about bird flu

A patient with confusing symptoms

Insect bite and arrows

Careers

Travelling man
Tim Killeen spent a year abroad as part of his medical education. He is now back home and gives some practical advice on setting up your own Erasmus exchange

Tips on...Surviving an intercalated degree
Here are some tips that I wish I had known before I started an intercalated bachelor of science degree in physiology.

Are we really helping?

The ultimate junior doctor
Riaz Agha is 26 and graduated from medical school last August. He is a foundation year one house officer, but unlike most of his peers, he has already written more than 10 scientific papers, won more than 20 prizes, founded an international peer reviewed journal, and been included in the 2006's Who's Who. David King finds out more

A medical anthropologist
Cecil Helman qualified as a doctor in South Africa, but his interest in medical anthropology has made him a leading authority in the field. Tiago Villanueva set out to discover what medical anthropology is all about, what its importance is to the practice of medicine, and how medics can get involved with it

Editor wanted : Why dont you edit the studentBMJ?
studentBMJ is looking for a medical student to be the new student editor for a year.

Papers

How a single adverse event can affect future prescribing: matched pair analysis
A single adverse event can cause doctors to forget the evidence base. Tom Treasure looks at a matched pair analysis that assessed future prescribing of warfarin in doctors whose patients with atrial fibrillation had haemorrhage or thromboembolic stroke

Life

Elder abuse
As many as 5% of older UK adults have been verbally abused and 2% had been physically or financially abused, a 1992 study found. Manuela Moraru explains what elder abuse is and what has been done to tackle the problem

Surviving Ed
A year ago, a medical student told us about living with an eating disorder. Has anything changed since then?

Medical education via the mass media
Ever wondered how lounging on a sofa watching mindless soap opera after soap opera can benefit your health? Fiona Kenny explores the education being delivered through your television screen

Studying medicine and quality of life
Tiago Villanueva and Irina Haivas explore what medical students and junior doctors think about the quality of life in their chosen careers

Letters

Social belonging is not just a Muslim need

Muslims in medicine: where's the evidence?

Death as a reality

Reviews

Thumbsucker

Health economic

The philosophy of the medical case

The bigger picture

A creative intercalated experience

Eyespy