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Editor's choice

Human rights

Frontiers

The month in research

Editorials

Discrimination against homosexual people and their health
No evidence shows that sexual minorities pose a threat to society, but they are still subject to widespread discrimination and abuse. Doctors should help, argues Michael King

Health, human rights, and humanitarian tensions
Humanitarian organisations promote the indisputable right to health, but this isn't always an easy bedfellow with advancing human rights. Edward John Lloyd Armstrong and Maria Kett explain

News

A worsening humanitarian crisis

news bites

Education

Tainted medicine
The abuse of human rights by health professionals has a long history, write Jen Richardson and Daniel K Sokol

Picture quiz An evolutionary relic?

Doctors and the death penalty
David Metcalfe and Mark Bratton trace the long and tumultuous relationship between the medical profession and the death penalty

The medic's guide to prescribing Effective prescribing
How often have you thought about the importance of and the processes involved in choosing the most effective drug for your patient? Claire Meager and Philip A Routledge help you find out

Careers

Working summer
Wai Kheong Ryan Lee and Simon Tso give a taste of a summer spent doing research work

Integrated future?
With the help of three experts, James S Bowness and Trevor Gibbs explore the pros and cons of traditional and integrated curriculums in medical education

People

Hope for the globe
Rebecca Hope, a medical student at Leeds, is coordinator of Alma Mata, a global health network for healthcare graduates (www.almamata.net). She has a bachelors degree in international health from University College London and is author of The Elective Pack, available on studentbmj.com, a guide to international health and development for medical students. She spoke to Tiago Villanueva about the future for Alma Mata and global health

Amid conflict and catastrophe
Jim Ryan is one of the leading figures in Britain in the emerging field of conflict and catastrophe medicine, and his experiences encompass humanitarian and military interventions around the world, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and Azerbaijan as well as the Balkans and the Falkland Islands. He has recently retired from the post of Leonard Cheshire professor in conflict recovery at University College London, where he is also honorary consultant in accident and emergency medicine. James I D M Matheson caught up with him on his return from Indonesia

Papers

Intestinal anthelmintic drugs and anaemia: systematic review
Can anthelmintic drugs get rid of anaemia caused by intestinal worms? Kirsten Patrick analyses a research paper that tried to find out

Life

Social inequality in South Africa
Victoria Ashall and Michael Hillier describe a student led organisation that tackles inequalities in health, education, and welfare in post-apartheid South Africa

Spotlight on Access to essential drugs
Why aren't poor countries getting the drugs they need, Victoria Nowak asks

The millennium development goals
Regulation of complementary practitioners to weed out the charlatans and protect the public sounds uncontroversial. But, as Michael Day reports, recent UK proposals seem to introduce more questions than answers

A market for organs
In examining the international trade in organs for transplant, Justin Loke and Mehrunisha Suleman wonder if a market is the way forwards

War, politics, and medicine
Should medical professionals take a stance on war? And what happens if we don't all agree? H Raza Ali discusses

Reviews

Straight talking?

Health and human rights

Match day

Eyespy