BMJ  2004;329 (11 December), doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7479.0-g

Editor's choice

Public health's Holy Grail

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

A television company once approached us proposing a fly on the wall documentary of life at the BMJ. Viewers, we reasoned, would find it hard to be mesmerised by editors staring at computer screens or discussing sample sizes and the finer points of nested case control studies.

Were we wrong? Reality television manages to sex up most professions, and medical editing can be almost as exciting as hairdressing, dog walking, or proper doctoring. "I'm a manuscript, get me out of here," would be discussed in tabloids and on digital channels. The editor with the "X Factor" might—thanks to the public phoning premium rate numbers and pressing coloured buttons on remote controls—be elevated to the editorship of the BMJ, and the loser to the editorship of the Lancet.

The international outbreak of reality television might even be good for public health if it was legislated to carry public health . . . [Full text of this article]

Kamran Abbasi, acting editor

(kabbasi@bmj.com)


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