BMJ  2007;334:1055 (19 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.39216.420625.DE

Filler

Making a difference: now it's your turn

Sitting beside your patient in a consultation, how can you make the greatest difference? How can you minimise morbidity, reduce mortality and, improve quality of life? And, if your patients wish to do all they can for their own personal health gain, where do they get most benefit?

Earlier this year, we sought your views on the greatest medical breakthroughs since 1840. Your vote concluded that the major advances were mostly in public health and at population level. But most health care occurs when doctors and patients meet one to one. We would now like to focus on the doctor-patient interface and ask you to vote on the areas you feel can make the greatest difference to personal health.

In fewer than 100 words, tell us what interventions you think offer the greatest potential benefit. We don't want to anticipate your suggestions, but possible examples could be home based palliative care, improving cardiovascular risk factors in type 2 diabetes, reducing falls in elderly people, preventing hospital infection, avoiding prescription errors. Armed with your nominations—and the priority lists published by major national and international healthcare organisations, research bodies, and charities—we will draw up a short list. Later this year we will ask you to vote, and the result of this vote will have a major influence on the direction of the BMJ and BMJ Publishing Group in the next year.

We will focus our resources across the BMJ group in the key areas that you identify. In the BMJ we will commission a range of relevant articles, including editorials and reviews. We will provide detailed analyses of each condition—including morbidity and mortality—so that in a year or two we can look back to see if there has been any change. We will promote BMJ Masterclasses where you can come a hear the experts, commission BMJ Learning to create appropriate self assessment and learning resources, bring together the latest reviews from Clinical Evidence, look at patient management through the Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin, and work with BMJ Journals to provide more in-depth analysis of a specialist nature as appropriate.

The BMJ is more than a journal, and the BMJ group is much more than a publisher. We want to be an active partner for doctors and patients. This is your opportunity to tell us what you would like. Make you nominations as a rapid response to this article online at bmj.com.

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Relevant Article

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BMJ 2007 334: 0. [Extract] [Full Text]

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