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Views And Reviews Medicine and the media

Medicine Now RIP

BMJ 1998; 316 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.316.7138.1175 (Published 11 April 1998) Cite this as: BMJ 1998;316:1175
  1. Geoff Watts
  1. medical writer and broadcaster

    Medicine Now is no more. It died as it had tried to live, quietly and unsensationally, at 12 noon on Tuesday 31 March. Cause of death: paroxysmal changes in Radio 4's schedule. Geoff Watts laments its loss

    So, who cares? I do, of course; having lived with the programme weekly for three quarters of each of the past 17 years, and presented every edition bar one, the loss has been akin to burying a close relative. Who else? A surprisingly large number of doctors—surprising because the programme was never intended for any but a lay audience.

    So why did they listen? I like to think it was the reverse of something that characterised the late World Medicine during Michael O'Donnell's editorship. All of us who worked on the magazine discovered that, although written …

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