Images of doctors
BMJ 2010; 341 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.c4219 (Published 04 August 2010) Cite this as: BMJ 2010;341:c4219
- Jane Smith, deputy editor, BMJ
- jsmith{at}bmj.com
What picture of doctors emerges from this week’s journal? Forget the news stories—which have the usual fare of doctors up before the GMC (doi:10.1136/bmj.c4194), being investigated for conflicts of interest (doi:10.1136/bmj.c4083), and defending themselves and their patients against various sorts of bureaucracy (doi:10.1136/bmj.c4168). Look instead at the rest of the journal. Here is a succession of images of doctors as people who think completely differently from their patients; are part of the problem when it comes to social inequality; are susceptible to moral deformation through the pursuit of ambition; yet talk to each other across a big divide.
Not surprisingly, most of these images come from the review pages. They start with Christopher Martyn’s …