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2 months ago | 
bjgp.org | Andrew N Papanikitas
There is an idea that strikes terror (or more usually, cynicism) into the hearts of many doctors. Reflective practice is an embedded feature of both medical education and the overt appraisal of medical practice that is mandatory in the UK. It is, broadly, the idea that we can think about our experiences, critique and learn from them, and use the learning to enhance our own and others’ practice.
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Nov 28, 2024 | 
bjgp.org | Andrew N Papanikitas
Season’s greetings, dear readers! One of my favourite Christmas traditions is the miscellany, often found in little piles at the cashier’s desk in a bookshop. A miscellany is any kind of volume in which a mixture of literary compositions, of different genres and by different authors, are collected. The reason I love a miscellany is that by turns the entries make me laugh, or think, or laugh nervously and think quite hard.
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Oct 31, 2024 | 
bjgp.org | Andrew N Papanikitas
Good GPs are holistic. Is that harder to argue than ‘GPs are holistic’? Is holistic part of being good or just a part of being a GP?
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Sep 26, 2024 | 
bjgp.org | Andrew N Papanikitas
‘May you live in interesting times’, an ironic English expression cursing the listener to live in troubled or complicated times, is often referred to as the ‘Chinese curse’. There is no evidence as to its Chinese origins however! The expression may in fact have originated in the speeches of 19th-century English statesman Joseph Chamberlain.
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Aug 29, 2024 | 
bjgp.org | Andrew N Papanikitas
Before artificial intelligence the original neural networks were made of people. Recently the Cambridge academic and author, David Runciman, argued that we should look to the behaviours of countries and corporations for insights in managing the machine intelligences of the future. We know that good connections in health care improve patient outcomes including reduced risk of dying.
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Jul 25, 2024 | 
bjgp.org | Andrew N Papanikitas
In his new book, Thinking About Medicine, which I review this issue, David Misselbrook argues that the tools and skills of philosophy are essential for survival and flourishing as a thoughtful clinician. Tongue in cheek, he suggests that, thus empowered by philosophy, we may not endear ourselves to our managers.
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Jun 27, 2024 | 
bjgp.org | Andrew N Papanikitas
In Neil Gaiman’s 1999 fantasy novel, Stardust, the hero’s journey begins in a little English village called Wall. The village takes its name from an ancient stone wall, beyond which lies the magical and perilous realm of Faerie. The wall has one opening, which is guarded night and day by two men who carry cudgels. Such a mystical dividing line appears when we are concerned with health and illness.
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May 30, 2024 | 
bjgp.org | Andrew N Papanikitas
Read the articles in this month’s Life and Times and try reflecting on them. Go on. I dare you. How are you — and how is what you do — changed by what you have read? While the mandatory reflection that haunts medical education and appraisal in the UK creates a sense that this is onerous, intrusive, or frankly boring, reflection has an ancient and respectable pedigree. Born in 551 BC, Confucius was a Chinese teacher and philosopher whose principles can still be applied.
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Apr 25, 2024 | 
bjgp.org | Andrew N Papanikitas
This month (May 2024) a British icon embarks on an adventure in space and theme. ‘But that is “space and time” surely?’ I hear you say? While I could be referring to the BBC TV series Doctor Who, which airs this month, I am in fact referring to the BJGP’s own Time And Relative Dimension In Space machine (TARDIS).
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Mar 27, 2024 | 
bjgp.org | Andrew N Papanikitas
Mystery, Iona Heath reminds us, is a collective noun for doctors, as well as an archaic term meaning trade, profession, or calling. Heath wrote The Mystery of General Practice at a time of familiar crisis for UK family medicine. Major, neoliberal, market-driven reform had been introduced to primary health care and precipitated a crisis of morale and a fall in applications to train in the speciality.
