Should we be using safety syringes?

Fluoride varnishes: should we be using them?

Fluoride varnishes are fast becoming the standard of care as topical fluoride treatments. Fluoride varnishes still await approval from the FDA for use as caries preventive agents. In the meantime, their use for such purposes is considered "off-label." This article highlights the efficacy of fluoride varnishes as caries preventive agents and introduces some of the commercially available fluoride...

Electronic health records and patient safety: should we be discouraged?

To cite: Payne TH. BMJ Qual Saf 2015;24:239–240. For decades we have looked hopefully to electronic health records (EHRs) to aid efforts to make healthcare safer. Early research gave basis to this hope: automated alerts and reminders were shown to improve preventive and chronic illness care, electronic records could be better organised and more easily delivered where needed, automated computeri...

Food safety education: what should we be teaching to consumers?

Food safety education is most effective when messages are targeted toward changing behaviors most likely to result in foodborne illness. The five major control factors for pathogens are personal hygiene, adequate cooking, avoiding cross-contamination, keeping food at safe temperatures, and avoiding foods from unsafe sources. Pathogens associated with poor personal hygiene have the highest incid...

Should we all be vegetarians?

Should we be using statistics to define disease?

‘‘Don’t worry about the physiology test—if everybody fails, everybody passes’’, Anonymous, Jefferson Medical College, Fall 1977. The first few months of medical school caused anxiety in most students, who typically went from environments where they were well above the ‘‘norm’’ in their classes to one in which they were just average. At the same time, the volume and difficulty of the material on...