Atherosclerosis, or clogging up arteries, causes more deaths and more suffering than any other cause worldwide, most commonly in the form of heart attacks and strokes. Blocking of coronary arteries in the heart causes a spectrum of disease from angina to heart attacks, while blockages in cerebral arteries in the brain cause mini-strokes (transient ischaemic attacks or TIAs) and strokes. How best to prevent further strokes and heart attacks (secondary prevention) has occupied medical research for 40 years.

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“Vaccine” is a medical term that is part of the vernacular. They are our childhood immunizations and the backbone of public health programmes at national and international level, in both rich and poor countries. They are the holy grail of research against the biggest infectious disease killers of our time, from malaria and HIV/AIDS to influenza, and, more recently swine flu. They are multi-billion dollar business to drug companies.

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When I started in evidence-based medicine, it was a big shock that probably the most under-researched area of health is how health practitioners should diagnose illness; i.e. “diagnostic strategies”. Individual studies and systematic reviews have focused on drugs and interventions, but it is now recognised that such reviews are also necessary to evaluate diagnostic tests. In children, clinical signs (e.g.

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If you search PubMed for articles relating to body-mass index, obesity, and mortality you will see an explosion in the number of articles in the last 5 years, as scientists try to characterise and explain the long-term effects of obesity.

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The horrors of the recent earthquake in Haiti have dominated the news media worldwide, making the UN label it as the “worst disaster it has ever faced”. Obama has enlisted the help of his two immediate Presidential predecessors (Bush and Clinton) to tackle this tragedy.

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After Christmas and in the run-up to Lent, people are often thinking about New Year’s resolutions and what to give up. One of the most common excesses that people want to address is food. This is the most common time of year to start new diets, exercise regimes and gym memberships, and yet obesity, particularly in childhood, is on the rise. The direct cost of overweight and obesity to the NHS has been estimated at over £3 billion.

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Around Christmas, we are often more aware of the scale of poverty than at other times of the year.

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South Africa, with a population of 50 million, has nearly 6 million people infected with HIV — more than any other country in the world. AIDS-related diseases kill nearly 1,000 South Africans every day.

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My Monday evening was spent at an event organised by the London Business School' Healthcare Club, called "Challenging the Status Quo". Andrew Witty, CEO of GlaxoSmithkline, spoke passionately about why drug development and profits do not have to be at the expense of access to medicines in poor countries.

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I spent this week in a conference centre the size of an airport for the Annual American Heart Association conference in Orlando, Florida. With over 25 000 delegates, it represents the world’s premier meeting for doctors and researchers interested in vascular disease. For 5 days, there were presentations, posters and seminars about every conceivable aspect of diseases that block up your arteries.

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