Medical educators must ensure that clinicians retain the ability to think critically. It’s essential that doctors learn to use AI tools effectively but also preserve the independent cognitive functions essential for patient safety and to deliver holistic person-centred care.

Continuity of care is increasingly difficult to maintain in fragmented healthcare systems. Rather than aiming for every patient to see the same clinician for every encounter, healthcare systems and clinicians should move toward proportionate continuity. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

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In discussions with doctors working in EU countries, I am struck by the difference in the priority given to rehabilitation medicine compared to the UK. Rehabilitation Medicine is generally a much bigger specialty in Europe with better access to therapies for patients.

Allied health professionals make important contributions to the NHS but their roles should complement those of doctors. Assessing patients with undifferentiated symptoms without adequate medical supervision risks compromising patient safety. www.pulsetoday.co.uk/news/clinica...

Spacing vaccines across many separate visits increases the risk of delayed or missed doses and leaves children susceptible to infection for longer with no safety benefits. It also requires parents to take more time out of their schedule to visit their vaccine provider.

While online access to medical records supports patient autonomy, releasing complex uninterpreted data without context risks causing anxiety and distress. We must design digital health systems that integrate anticipatory guidance and plain-language summaries for patients.

Congratulations to students starting their university courses this year. Please ensure you are up to date with your MenACWY, MenB, MMR and other vaccines before you start your course. Vaccination protects you from the risk of serious illness and death and also reduces pressures on the NHS.

I regularly receive emails from students requesting work experience opportunities. The vast majority invariably contain an account of a family member who has experienced a major illness that has transformed the attitude of the applicant. They invariably all look AI-generated.

With Pharmacy First, there is an opportunity-cost question. Could the same investment in general practices be more cost-effective and deliver greater benefits by enabling practices to employ more staff and offer more appointments? www.pulsetoday.co.uk/news/clinica...

Pharmacy First expansion assumes conditions presenting as 'minor' can't be complex, GPs warn

GP leaders warned that moving more care away from general practice ‘risks undermining the role of GPs’ in diagnosing patients safely.

pulsetoday.co.uk

A diagnosis of heart failure is often preceded by non-specific symptoms that can be overlooked by clinicians. In our study, we mapped quantitative evidence on prediagnostic signals, investigations, referrals, diagnostic setting and health outcomes. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

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Primary care access is a core component of safe clinical care, rather than just an administrative gateway. The outcome of an illness is often determined before a consultation occurs because poorly designed entry systems can compromise quality of care. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

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NICE’s approval of finerenone for heart failure is a positive development but as I highlight in this article, there are significant challenge for primary care in incorporating a drug that requires careful monitoring into routine clinical practice. www.pulsetoday.co.uk/news/clinica...

A recent study validates the TAIGHA scale for measuring user trust in AI-generated health advice. AI tools for patients and the public should aim to deliver reliable, high-quality health information while building appropriate trust in their outputs. journals.plos.org/digitalhealt...

The trust in AI-generated health advice (TAIGHA) scale and short version (TAIGHA-S): Development and validation study

Author summary Artificial intelligence tools are increasingly used by the public to obtain health information and guidance, but users may follow or reject the advice they receive, which can affect the...

journals.plos.org

Whenever there is a significant event in the NHS, you will hear managers make comments like “we take whistleblowing extremely seriously" and “we have put in place systems to prevent such events in the future”. Patients will wonder why these actions were not already in place.

Online access to electronic health records may allow patients to see the results of investigations for cancer before a clinical review with the patient has occurred. Systems are needed to address the associated risks and reduce unnecessary anxiety. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Cancer Education in the Era of Immediate Results Access - Journal of Cancer Education

Immediate patient access to cancer-related results through digital portals has transformed the timing and nature of cancer communication. Although open records promote transparency, autonomy and engag...

link.springer.com

The 150-minute weekly exercise target for adults in the UK is not an absolute threshold. Smaller amounts of exercise will still have important health benefits. If you can’t meet the 150-minute target don’t be discouraged. Aim to build some regular exercise into your daily routine.

Pathways for patients with suspected cancer are usually seen as linear sequences. But patients often miss appointments or decline investigations. Labelling these episodes with terms like “patient declined” or “did not attend” can be an oversimplification. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

The Paused Pathway: Teaching Investigative Consent when Cancer Investigation Stalls - Journal of Cancer Education

Suspected cancer pathways are often taught as linear sequences, but in practice they may pause when patients miss appointments, decline investigations, misunderstand the pathway, or face emotional, pr...

link.springer.com

Healthcare systems must shift from measuring the number of contacts to measuring metrics such as continuity and resolution - ensuring clinical problems are actively owned, tracked and managed by a clinical team until they reach a definitive endpoint. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

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The renaming of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) to polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS) recognises the condition’s broader endocrine and metabolic aspects. But clinical coding systems such as ICD-10 and SNOMED will continue to use PCOS for now. bmj.com/cgi/content/...

Medical students sometimes ask if AI will replace doctors. My view is that AI will supplement doctors rather than replace them. AI will change medical practice by improving efficiency, supporting decision-making and helping clinicians manage increasingly complex information.

Readiness for clinical practice is not just about memorising information. It is the ability to retrieve knowledge under pressure, apply it safely, communicate uncertainty responsibly and contextualise care so that decisions work in the real world. www.frontiersin.org/journals/med...

Frontiers | Are we assessing medical students' recall or readiness for practice?

Medical education is full of apparent certainties. Pre-clinical students can memorise enzyme pathways, rare syndromes, and lists of adverse drug reactions we...

frontiersin.org

NHS England is planning to introduce self-testing to allow patients to carry out a range of blood tests at home. Self-testing could reduce demands on NHS phlebotomy services but will need monitoring to ensure cost-effectiveness and equitable take-up. www.pulsetoday.co.uk/news/clinica...

NHS England considering self-testing routes for cholesterol and prostate cancer

Patients could be asked to test at home for prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and cholesterol levels, among other tests.

pulsetoday.co.uk

I've always told my PhD students that a PhD is a marathon and not a sprint. Now that Sabastian Sawe has run the London Marathon in under 2 hours, I'll need to think of something else to tell them.

Mapping burdens and inequalities of polycystic ovary syndrome in young females across 953 locations 1990–2040 with deep learning forecasts. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Mapping burdens and inequalities of polycystic ovary syndrome in young females across 953 locations 1990–2040 with deep learning forecasts

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the most common reproductive endocrine disorder impacting the health of young female populations. Using harmonized…

sciencedirect.com

Pattern Disruption in GP speciality training: a practical intervention to enhance cognitive flexibility and diagnostic reasoning. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Pattern Disruption in GP speciality training: a practical intervention to enhance cognitive flexibility and diagnostic reasoning

Pattern recognition underpins efficient general practice, yet over-reliance on familiar diagnostic scripts can promote cognitive rigidity and premature closure when presentations are atypical, evol...

tandfonline.com

The government is proposing to make the NHS App the primary gateway to the NHS in England. But without addressing the broader social determinants of digital access, an overreliance on the NHS App may deepen existing health inequalities. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

The NHS App should focus on inequalities to improve population health - Anthony A Laverty, Claire Reidy, Sukriti KC, Chrysanthi Papoutsi, Bernard Gudgin, Azeem Majeed, John Powell, 2026

journals.sagepub.com

I was asked to appear at the UK Covid-19 Inquiry in February to be questioned on how the pandemic affected people who were clinically vulnerable and the importance of good IT systems to identify people in this group. My witness statement is now online. covid19.public-inquiry.uk/documents/in...

INQ000659865 - Witness Statement provided by Professor Azeem Majeed, Professor of Primary Care and Public Health at Imperial College London, dated 02/12/2025 UK Covid-19 Inquiry Archives

Witness Statement provided by Professor Azeem Majeed, Professor of Primary Care and Public Health at Imperial College London, dated 02/12/2025.

covid19.public-inquiry.uk

The new funding in the NHS GP contract must be the start of a long term programme of investment, not a one-off adjustment. Reversing more than a decade of underinvestment in general practice will require consistent real-terms year-on-year growth in funding. www.bmj.com/content/392/... @bmj.com

It’s good to see the government aiming to increase the emphasis on childhood vaccination in the NHS GP contract in England. But as well as these “short-term fixes”, we also need long-term changes that reduce the pressures on primary care so GPs can spend more time on prevention.

How should services for high-intensity users be organised? A scoping review of published literature with recommendations for future research and delivery of care. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

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