The UK’s statistics watchdog has warned NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care over their claims about the benefits of Palantir’s federated data platform (FDP).1The Office for Statistical Regulation (OSR) examined how NHSE was using statistics to support claims about the success of the FDP, after several members of the public contacted the watchdog to express concern about how data were being presented.It identified that statistical teams at NHS England did not clear the FDP statistical data for public use before it was published. The watchdog recommended that these statistical teams should have a bigger role in overseeing claims made about the benefits of the platform.It also advised NHSE and ministers that all communications about Palantir’s software that include before-and-after data comparisons must be “clearly and appropriately labelled” and that any figures cited about its effectiveness “are communicated in a clear, accurate manner.”Members of the public expressed...

Thick smoke from Canadian wildfires has blanketed Toronto, Detroit, Minneapolis, Chicago, New York, and Washington, DC, in July. At points, Detroit, Toronto, and other North American cities ranked among the worst in the world for air quality.1In several cities, monitors recorded fine particle pollution at or above levels the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) classifies as “hazardous” on its air quality index.2 EPA’s updated particulate matter of 2.5 ?m diameter or smaller (PM2.5) breakpoints put the hazardous category at 225.5 µg/m3 and above. During July, Reuters reported hazardous readings in Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and Toronto, while state and local monitors recorded PM2.5 concentrations above 600 µg/m3 in parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin.3Some US politicians took to social media, blaming Canada as summer activities were curtailed and residents were warned to stay indoors. And in a reversal, wildfires in the US west are now sending smoke north across the border into British...

NHS England’s announcement of an accelerated rollout of AI1 promises a beguiling future of shorter waiting times and better care for millions of patients. With a £10bn investment over three years, this is a major programme intended to deliver around half of the commitments in the 10 year plan and to generate £41bn in total benefits. Much of the gain is expected to be delivered through a new AI triage tool on the NHS app and through AI tools based on ambient voice technology.When taxpayers’ money is committed on this scale, decisions should be made transparently and based on evidence. For new medicines, we have machinery to do exactly that: regulatory approval, health technology assessment through the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the expectation of randomised trial evidence before widespread adoption, and a clear separation of private and public interests. For digital technology and AI, the evidential...

An expensive and recently banned neck operation for Alzheimer’s disease spread rapidly through China and is now being tested in the US and other countries, despite a lack of randomised evidence to demonstrate its efficacy.Qingping Xie, a microsurgeon and president at Hangzhou Qiushi Hospital in the city of Hangzhou, China, performed the first ever deep cervical lymphatic-venous anastomosis (dcLVA) on a patient with Alzheimer’s disease six years ago after receiving ethical approval from his hospital for the highly experimental procedure. The procedure became popular1 in China and was featured in articles published in Science in 20252 and in Nature in 2026.3But the rapid expansion of the procedure ignited criticism about its lack of standardisation, high price, and potential complications,4 as well as the ethics5 of performing experimental surgery on such vulnerable patients. It was banned6 by Chinese authorities in July 2025 because of a lack of robust clinical evidence to...

Medical students face official accusations of “unprofessionalism” to manage dissent or in retaliation for providing feedback about their education, a report warns.Students shared how they had been reported as being unprofessional for going home while sick, while others faced similar sanctions for legitimate complaints about their placement.These experiences were detailed in a report by the BMA, with the union warning that the practice left students afraid to raise concerns, including on patient safety, as doing so could harm their future careers.1This increasingly “punitive” and inconsistent enforcement of professionalism standards in UK medical schools is having a silencing effect across medical education and damaging trust in university leadership, the BMA warned.The report drew on survey data from 2573 UK medical students and data gathered from freedom of information (FoI) requests to medical schools.Nearly half (45%) of the students surveyed said they would feel uncomfortable raising concerns within their medical school, while...

The Edinburgh Medical School, the first in the English-speaking world, was founded 300 years ago. Its prehistory included the establishment of several important institutions:a College of Surgeons in 1505;the University of Edinburgh in 1582;a physic garden in 1670;a College of Physicians in 1680;In the 1680s the Edinburgh physicians began work on the Pharmacopoeia Edinburgensis, which was finally published in 1699, and from 1685 onwards many university professorial appointments were made in subjects such as physic, anatomy, chemistry, and the institutes and practice of medicine. Although not associated with chairs in the first instance, materia medica and botany were also being taught. Then, in 1726, following a petition presented to the Edinburgh Town Council by four physicians, a Faculty of Medicine was established. This was followed three years later by the foundation of a teaching hospital, completing all the requirements for a fully functioning medical school. The school was successful in...

The unrest over physician assistants continues to drag on, more than a year after Gillian Leng’s independent review was published. On 17 July 2026 the High Court dismissed a legal challenge to the Leng review’s recommendations brought by the physician assistants’ trade union, United Medical Associate Professionals. Importantly, the judge dismissed the unfounded claim that Leng had produced the review to appease certain quarters of the medical profession, including the BMA.The handling of the controversy around physician assistants has been damaging to the health system—including the royal colleges, the General Medical Council (GMC), and NHS England. Many concerns about physician assistants raised by frontline staff were dismissed by leaders as “social media noise.” Doctors were accused of elitism and being protective of their role. Delayed and soft touch regulation of physician assistants by the GMC added to the problems around undefined scope of practice and patient safety risks.The former health...

Thousands of people with multiple sclerosis (MS) in England will be offered a new drug on the NHS to help them walk more easily.Fampridine (Fampyra)—the first medicine to help improve walking for adults with MS—will be routinely available on the NHS in England from today.The twice daily pill acts as a “signalled booster” for nerves damaged by MS, helping electrical messages to travel to muscles more effectively. This will make it easier for some patients to walk, which could make everyday tasks easier and help them maintain their independence, said NHS England (NHSE).MS is a lifelong neurological condition caused by damage to nerves in the brain and spinal cord. Symptoms can include weakness, fatigue, loss of sensation, problems with balance and coordination, and difficulty walking.Existing treatment options for helping people with MS to walk include physiotherapy and exercises, walking aids, devices to support the feet, and treatments to manage muscle...

This editorial by Lei (BMJ 2026;392:s236, doi:10.1136/bmj.s236, published 6 February 2026) was corrected after publication. The academic position of the author was incorrectly listed as “senior research fellow.” This has been amended to “student” to accurately reflect their position at the time of publication.

This editorial by Lei (BMJ 2025;390:r1268, doi:10.1136/bmj.r1268, published 2 July 2025) was corrected after publication. The academic position of the author was incorrectly listed as “senior research fellow.” This has been amended to “student” to accurately reflect their position at the time of publication.

A challenge to the government’s refusal to release an impact assessment of a controversial pharmaceutical trade deal with the US has been denied.The UK’s transparency regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), released a response to a complaint made by health think tank the Nuffield Trust, saying that the government’s decision not to make it public was acceptable.The UK agreed a drug trade deal with the US in December last year to soften the impact of tariffs put in place by US president Donald Trump.1Under the agreement, the UK became the only country in the world to have a 0% tariff on pharmaceuticals exported to the US and secured preferential terms for the UK’s medical technology exports.However, to secure the deal ministers agreed to a 25% rise in the cost effectiveness thresholds used by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). These thresholds will rise from £20 000-£30 000...

Atopic dermatitis in school childrenItching, sleep disturbance, and psychological distress might all be expected to interfere with schoolwork. But two large cohort studies from Denmark and England find that atopic dermatitis doesn’t impair academic performance (JAMA Dermatol doi:10.1001/jamadermatol.2026.0425). Among 780 000 children, examination results at age 16 were much the same in those with atopic dermatitis as they were in those without, with little to suggest that disease phenotype or socioeconomic background altered the picture.Hyperemesis gravidarumA retrospective analysis of 2.5 million singleton live births in California focused on the outcomes of 50 000 women who had experienced hyperemesis gravidarum severe enough to require hospital admission or emergency department care (Am J Epidemiol doi:10.1093/aje/kwag134). Not surprisingly, perhaps, these women had increased risks of many adverse pregnancy outcomes including pre-eclampsia, gestational hypertension, preterm birth, small for gestational age infants, placental abruption, and anaemia. But the size of any increase in risk was...

A new pill for patients whose cholesterol remains high despite treatment has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).Called Lipfendra, the daily pill can be taken alone or in conjunction with statins.When trialled in patients whose low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) remained high despite already receiving treatment, Lipfendra reduced LDL-C levels by as much as 59%.1Dhruv Kazi, a cardiologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre in Boston and associate professor at Harvard Medical School, commented that the approval would make a critical difference to patients. “This is an important step forward for patients who need additional therapies for lowering lipids,” he said.High LDL-C levels are a major risk factor for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, including coronary heart disease—which the American Heart Association said caused 349 470 US deaths in 20232—as well as stroke and other forms of cardiovascular disease.Although Lipfendra must be taken on an empty stomach, some...

Restoring the health of the UK population to 2014 levels would boost GDP by 2% and unlock £72bn in public finances , an analysis indicates.The report, from the Health Foundation, argues for an overhaul of government thinking on health.1Analysts say that, rather than treating ill health as a cost, good health should be seen as a national economic asset.It comes as a new prime minister, Andy Burnham, enters Downing Street and faces economic challenges such as weak growth, stagnant productivity, a sluggish labour market, and pressure on the public finances.The think tank argues that improving health should be treated as core to the government’s economic strategy.“Good health enables people to live well for longer and contribute to their communities, helping to build a stronger society,” the report’s authors say. “A healthy labour force is also the engine that powers our economy—it determines whether people can participate in employment, how effectively...

In just 16 years, a handful of food banks in the UK have proliferated into thousands of community-run food parcel distribution centres. In 2024, Labour’s election manifesto rightly referred to the need for these as a “moral scar on our society.” The party committed to ending mass dependence on emergency food parcels in the UK.1Two years later, the Labour government has made some steps towards this by scrapping the poverty inducing two child benefit limit and introducing new funding through the Crisis and Resilience Fund (CRF). This fund paves the way for people in England to build long term financial resilience through cash first crisis payments and wraparound support through local community networks.2Against a backdrop of stubbornly high levels of food insecurity, emergency food parcel distribution figures in the UK are still 45% higher than before the covid pandemic.34 The cost of living crisis continues to ring alarm bells, so...

Commonly used weight loss drugs may help to reduce symptoms of binge eating disorder, the largest review of the evidence to date has suggested.1But the researchers acknowledged that the evidence remains limited on the benefits of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists for people with binge eating disorder who live with obesity.“It is certainly plausible that for some individuals with binge eating disorder these medications facilitate a healthier relationship with food whereas for others they could contribute to more rigid eating patterns,” said Ilaria Costantini, senior author and research fellow in psychiatric epidemiology at the UCL Division of Psychiatry.Binge eating disorder—when people regularly eat an excessive amount of food while feeling they have lost control—affects 17 million people worldwide, two thirds of whom live with overweight or obesity.2 The disorder is common among people seeking weight loss treatment.3There remains “a need for better ways to help people living with this condition,...

A story about the Tour de France?Afraid not. It’s about a large outbreak of cyclosporiasis in the United States—an intestinal illness caused by a microscopic parasite called Cyclospora, which causes “watery, explosive diarrhoea.”Kack-atoa? A poo-nami?It’s certainly a large outbreak, with reports of cases in 34 states. Up to 14 July, there had been at least 1645 laboratory confirmed cases of Cyclospora since 1 May, and 145 people had been admitted to hospital. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has a further 5100 reports under investigation, but the true number is “likely higher.”1Doesn’t this explode every year?Cyclospora activity does tend to increase in the spring and summer, but the number of confirmed cases is already six times higher than last year, and if the possible cases are confirmed, this year’s total is 27 times higher. Gwen Biggerstaff, deputy director of CDC’s division of foodborne, waterborne, and environmental diseases...

A legal challenge to a review that recommended limiting the scope of physician assistants (PA) and anaesthesia assistants (AA) has been dismissed on all grounds in the High Court.Brought by the PA/AA union, United Medical Associate Professionals (UMAPs), the challenge claimed that Gillian Leng’s review was unlawful and that its recommendations had been designed to appease the BMA. But Mr Justice MacDonald ruled that this allegation was baseless and that the review had been lawfully produced.1The BMA welcomed the decision and urged ministers to swiftly act on Leng’s recommendations for protecting patient safety, many of which have still not been implemented2 a full year after the review was published.Leng’s review, which assessed the safety and scope of what were then called physician associates and anaesthesia associates, made a total of 18 recommendations, all of which the government accepted. These included that PAs and AAs should be renamed as “‘assistants” rather...

Pakistani police have arrested an Afghan resident doctor mid-operation amid rising political tensions in the country.Pakistan recently decided to expel all Afghans in its borders without a valid visa, as a row deepens with the Taliban in Kabul. The move has now started to affect Afghan health professionals working and learning in the country.A number of young Afghans training or studying medicine or other healthcare subjects in Pakistan have been barred from attending their institutions despite having submitted renewal applications and their visas not having expired yet. Ironically, many of these had been recipients of a long running scholarship programme from the Pakistani government intended to improve relations with Afghanistan.Tensions between the countries have been brewing for years. Islamabad has accused Afghanistan of sponsoring terrorism in border areas—a charge denied by the Afghan government. As a result, Pakistan has closed its border with Afghanistan several times, most recently on 9...

Ministers plan to radically reduce the appeal of vapes to stop children being drawn to experiment with them and into possible addiction.They propose that vapes should be put in plain packages and placed out of sight in shops, with strict curbs on enticing brand imagery and flavour descriptions.Child health experts and antismoking campaigners have welcomed the 12 week consultation—which includes a ban on the use of vape names linked to sweets and alcohol—announced by the government on 10 July as part of wider action to tackle vaping among young people.Evidence indicates that colourful packaging, prominent retail displays, and appealing flavours are among the factors leading young people to take up vaping, ministers say.Steve Turner, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH), said, ”As paediatricians, we are deeply concerned by the insidious marketing practices used by tobacco and vaping companies to target our future generations.“It is clear...