A fictional glimpse of chest pain assessment in 2050. Rick Body follows Fiona through a future of personalised risk prediction, implanted diagnostics and virtual consultation, using medical fiction to explore how technology might change both care and the experience of illness.
Med-Fi: Chest pain in 2050 Read More
Rick Body introduces St Emlyn’s medical fiction series: imagined future scenarios intended to stretch how we think about healthcare. The launch post explains the idea behind Med-Fi and links to the first story, exploring chest pain assessment in the future.
Medical Fiction: A new St Emlyn’s section Read More
How do patients want clinicians to explain COVID-19 tests, uncertainty and the possibility of dying? In this February 2021 podcast, Rick Body speaks with patient representatives Graham Prestwich and Val Tate about communication through PPE and what matters to patients and families.
Am I going to die? Communicating COVID-19 test results and risk Read More
Rick Body looks back at a decade of change in emergency diagnostics, from high-sensitivity troponin to decision aids and more individualised estimates of risk. Written as 2020 began, the review also considers where artificial intelligence, point-of-care testing and remote healthcare might take the next decade.
A Decade of Diagnostics in Emergency Care Read More
An introduction to St Emlyn’s review of emergency care in the 2010s. It brings together reflections on diagnostics and advanced clinical practitioners, while outlining planned contributions on education, wellbeing, equity, training and the changing assumptions behind everyday practice.
A decade in review for Emergency Care. St Emlyn's Read More
How do diagnostic decisions shape emergency care and hospital admission? This St Emlyn’s Live video and podcast introduces the future of diagnostics, placing the importance of making a diagnosis at the centre of the discussion.
The Future of Diagnostics #stemlynsLIVE Read More
What does a p-value tell us, and what does it leave unanswered? This critical appraisal podcast and accompanying written discussion explore statistical versus clinical significance, confidence intervals, effect sizes, multiple testing and the fragility index, encouraging readers to look beyond a single threshold.
Podcast – Critical Appraisal Nugget: p-values Read More
Could a supplement explain a troponin result that does not fit the clinical picture? Rick Body’s 2018 review explores biotin interference with some troponin assays, the importance of knowing the local test and why supplement histories and discussion with the laboratory can matter.
Troponin and biotin: a lethal combination? Read More
