Winter 2015The newsletter of the Medical Journalists’ Association

s MJA News was going to press,journalists everywhere mournedthe dead at the magazine Charlie

Hebdo, in Paris (see page 8). Right nowthere is no shortage of bad news for ourprofession: those reporting from new warzones have been imprisoned or killed. On abroader front, jobs and opportunities arefewer and rates are squeezed or shrivelled.It’s hard to feel optimistic, but the displayof excellence revealed in the entries to thisyear’s Winter awards provide just cause. As usual, the Investigative reporting/scoopsection attracted the highest number ofentries (27): 10 of these were for a specialistaudience; the reminder general. Almost asmany (22) were submitted for Scienceexplained and for Personal story. Closebehind came entries for Column/opinion(18), and Profile of a health or medical figure.

New awards this yearWe had nine Broadcast feature and Datajournalism entries. This last is new this yearand aims to recognise the skilful use ofinnovative infographics and text to animatedense statistics. A second new award is forVideo journalism, replacing the Shortmedical film. This also attracted nineentries. It aims to recognise the skilful useof images to bring complex medicine tolife. It’s always tricky to explain exactlywhat’s wanted the first year we run anaward, so the good response to these new

categories is particularly gratifying. There were slightly fewer entries to the

alternate-year Tony Thistlethwaite bookaward, and to Health education, replacingExcellence in journalistic skills. We aim tokeep the scope of MJA awards as broad aspossible, but inevitably not every categoryis equally appealing. If members havesuggestions as to how we can be moreinclusive, we remain open to advice. Wherepractical, Winter award categories aim tocross media sectors. And this year broadcastor video content cropped up in at least fouraward categories in addition to the twowhere they are specified in the title. So weare obviously doing something right. Aslight worry is that we offer individualprizes even though many entries, especiallythose with video or sophisticated graphics,are inevitably the result of team work.Should we offer trophies rather thancheques for Broadcast feature, Datajournalism and Video journalism? A tax-freecheque is a many-splendored thing forpoorly rewarded hacks, but we understandthat it is often shared or put towardsentering future, more expensive awards forthe team.

Judges for the 2015 Winter awards havebeen posted on the MJA website(www.mjauk.org), where you can also finddetails of this year’s compère, theincomparable Tourette’s Hero, Jess Thom.Two unlisted judges stepped in valiantly atthe last minute: former award winnerEleanor Bradford, BBC Scotland healthcorrespondent, for the Broadcast feature,and Rachel Younger, newly appointedhealth correspondent at ITV News for Videojournalism. Rachel dropped into ourdesperate hands, like manna from heaven,when she applied to become an MJAmember.

Presentation at BMA HouseIf you haven’t already logged it, thepresentation of the Winter awards will,once again, be in the John Snow Room atBMA House, in Tavistock Square, but thisyear on February 5, at 6.30 for a 7 p.m.start. Support for the presentation and£750 award cheques (11 this year), comesfrom our ever-generous sponsors: Astellas,BMA House, Lilly, GSK, MSD, NovoNordisk, Roche and newcomers GalliardHealth Communications. ◆

Winter awards break records, again

ATimes may be hard for journalists, but record numbers of first-class entries to the MJA WinterAwards show that standards, like heads, remain unbowed. Total entries were up (138), number ofawards up (11), entrants joining the MJA up (18). Philippa Pigache reports; shortlists in full on page 2.

1

ContentsWinter awards entries page 1Winning quiz team page 1NoticeBoard page 2Winter awards shortlists page 2Quiz night review page 3Quiz night pictures pp 4&5Libel law meeting page 6Farewell Victoria page 6Paul Vaughan remembered page 7BookEnds Being Mortal page 8

The winning quiz teamSparkles and Spoons (don’t ask) celebrates with bottles of bubbly all round. From left: membersAlan Maryon-Davis, Jane Symons, Nicola Hill, Pat Hagan, guest Nick Samuels (from the Foun-dation Trust Network), and member Sue Murray. (More pictures on pages 4&5.) ◆

Photos here and on pages 3, 4 & 5: Trevor Aston

More new membersBarbara Rowlands is director of the MA in magazinejournalism at City University London. She has 25 years’ experience in developing curricula for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes for three of the UK’s leadingjournalism schools, wrote and launched the BA in medical journalism at the University of Westminster, and has deliveredmedia training to a range of organisations for more than 20years. She has freelanced as a health journalist for 25 years, filing for the broadsheets, and for general and professional magazines. She has written three health books and has just completed a doctorate in media representations of complementary medicine. Away from the keyboard, she is a bitof a film buff, loves theatre, friends, family, eating, chatting…all the usual journalistic pursuits. ◆

NoticeBoard

2

New membersNeil Durham is editor of the fortni

ghtly GP magazine

and its website GPonline. He joined GP in 2000 from

The News, the Portsmouth daily, where he was health

correspondent. He started in journalism in 1989 and has

also worked on local newspapers in Devon and Surrey.

Will Hazell studied history and politics at Pembroke College, Oxford, before joining the public service outsourcing firm Serco. While working, he took an eveningpostgraduate journalism course at Birkbeck College, University of London, where he co-edited the student magazine, and once he had completed the course, he startedfreelancing. He joined Health Service Journal in November2013. In his spare time he enjoys running, history, art and quizzing.

Alok Jha is science correspondent for ITV News

in London. Before that he was a science correspondent on

the Guardian, presented programmes for BBC TV and

radio, and also set up and presented the Guardian's award-

winning Science Weekly podcast. He has degrees in physics

and science communication from Imperial College

London. He has reported live from Antarctica, floated

aboard a zero-gravity flight with the European Space

Agency, had his genes sequenced, and reported from

location in Cape Canaveral as the space shuttle took off on

its final mission. He is author of The Doomsday Handbook:

50 Ways to the End of the World and How to Live Forever and

34 Other Really Interesting Uses for Science (Quercus). He

is currently working on a third book, about water.

Alicia Parr is the science policy officer at theInstitute for Food, Brain and Behaviour (IFBB), a charityproducing evidence-based policy recommendations in thearea of neuroscience and nutrition. Before this she workedon a research project on peanut allergy at King’s CollegeLondon. She studied biology at Cardiff University andgained an MA in nutrition, obesity and health at the University of Leeds.

Shortlists for the Winter Awards 2015 Broadcast feature Alok Jha Kerri Smith Fergus WalshColumn or opinion Elena Cattaneo and Gilberto Corbellin Daniel Sokol Patrick Strudwick Data journalism Dawn Connelly Sabilah Eboo Kerri SmithHealth education Neil Hallows Jane SpenceInvestigative reporting/scoop (general audience) Steve Connor Kate Kelland Ric Esther Bienstock Chris SmythInvestigative reporting/scoop (specialist audience) Andy McNichol Caroline PricePersonal story (first person or ghosted narrative) Pete Docherty Amelia Gentleman Zosia KmietowitczProfile of a health or medical figure Alison Abbott Catherine de LangScience explained Chloe Lambert Patrick Strudwick Fergus WalshTony Thistlethwaite health book award David Adam Sandra HempelVideo journalism` Ross Lydell Anna Magee Charlotte Stoddard Fergus Walsh ◆

Martha Roberts has a degree in politics from the University of Sussex and a postgraduate diploma in newspaper journalism from Cardiff'’s School of Journalism.She trained as a news reporter on The News in Portsmouth before working on women’s magazines. She was deputyhealth editor at The Sun and health editor at the ISPFreeserve (later Orange). Since going freelance in 2001 herwork has appeared in many national papers and magazines.She has a regular column in Psychologies and blogs on mental health for the Huffington Post and at www.mentalhealthwise.com. She co-authored Sugar Addict’s Diet with trainer Nicki Waterman (HarperCollins),For fun, Martha enjoys long-distance walking, going to thetheatre, eating cheese and looking at paint colour-cards waytoo often.

3

here was a definite flavour of Hogwarts permeating theChristmas party and quiz. This was partly down to themagnificent panelled surroundings of the Apothecaries’

Hall in which it was held, and partly because the event wascleverly designed to mimic a school day, with a timetable of lessons (rounds) held under the eagle eyes of the Headmistressand her deputy (the quiz masters). To add to the conceit, allthe tables were named after teachers of one kind or another,from Yoda to Indiana Jones.

Before Assembly (the first round) Dr John Moore-Gillon, theMaster (of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London; byday a consultant respiratory surgeon at Barts), gave us a pottedhistory of the Worshipful Society and the role it plays today. Thenit was time to turn over our papers, pick up our pens and begin.The first round could have been dubbed Taking the Register asmost questions consisted of working out who or what was miss-ing or came next on a list. Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow,Liverpool and ...? Pyramus, Thisbe, Wall, Lion and …?*

Assembly was followed by Mathematics – which required an eclecticrange of knowledge encompassing birds given during the TwelveDays of Christmas and the number of dancers in a quadrille. Lesson3 was Geography. Several teams decided to play their joker on thisround, confident in their abilities in this subject. However, for somethis proved to be their Waterloo as Geography turned out to be amusic round based on hit songs with cities in their title.

The first lesson after break was French. Non; ce n’était pas la

langue, but who uses French chalk? What are the only two waysyou can be out in French cricket? ** Then came General Science. On which planet would you find the Great Red Spot?What is the heat scale for chillies called?*** At this stage, manyof the teams – not least the Dumbledore table – could havedone with a little wizardry to conjure up the answers. By thetime it came to P.E. the teams managed to summon up the energy for a final gallop through the timed speed trial. They hadto match 10 facts to 10 specific sports, from archery to triplejump within the time-limit.

And then it was time for prize-giving. The students on Yoda’stable (head prefect Liz Bestik) won the wooden spoon. Thirdprize went to the class of Indiana Jones (head, Susan Mayor),second to Principal Skinner’s table (The Pharmaceutical Journalteam under Dawn Connelly), but coming first – by a sliver of amark – was the Sparkles and Spoons team on Miss Honey’stable (see picture on page 1). We are assured that no magicalpowers were involved.

On the roll of honour, generous sponsor Dr Morton’s, a doctor-led phone and advice service (which also fielded ateam), quiz-masters Paul Vates and Kate Hutchinson, Thea Jourdan, sponsor liaison, and Maya Anaokar who again put thewhole thing together. Our warm and sincere thanks. ◆

T

O true Apothecary – thy hall hosted a great party

text

A second resoundingly successful MJA party and quiz took place at the end of November at theApothecaries Hall. Lee Rodwell attended, competed and reports. (Inset from left: Lilian Anekwe,Janna Lawrence and Dawn Connelly confer.)

Answers: *Manchester; moon** A dressmaker; caught, hit on the legs*** Jupiter; the Scoville scale

4

MJA strictly quizzing

Lee Rodwell (your reporter, left) with Judy Hobson

The BMJ team, from the left, going round the table: Caroline White,Tom Moberley, Navjoyt Ladher, David Payne and Ingrid Torjesen

Dr Karen Morton, from

5

From left, going round the table, Chris Chapman, Matthew Wright (beard), Janna Lawrence,Elizabeth Sukkar, Dawn Connelly and Harriet Adcock with her back to us

Dr John Moore-Gillon, Master of the Worshipful Society of the Apothecaries, with Jenny Hope (centre) and Anna Hodgekiss of the Daily Mail

m the sponsors’ tea

m

6

iobhian Butterworth is heaven-sent for hacks like me,whose knowledge of libel law was gleaned from a tatty,1980s’ edition of McNae’s Essential Law for Journalists,

plus lectures from a media lawyer with Russell Harty hair atCardiff School of Journalism in 1990. But what use in today’sdigital world is Sim vs Stretch – the 1936 action triggered by atelegram from a servant’s new employer to her previous boss,asking for her wages to be forwarded, implying that the bosswas tardy in settling his accounts?

Fast forward to the 1970s, particularly Rock Follies star Charlotte Cornwell’s £10,000 payout after TV critic NinaMyskow said of her, ‘She can’t sing, her bum is too big, and shehas the sort of stage presence that jams lavatories.’ The jury saidit was a ‘vulgar, vindictive, personal attack’. My favourite is the1956 action after Mirror-columnist Cassandra described theflamboyant pianist Liberace as ‘The summit of sex – the pinnacle of masculine, feminine, and neuter. Everything thathe, she, and it can ever want… a deadly, winking, sniggering,snuggling, chromium-plated, scent-impregnated, luminous,quivering, giggling, fruit-flavoured, mincing, ice-covered heapof mother love.’

What a put-down. It resulted in the then record payout of£8,000. How would such cases have concluded today followingthe Defamation Act 2013, introduced in the wake of the prosecution of science-writer Simon Singh for accusing theBritish Chiropractic Association of happily promoting ‘bogus treatments’ in a Guardian article?

The meat and potatoes of the new lawButterworth’s brief was to compare the libel landscape beforeand after the 2013 legislation. Her slides defined defamation,slander, and malicious falsehood, and highlighted who can sue(living people, companies, and organisations), and who can’t(government bodies and public authorities, political parties,and so on). But the meat of her session focused on the new libellaws for England and Wales and their application in a digital age.

The law regards publication in a scientific or academic journalas privileged, provided it relates to scientific or academic

matters; also, providedthat, before it has beenpublished, an indep-endent review of itsscientific or academicmerit has been carriedout (peer-reviewed)by the editor of thejournal; and/or by oneor more experts in thearea concerned. However, publication is not privileged if it can be shown to havebeen made with malice. The word ‘publication’, incidentally, covers both print and online.

Of particular interest to MJA members was the new Section 7provision, because this extends this qualified peer-review privilege to any fair and accurate reporting of the proceedingsof scientific or academic conferences and press briefings heldanywhere in the world.

Will the audience come up to scratch?When you invite a friend or colleague to present, you have twoconcerns. Will there be a good turnout, and will people askgood questions? MJA members did not disappoint. Theaudience probed the peer-review issue in more detail,particularly in relation to the policy of publishing reviewer information alongside articles.

Members also asked about letters to the editor, and wonderedwhere humour and irony now sit in relation to the new Act.Sadly there was no time for me to ask about how the new lawmight alter London’s unenviable reputation as the libel capitalof the world (the Act aims to address so-called libel tourism),and plans to extend the Act to cover Scotland and NorthernIreland. I guess we might need to invite her back. ◆

S

A changed landscape with new English libel and defamation lawLast November, MJA vice-chair David Payne (digital editor at the BMJ) invited his colleague,Siobhian Butterworth, formerly a legal director at the Guardian, but now general counsel at theBMJ, to provide members with a primer on how the new English laws on libel and defamation,which came into force early in 2014, might affect our work. He reports below.

Former chair Victoria Lamberthas resigned fromthe MJA executivecommittee, due toother ongoingcommitments. Sheserved as chairfrom 2012 to2014 and was always gracious,diplomatic and

brimming with ideas. As part of a vital injection of new blood on

the committee in 2012, she presided over the launch of the livelynew website, increased membership (now more than 470),backed bigger and more generous awards, and a programme ofstimulating and informative meetings. She will be sorely missed. Lawrence McGinty, former science and medical editor at ITVNews, took over from Victoria last October. He says: ‘Taking onthe chair of the MJA is a daunting task, and I would like to thank Victoria for the help she gave me when I became chair. We allwish her well and wonder how she will survive without thoseseemingly endless executive committee meetings.’ Victoria said:‘It has been an absolute pleasure to work alongside my colleagueson the committee, and great fun too. But I felt it was time tomake way for new blood.’ ◆

Ave atque vale Victoria

7

The voice of Horizon has died

n the early 1970s Paul Vaughan was deputy editor of WorldMedicine, the long-gone but not yet entirely forgottendoctors’ magazine edited in a mindset of well-ordered

anarchy by writer, broadcaster, anecdotalist and ex-GP MichaelO’Donnell. I joined the magazine as science editor. I overlapped with Paul by a couple of years, and when he left in1973 I moved up to take over his job.

Among the magazine’s regular columns was one called DrJekyll and another called Mr Hyde. The first was written by DrDavid Delvin (another former chair of the MJA), who took abawdy delight in demonstrating that the magazine’s highly-qualified and intellectually-gifted readership had a taste forsalacious knockabout humour. Paul, as Mr Hyde, took an entirely different approach, and one that perfectly complemented that of his fellow columnist. Using materialdrawn from within and without medicine, he honed the dryhumour and acerbic wit he was later to use with delightful effectwhen he came to write his two volumes of autobiographicalreminiscences. In these he describes how it was that an Oxfordgraduate in English and French had come to spend so much ofhis career in the company of doctors and scientists, as well aswith those of us who chronicle and criticise their doings.

So, how did it come about? By chance, really. Newly graduated,Vaughan needed a job – any job – and joined a small drug company. He stuck it out for five years before moving to theBMA as a press officer and, in due course, chief press officer.

Having learned the rudiments of the trade he used his consider-able writing talents to forge a career in journalism. It was whenhe started to do radio interviews that his other asset, his voice,became apparent. While Paul could take no credit for the vocalcords with which nature had endowed him, he surely could forthe way he used them. Radio programmes he presented included Science in Action on the World Service and New Worldson Radio 4. And then, of course, there was Horizon, a TV programme he narrated regularly for almost two decades. The

best producers of Paul’s era relied on the quality of theirmaterial to attract their audiences: material that was either interesting, important, or both. Paul’s voice seemed perfectlyto embody that reliance. Never hectoring or over-excited, authoritative without sounding didactic, the warm and calmdelivery engendered a feeling of intellectual and emotionalnourishment. Certain advertisers realised this as well: ‘The future’s bright; the future’s Orange.’

It’s for his voice on Horizon that most people will rememberPaul, but it should really be for the two volumes of autobiography: Something in Linoleum: a 30’s education, andExciting Times in the Accounts Department, published by Faberand Faber in 1994 and1995. Ironic that what must have broughthim the most money for the least work were those six wordsfor Orange.

From the MJA websitev Raanan Gillon writes: He was a lovely man. I first met him inthe early 60’s when I was… a fellow (but very junior) foundingmember of the MJA; and then as a wonderful contributor tothose long-gone weekly freebies, Medical News and MedicalNews-Tribune, that I edited. Always calm and grounded, wonderfully knowledgeable, often witty, but with scalpel-sharp analytical skills, he was one of our star freelancers – and a goodcompanion at the Cheshire Cheese and Wig and Pen. Sad news.

v Fred Kavalier writes: I knew Paul at World Medicine in theearly 1970s. He was kind, quiet, articulate and witty, with awry smile.

v Patricia Macnair writes: When I first took a break from clinical work to make medical films, Paul was one of our regular voices. He needed little direction and very rarely did Ihave to correct his pronunciation even of obscure diseases ordaft drug names. His dry wit would then send my producer andme into fits of giggles as we stepped out into the chaos ofBerwick Street market to find some lunch. Lovely memories.◆

I

Paul Vaughan, founder member of the MJA, broadcaster and former BMA press officer, has diedaged 89. As chair of the steering committee, he presented the constitution at the association’s firstAGM in 1967. He then became vice chair from 1967-71 and chair from 1971-73. Geoff Watts, whoworked with him on World Medicine at this time, and later also at the BBC, provides a personalreminiscence. (This is an edited extract of the obit run in full on the MJA website. To read the fulltext and members’ comments, go to the MJA website, www.mjauk.org.)

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Lawrence McGinty, MJA chairEDITOR: Philippa Pigache, Fairfield, Cross in Hand, Heathfield, TN21 0SHCHIEF SUB-EDITOR: Deanna WilsonDesigned & printed by Republic Media, London Road, Crowborough, TN6 2TRMJA NEWS is published quarterlyCopyright MJA 2015www.mjauk.org

8

In the MJA Awards booklet 2014, Rob Galloway, A&E consultant and winner of the Column/opinionpiece award, wrote: ‘End-of-life care… can cause devastating problems, so that people who shoulddie holding their loved ones’ hands, actually die with me and my colleagues jumping up and downon their chests.’ This is one of the issues confronted in Gawande’s new book, which Gallowayreviews below.

BookEnds

n cubicle 12 of the A&E unit where I work is the brokenhip; in the resuscitation room 3 is the punctured lung; inthe side room 2 the gastroenteritis. I like that in some ways.

I don’t have to think. I treat the condition, work according to aset of protocols and evidence-based medicine and then move onto the next case. The problems I have had to confront are exactly the onesGawande has previously identified. How do we treat theseconditions in the best possible way every time? How do we stopmaking mistakes? In his earlier book (Checklists: how do we getthings right?) he asks the question in beautifully craftedword-wizardry. He showed us that as doctors we are fallible, wemake mistakes and we must improve. To optimise the treatmentsof the cases we see, we need to practise medicine differently:questioning our procedures, working as a team, drawing upchecklists and ticking them off. For many of us this idea was arevelation. Surely doctors and nurses don’t make mistakes? Butto me, he said what I had always believed. I became an advocateof his new self-critical style of medicine. So I picked up Being Mortal in anticipation of something similar.

I assumed I would love the book and that it would endorse how Ipractise, as a doctor. But this book was different. It said morethan that doctors should admit to making mistakes. It wentfurther; to question whether we even knew what we were doingwhen it came to looking after those at the end of their lives. Heargues that in its current format, the care of the elderly and dyingis both unsustainable and not the best way to support them as

patients. We are treating old age and dying as though they werean illness, as opposed to a part of life. He believes that we shouldchange our approach radically in this area of medical care: acomplete change of mentality. And I think he is right. I don't provide treatment for most of the

conditions I see. I provide care for the individuals who end up inthose cubicles. The case in cubicle 12 was a 92-year-oldmelancholic lady brought in because she had had a fall. This hadbeen caused by a whole plethora of social and domestic factors,including that her husband had recently died, so could no longerhelp her to the lavatory, and thus she ended up breaking her hip.But that wasn’t her main concern – it was who was going to feedher dog.The book is a great read. It is written in a perfect ‘Gawandesque’style, illustrated with patient stories, and illuminating studies thatdrive the narrative along. One tells of how a doctor changed anursing home where the patients all looked like living corpses –sick, emotionless, in a state of mind worse than depressed. Hestarted by thinking that poor medical care was causing the prob-lems. He examined them, did various tests and started andstopped new medications according to the latest evidence-basedmedicine; to no effect. The patients had better blood pressurecontrol and lower cholesterol but they were still not alive in anymeaningful way. So he stopped and thought – these patients don’t need more

medicine. They need to live and be among the living. So hebrought pets into the nursing home, set up a crèche there,brought school kids in to ask about the old people’s war storiesand gave the residents some responsibilities – look after thebirds, water the plants, teach the kids, live again. They still hadmedical issues – but they were side issues that needed to be managed to let them live again. And the outcome? Happier people, medications reduced, mobility increased and mortalitydropped. Plus, for society in a time of austerity, costs fell. Gawande’s argument is undeniably radical, a totally new

approach. It should be read and absorbed by all healthcareproviders; and by everyone else. We should start to think lessabout how doctors and nurses treat us as we get old and infirm,and more about how we, as a society, support those coming tothe end of their lives. ◆

I

Being Mortal – Illness, Medicine, and What Matters in the End,Atul Gawande. Profile books, £11.19