Corporate announcement - BMJ Group https://bmjgroup.com Helping doctors make better decisions Mon, 19 Jan 2026 17:24:13 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://bmjgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Favicon2_Orange.png Corporate announcement - BMJ Group https://bmjgroup.com 32 32 Establishing the next generation advisory panel, with Dr Jamie Smyth https://bmjgroup.com/establishing-the-next-generation-advisory-panel/ Mon, 19 Jan 2026 17:09:26 +0000 https://bmjgroup.com/?p=14867

More about the next generation advisory panel

The next generation advisory panel is a representative group that ensures that the views and interests of early-career healthcare professionals are represented throughout the planning and delivery of our International Forums in Quality and Safety in Healthcare.

The panel plays a pivotal role in providing support and advice during our planning meetings, and critically, providing a strategic direction for achieving greater representation of early career healthcare professionals during Forums, an essential part of our growing community.

Meeting the changing and complex needs of patients

Attending Oslo?

Join the Aspiring Leaders in Healthcare Network (ALiHN) early career professionals networking breakfast

This is the perfect opportunity for early-career professionals to connect with peers from around the world, build a supportive community for your time in Oslo, and discover how ALiHN empowers future healthcare leaders. Begin your conference with new connections, shared ideas, and a strong sense of community.

Dr Emily Audet, Severn Hospice, UK
Dr Jamie Smyth, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust; UK

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The BMJ’s appeal: please donate to support Médecins Sans Frontières https://bmjgroup.com/the-bmjs-appeal-please-donate-to-support-medecins-sans-frontieres/ Fri, 12 Dec 2025 12:49:14 +0000 https://bmjgroup.com/?p=14519

The BMJ 2025–26 appeal: supporting Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Gaza, Sudan and more than 70 countries worldwide. Please donate if you are able: https://msf.org.uk/bmj-annual-appeal-2025  

Over the next eight weeks, The BMJ will be showcasing MSF’s extraordinary work through reporting, opinion articles, and photography. Our coverage will highlight teams responding to complex and fast-moving humanitarian emergencies in a handful of the more than 70 countries where MSF operates, including Gaza, Sudan, and Nigeria.

As Dr Natalie Roberts, MSF UK’s executive director, notes in her piece for us, MSF treats millions of people every year for injuries, malaria, cholera, or malnutrition in war zones, refugee camps, and areas hit by natural disasters. The charity’s independence allows its teams to act fast and reach the people who need medical care the most.

Most MSF staff are locally recruited. One of them, Palestinian doctor Mohamed Abu Mughaisib, has spent almost 800 days working in Gaza. His interview with our correspondent Elisabeth Mahase offers a stark account of how medical staff are bracing for winter as Israeli attacks and aid restrictions continue.

Please donate if you are able: https://msf.org.uk/bmj-annual-appeal-2025

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Have a story to tell? https://bmjgroup.com/yourimpact/ Mon, 10 Nov 2025 16:42:10 +0000 https://bmjgroup.com/?p=14333

Share how BMJ Group helped you make a difference

Whether you used a BMJ journal, event, or tool to improve care, advance research, or influence policy, we would like to hear your story. Your experience could be featured on bmjgroup.com or in our next impact report.

Takes two minutes to complete.

Why your story matters

Your examples help show how evidence and education become better outcomes for patients, professionals, and communities. They also help others learn what works.

What to include

What changed in your setting or community

How BMJ helped (journal, event, course, guideline, BMJ Best Practice clincial decision support, or another tool)

Who benefited (patients, clinicians, students, policy makers)

Any evidence you can share (numbers or qualitative feedback)

 “The more we show what’s working, the faster good ideas spread.”

 Ingrid Bray
 Senior Corporate Communications Manager, and editor of BMJ Group’s annual impact report 

Stories that have made a difference

Ugandan trial shifted global covid-19 guidance
Influencing health policy in Peru
Rare case report sparks global safety rethink
Ugandan trial shifted global covid-19 guidance

Ugandan trial shifted global covid-19 guidance

In August 2021, Dr Bruce Kirenga and his team at the Makerere University Lung Institute published a pivotal study in BMJ Open Respiratory Research on the efficacy of convalescent plasma for covid-19 treatment in Uganda.

The study’s findings on the limited efficacy of convalescent plasma (CP) helped shape major treatment guidelines, including the World Health Organization Therapeutics and COVID-19: Living guideline. Where most publications in the biomedical and clinical sciences field receive only two to three citations, this study has far exceeded that benchmark. BMJ Impact Analytics shows 46 citations in health policy, eight in clinical guidance, and uptake across five countries.

Influencing health policy in Peru

Influencing health policy in Peru

Dr Magaly Blas, medical epidemiologist at Cayetano Heredia Peruvian University, Peru, led the Mamás del Río programme to improve maternal and newborn care in remote Amazonian communities. Published in BMJ Innovations, the work informed national policy, was integrated into Peru’s health system, and expanded from 13 to 84 communities with improved newborn outcomes.

Rare case report sparks global safety rethink

Rare case report sparks global safety rethink

Dr Clara Maarup Prip, a urologist and gynaecologist at Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark, documented an unusual case of kidney swelling caused by a menstrual cup compressing the ureter. Published as “Ureterohydronephrosis due to a menstrual cup in BMJ Case Reports,” the paper spread quickly after it was press-released by the BMJ Group media relations team, sparking widespread discussion on safe cup use and symptom awareness.

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Varied voices: How to make research more inclusive and diverse through public involvement https://bmjgroup.com/varied-voices-how-to-make-research-more-inclusive-and-diverse-through-public-involvement/ Wed, 05 Nov 2025 11:46:12 +0000 https://bmjgroup.com/?p=14210

BMJ Group has partnered with the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) to strengthen how people and communities are involved in medical research.

Varied Voices, a free online course developed by NIHR and supported by BMJ Learning, helps healthcare professionals understand how inclusion and diversity improve the quality and impact of research. It offers practical ways to engage underrepresented groups and create more inclusive research environments.

 This collaboration reflects how BMJ Group and NIHR are working together to increase the reach and real-world impact of health and care research.

“The good physician treats the disease; the great physician treats the patient who has the disease.” Sir William Osler

Who is it for
The course is suitable for all healthcare professionals involved in research, including:
GPs, GP trainees, hospital doctors, foundation doctors, practice and specialist nurses, allied health professionals, physician associates, medical students, and medical trainees.

What you will learn
After completing the course, you will be able to:

  • Explain diversity, underrepresented voices, and public involvement in research

  • Understand how inclusive practices improve the quality and relevance of health and care research

  • Recognise barriers that discourage participation from underrepresented communities

  • Apply strategies to make research more inclusive

  • Evaluate how effectively your research promotes diversity and inclusion

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China’s data revolution offers lessons for global health, find experts https://bmjgroup.com/chinas-data-revolution-offers-lessons-for-global-health-find-experts/ Thu, 23 Oct 2025 14:19:58 +0000 https://bmjgroup.com/?p=13881

International collaboration key to unlocking China’s research potential, says new BMJ Collection

A new BMJ Collection, Enhancing cohort studies in China and internationally, explores how large scale, well designed research from China can strengthen global understanding of population health, ageing, and chronic disease.

China’s vast population and rapid social change make it a “living laboratory” for health research, offering valuable insights into the drivers of non-communicable diseases, environmental exposures, and demographic shifts. The Collection also highlights the growing use of artificial intelligence and digital data, warning that rapid research expansion brings new risks, from fragmented data systems to pressures prioritising quantity over quality.

The Collection authors call for stronger international collaboration to ensure China’s research potential translates into tangible health benefits worldwide. This includes harmonising study design, improving data governance and sharing, and building sustainable funding models to protect the long-term value of cohort data.

Dr Jocalyn Clark

China’s scale makes it a living laboratory for global health, but scale alone isn’t enough. To deliver real impact, research must be rigorous, transparent, and internationally connected.

Dr Jocalyn Clark 
The BMJ’s International Editor and editorial lead for this special collection

The Collection features six analysis articles and an editorial co-authored by experts from The BMJ, Tsinghua University, and the University of Bristol. Together, they chart the evolution of cohort studies in China, from early occupational cohorts to today’s large-scale initiatives, and set out recommendations for the next phase of collaboration and quality assurance.

Main articles in the BMJ Collection on China’s Cohort Studies

Editorial

Enhancing cohort studies in China and international collaboration
A new BMJ Collection examines how well designed, large scale research can benefit global health, but that international collaboration is key to unlocking China’s full potential 

Analysis

Landscape analysis of large scale cohort development in China
Zhibin Hu and colleagues advocate for multi-stakeholder collaboration to promote the sustainable development of large scale cohorts in China

International collaboration in cohort studies in China: opportunities and challenges
Zhengming Chen and colleagues outline the key value, opportunities, and challenges of international collaboration in cohort studies in China

Community based cohort studies in China: critical insights for shaping the future of population and public health
Dongfeng Gu and colleagues review community based cohort studies in China, finding strategies to improve the quality and scale of these studies in China and beyond

Breadth versus depth: balancing variables, sample size, and quality in Chinese cohort studies
Weimin Li and colleagues explore the trade-offs and challenges posed by the increasing scale and complexity of cohort studies, highlighting the central argument that “bigger is not always better”

Building sustainable cohort studies in China: a hybrid model for public health research
Xiangmei Chen and colleagues consider the challenges of conducting cohort studies and how they can be overcome

Transforming Chinese cohort studies through artificial intelligence: a new era of population health research
Tien Yin Wong and colleagues explore how artificial intelligence can tackle persistent challenges in Chinese epidemiological studies and analyse the regulatory frameworks and barriers to implementation that must be overcome to ensure equitable, scientifically rigorous population health research

Notes to editors

Funding
This BMJ collection was developed in partnership with West China Hospital, Sichuan University and the First Hospital of Jilin University. The BMJ commissioned, peer reviewed, edited, and made the decisions to publish the articles. John Ji and Jocalyn Clark were the lead editors for The BMJ.

Request an interview with The BMJ international editor, Dr Jocalyn Clark, by contacting the BMJ Group media relations team: mediarelations@bmj.com / +44 (0)7825 118 107

About BMJ Group and BMJ Collections
BMJ Group is a global healthcare knowledge provider and publisher of one of the world’s top five most cited general medical journals, The BMJ. For BMJ Group, collections are an important way of bringing evidence together to address key issues in health and research. BMJ Collections help inform policy and guidelines and influence funding decisions by tackling the most pressing health challenges, policy issues and global priorities.

They combine research, analysis and expert commentary, coordinated and commissioned through our global network of researchers, and are developed with academic institutions, funders, non governmental organisations and international bodies. Drawing on leading journals such as The BMJ, BMJ Innovations and BMJ Global Health, they raise awareness and deliver the latest, most relevant evidence through events, targeted dissemination and thought leadership. https://www.bmj.com/collections

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BMJ Group unveils 2025 impact report, spotlighting global health influence and policy reach https://bmjgroup.com/bmj-group-unveils-2025-impact-report-spotlighting-global-health-influence-and-policy-reach/ Tue, 14 Oct 2025 10:54:16 +0000 https://bmjgroup.com/?p=13283

September – October 2025—BMJ Group has published its 2025 impact report, underlining the healthcare knowledge provider’s growing influence on health systems, clinical practice, and global policy.

As a signatory to the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), BMJ Group promotes a more rounded picture of research quality and impact. Alongside the Journal Impact Factor, BMJ journals report additional measures such as CiteScore, Altmetric mentions, and time to first decision, helping institutions, authors, and funders see not only how widely research is cited but also how quickly it informs debate, shapes policy, and changes practice.

Across the portfolio, more than half of the Group’s 65-plus journals ranked in the first quartile of their fields, with 20% in the global top ten of their categories. Evidence, the Group says, of consistent, broad based impact beyond headline metrics.

Every story in this year’s report shows how trusted evidence drives change in healthcare. If pressed to single out a few, highlights include:

  • Evidence in action: Research published by The BMJ helped prompt the UK government’s decision to mandate folic acid fortification of flour, a landmark policy that will prevent thousands of neural tube defects
  • Equity in innovation: A BMJ Innovations study accelerated the development of the first device designed to eliminate racial bias in oxygen monitoring, ensuring safer diagnostics for all skin tones
  • Proving research influence: The Office of Health Economics used BMJ Impact Analytics to show that 27% of its research was cited in policy, four times the global average, helping secure funding and demonstrate real world value

Charlotte Ashton-Khan, director of external affairs, Office of Health Economics, said: “BMJ Impact Analytics has given us valuable insight into how our research is being received and used. It’s helped us stay relevant and responsive without compromising our integrity. That was the missing piece for us.”

  • Championing children’s rights: BMJ Paediatrics Open, under the editorial leadership of Professor Shanti Raman, has become a platform for improving the health and wellbeing of street and working children worldwide. Its special collection not only provides practical tools for clinicians and policymakers but also amplifies the voices and lived experiences of children too often ignored
  • Strengthening health systems – From Ireland to Cyprus, BMJ Best Practice has been adopted nationally to support confident clinical decisions and patient empowerment, showing how trusted knowledge can transform care at scale

Professor George Samoutis, chairman of the coordination committee of the National Centre for Clinical Evidence, Cyprus, said:  “BMJ [Group]’s tools and events don’t just inform our thinking – they shape it.”

BMJ Group’s digital tools also featured strongly: Ireland’s Health Service Executive has adopted BMJ Best Practice patient leaflets to tackle unreliable health advice head on. With 288,000 sessions and 1.7 million interactions in a year, the concise, evidence based resources give patients clarity, build trust, and empower shared decision making alongside their clinicians.

Brendan Leen, Area library manager (HSE Library), Health Service Executive, Ireland, said: “Part of the value of making a resource available universally, for all Irish citizens, is that it improves conversations between healthcare professionals and patients, and supports shared decision making around treatments or lifestyle choices.”

Commenting on the launch, BMJ Group said the report demonstrates “a ripple effect of impact, from research to real world results, shaping stronger health systems and better patient outcomes everywhere.”

The full 2025 impact report is available at: https://info.bmj.com/view/359109102/

For information, please contact Ingrid Bray, Senior Corporate Brand & Communications Manager, BMJ Group: ibray@bmj.com

BMJ Group impact report: 2025

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Ian Mulvany spills the beans on where he is with AI right now – Genies, Bottles, and Capex https://bmjgroup.com/where-i-am-with-ai-right-now-genies-bottles-and-capex/ Mon, 13 Oct 2025 10:25:08 +0000 https://bmjgroup.com/?p=13524

Expert insights with Ian Mulvany

My bias

 

In this post, I want to pull together my current thinking about AI.  I want to cover a few different threads, so bear with me.

I am enamoured with technology. There is something here in GenAI and LLMs. I like them. I use them a lot. I have a strong positive bias. I have to guard against that. I probably don’t guard well enough. Most people don’t use them. They don’t move atoms (for now), and they certainly don’t cook for me.

But I will give in to my more fanciful way of seeing things in this blog post.

Why we should engage as publishers

 

I’m convinced that these technologies are going to radically transform processes around the creation of knowledge, and in particular, academic papers. That will impact the industry that I work in. Much of the cost and infrastructure that scholarly publishing companies bear will need to shift to other ways of supporting the value chain.

There is a non-zero risk that this will significantly stress existing companies.

We can’t put the genie back in the bottle; the technologies are her. As long as people want friendly, fast answers to things, they are going to increasingly use these technologies. We might wish for a different scenario in terms of who controls these technologies, but we have to work with the world as it is. On that basis, I am strongly in favour of publishing houses licensing content to these models to help make them better.

I spoke about this in an interview with Wiley a few weeks ago → 🎥

We are in the business of creating knowledge. These tools are cultural and social technologies, so our efforts to create knowledge in the world have to face their existence. We should endeavour to make these tools as useful as possible.

Our corpus is mostly clean, mostly bias free, and potentially has embedded patterns that help guard against bias, and that are pessimistic about knowledge claims, on the whole. Such a view is an important view. It is not the view that you get about the world if you treat the world as a human would treat it. Humans like bias, we like stories, we like to be fooled. We need these machines to be capable of not being fooled, just as we can rise above foolishness occasionally.

But it’s not all gravy, there are complications to account for. Lots of complications.

The winds of change and the potential for disruption

I don’t really know what technological disruption looks like. In spite of many hopes and claims, the industry I work in is mostly immune to it.

Many groups are not totally happy with the current state of things. Probably most groups are not happy (though it might be that the most important and influential groups are happy enough not to need to disrupt it—and I’m thinking specifically of Government, for whom research efficiency is rarely the most important challenge that they need to address).

With the money that is pouring into AI, there is a new power imbalance in knowledge ecosystems. I have heard unofficially that some stakeholders are hoping that this might be a moment that makes it possible to eliminate scholarly publishers from the ecosystem. I don’t have a strong opinion on whether that would be a good or bad thing – any system will have trade-offs. Maybe some new tradeoffs could be better? Nonetheless, it indicates how disruptive some people are seeing these trends. I think scholarly publishers need to be ready to disrupt themselves, which will be hard to do.

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BMJ Group launches global call to close the women’s health gap and transform innovation https://bmjgroup.com/bmj-collection-on-womens-health-innovation/ Fri, 10 Oct 2025 10:29:44 +0000 https://bmjgroup.com/?p=13484

New BMJ Collection, in partnership with the Gates Foundation, exposes persistent inequities in women’s health and charts a path for change

Women’s health is not a niche issue. It is fundamental to global health and prosperity. Women outlive men, yet spend 25% more time in poor health, facing conditions that affect them disproportionately or uniquely. Despite comprising half the world’s population, women in all their diversity remain underrepresented in global research and innovation. Just 1% of healthcare research and development (R&D) is invested in female-specific conditions beyond oncology. 

The new ”BMJ Collection on women’s health innovation”, developed in partnership with the Gates Foundation, examines how equitable innovation can transform women’s health. Rather than a conventional report or white paper, the Collection of original articles brings together evidence and expertise to outline steps for embedding equity into research, technology, policy, and leadership, ensuring future innovation and advances are designed for women’s needs and realities.

Gates Foundation logo
Gates Foundation Collection

Drawing on contributions from experts in 14 countries across six continents, the Collection explores how advances in data science, artificial intelligence, regulatory reform, decolonial thinking, and women’s leadership can close the women’s health gap, from cervical cancer screening in low-income settings to clinical trials that reflect women’s bodies. The articles span six domains identified in the Women’s Health Innovation Opportunity Map, examining how progress in data, research design, policy, social determinants, leadership, and careers can improve health outcomes.

The challenge remains stark. Only 5% of global health R&D targets female-specific conditions, and women continue to be underrepresented in clinical research, limiting the effectiveness and safety of many treatments. They make up 70% of the health workforce but hold just a quarter of leadership roles, and even proven tools such as the HPV vaccine fail to reach millions due to systemic inequities, with 90% of cervical cancer deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries

This Collection argues that technology alone cannot solve these inequities. Without attention to context, affordability, political environments, and systemic barriers, even proven innovations fail to reach those most in need, and poorly designed digital tools risk reinforcing inequalities rather than reducing them.

Dr Jocalyn Clark

“We will close out 2025 in defiance of how it began, by championing the fact that women, in all their diversities, are not passive to political tides but powerful agents of change. Their leadership will strengthen women’s health, innovation, rights, and the entire global health ecosystem. But sustaining that momentum, especially amid shrinking public budgets, will require continued support from government, civil society, philanthropy and business to fuel the wave of innovation women’s health so urgently needs.”

Dr Jocalyn Clark 
The BMJ’s International Editor and editorial lead for this special collection

Main articles in the BMJ Collection on women’s health innovation

Editorial

Upending women’s health
The growing movement around women’s health innovation is welcomed, but to be genuinely transformative it must be political, argues Jocalyn Clark

Analysis

Innovative design and modelling to improve sex and gender analysis in clinical trials
Jane Hirst and colleagues argue that novel modelling approaches using routinely collected data can be only as representative and complete as the original data, and that bridging the sex and gender gap through contemporary, innovative clinical trial designs could be a crucial way forward

Digital health technologies to transform women’s health innovation and inclusive research
Bola Grace and colleagues argue that using digital health technologies ethically can increase the scope and scale of research and connect systems to improve women’s health

Effective regulation of technology in women’s health and healthcare
Carmel Schachar and colleagues argue that femtech requires robust and stringent privacy and security safeguards because of the sensitivity of the data

AI supported diagnostic innovations for impact in global women’s health
Nina Linder and colleagues examine how artificial intelligence could be applied to diagnostic methods that rely on highly trained experts, such as cytological screening for cervical cancer, enabling implementation even in resource limited settings

Decolonising women’s health innovation
Tiffany Nassiri-Ansari and colleagues set out how a decolonial feminist approach to innovation could produce greater gender equality and health equity

Leadership and culture change to advance innovation in women’s health
Sapna Kedia and colleagues argue that equitable leadership, supported by training and systemic reform and rooted in marginalised groups’ experiences and community insight, can transform the innovation cycle, from research and development to delivery, making health technologies more inclusive and impactful

Designing clinical practice guidelines for equitable, inclusive and contextualized care
Sabine Oertelt-Prigione and colleagues argue that European clinical practice guidelines need standardised, inclusive, sex and gender sensitive development to not only guide healthcare but also drive innovation and research agendas

Opinion

We need a broader perspective on innovations to advance a women and health agenda
Although biotech innovations have contributed to improvements in health outcomes, we need more comprehensive health innovation to tackle persistent gender and intersectional equity gaps, argue Karla Unger Saldaña and colleagues

Reshaping research and development through women’s leadership
To achieve equitable health systems women need to be the architects of innovation, not merely its recipients, says Fara Ndiaye

Reimagining women’s health is a global imperative
The choices and investments we make to advance women’s health now will define our shared health and prosperity in the future, writes Ru Cheng

Notes to editors

Request an interview with The BMJ international editor, Dr Jocalyn Clark, by contacting the BMJ Group media relations team: mediarelations@bmj.com / +44 (0)7825 118 107 

Funding 

This BMJ Collection was developed in partnership with the Gates Foundation. Open access fees were funded by the Gates Foundation. The BMJ commissioned, peer reviewed, edited, and made the decision to publish. Smruti Patel and Jocalyn Clark were the lead editors for The BMJ.

About BMJ Group and BMJ Collections

BMJ Group is a global healthcare knowledge provider and publisher of one of the world’s top five most cited general medical journals, The BMJ. For BMJ Group, collections are an important way of bringing evidence together to address key issues in health and research. BMJ Collections help inform policy and guidelines and influence funding decisions by tackling the most pressing health challenges, policy issues and global priorities.

They combine research, analysis and expert commentary, coordinated and commissioned through our global network of researchers, and are developed with academic institutions, funders, non governmental organisations and international bodies. Drawing on leading journals such as The BMJ, BMJ Innovations and BMJ Global Health, they raise awareness and deliver the latest, most relevant evidence through events, targeted dissemination and thought leadership. https://www.bmj.com/collections

About the Innovation Equity Forum (IEF)

In early 2023, the Gates Foundation and the National Institutes of Health’s Office of Research on Women’s Health partnered with Camber Collective to establish the Innovation Equity Forum (IEF)—a global coalition of women’s health experts, innovators, and advocates. The IEF was launched to identify and prioritize critical opportunities to advance women’s health innovation worldwide. Its flagship initiative, the Women’s Health Innovation Opportunity Map, is a strategic blueprint to accelerate innovations that reduce women’s morbidity and mortality. 

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BMJ journalism on food industry, obesity care, and doctor suicide honoured at prestigious awards https://bmjgroup.com/bmj-journalism-on-food-industry-obesity-care-and-doctor-suicide-honoured-at-prestigious-awards/ Thu, 18 Sep 2025 14:27:08 +0000 https://bmjgroup.com/?p=13239

Award winning journalism: The BMJ scoops multiple awards

BMJ journalists won three awards at the 2025 Medical Journalists’ Association (MJA) Awards on the 17 September, including for investigative reporting and mental health journalism.

The MJA Awards shine a spotlight on the best in health and medical journalism across the UK, and the work of writers, editors and broadcasters.

Jennifer Richardson, Investigations and Senior Features Editor, was named Editor of the Year for a special investigative series into children and food, which revealed industry ties to government diet guidance, food companies’ infiltration of schools, and sharp tactics used by fast food giant McDonalds to roll out new branches.

Judges said the series uncovered “powerful and compelling new angles on well-covered topics.”

Elisabeth Mahase, Careers Editor, won News Story of the Year (Specialist Audience) for her “thoughtful and well-researched” investigation into obesity services in England.

She found that access to comprehensive weight loss services are being restricted by cash poor local services, with many patients being denied specialist drugs, surgery, and support.

Adele Waters, a The BMJ freelance journalist, received the Mental Health Story of the Year award for her coverage of doctor suicide. Her story, featuring testimonies from clinicians and a focus on workplace pressures, was praised for its nuanced reporting, which avoided simplification.

BMJ’s journalists also had multiple finalists at the awards: Margaret McCartney and Deborah Cohen for their highly critical look at the Galleri blood test; Hristio Boytchev, Natalie Widmann and Simon Wörpel for their investigation into medical research funded by the fossil fuel industry;  Katharine Lang, a BMJ contributor, for her popular explainer piece about covid‑19’s effects on the gut; and Rebecca Coombes for an investigation into an unethical infant feeding pilot funded by a leading formula company.

MJA chair Shaun Lintern, health editor of the Sunday Times, said the awards “remind us of the value of our craft: to hold power to account, to tell difficult truths, and to make health and medicine accessible and human.”

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AI in academic publishing https://bmjgroup.com/ai-in-academic-publishing/ Wed, 17 Sep 2025 14:33:49 +0000 https://bmjgroup.com/?p=13189

Expert insights with Ian Mulvany

From fine tuning to ethics: navigating AI’s role in research

In the first episode of Chats, a new series from Wiley, our chief technology officer Ian Mulvany joins Ray Abruzzi, senior director of AI product management at Wiley, to discuss the practical challenges and opportunities of AI in research and publishing.

They explore why waiting is not an option when it comes to AI adoption, and what it means for developers, publishers, researchers, and institutions. From finetuning models and prompt engineering to assessing performance risks and debunking misconceptions about hallucinations, the conversation offers practical insights for anyone navigating this fast moving space.

Highlights from the conversation

  • Fine tuning AI models, prompt engineering, and deployment strategies in real research settings
  • How to evaluate AI tools and build transparent publisher–developer partnerships

  • Clearing up misconceptions about hallucinations and model limitations

  • Why subject matter expertise is critical for AI development and integration

  • Practical guidance for researchers: choosing reliable AI tools, when to trust outputs, and when to verify

  • For publishers and institutions: the moral obligations of building AI’s “truth infrastructure,” plus where to prioritise investment

Ian Mulvany is BMJ Group’s Chief Technology Officer, driving digital strategy and innovation across products and platforms.

More from Ian

Ian Mulvany

Notes on vibe coding – “what works for me”

Recently, Ian has been deep in vibe coding, building not just small experiments but a substantial app with significant functionality, one he considers as production ready as many tools already in use. His approach balances two modes: striving for robustness versus simply getting things shipped.

On the robust side, Ian has developed a disciplined workflow: over 380 passing pytest tests for endpoints and views, clear design documents in markdown, and clever use of LLMs as coding partners. He leverages Claude for everything from drafting user-facing API docs to pruning codebases for duplication and anti-patterns, and even bounces knotty problems between models to unlock solutions. Git is a constant, Warp’s chat mode powers his commit messages, and Docker containers fuel his throwaway experiments.

Recently, Ian has been reflecting on what he calls FONO (fear of not operating). With LLMs capable of so much and ideas spilling over, he sometimes feels time slipping by without an agent to run with them. As agentic systems mature, that will change, but for now, it’s a fascinating moment to be coding at the edge.

And yes, Ian insists, GPT-5 is a beast.

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