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

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)

Example: “Using BMJ Best Practice, our team reduced time to correct diagnosis for neonatal sepsis.”

 “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 

“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.

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

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

“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

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

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. 

When Dr Clara Maarup Prip, a urologist and gynaecologist at Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark, encountered a rare case of kidney swelling (ureterohydronephrosis) caused by a menstrual cup, it was unlike anything she had seen before.

The menstrual cup had been compressing the ureter where it enters the bladder, leading to a serious but rare complication. After searching the literature and finding only a handful of similar cases worldwide, Dr Maarup Prip documented the case and submitted the report titled, “Ureterohydronephrosis due to a menstrual cup” to BMJ Case Reports, choosing the journal based on its reputation and guidance from experienced colleagues.

We weren’t funded, and it didn’t take long to write. But the response shows just how much value a single case report can bring.”

Dr Clara Maarup Prip
Urologist and gynaecologist, Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark

Academic literature rarely cites case reports, but that doesn’t mean they lack tangible impact. It just means they need to be measured differently: not by how they affect a journal’s impact factor, but by the value they bring to clinical education, practice, and patient safety.

As deputy editor of this important journal from the BMJ Group, I can’t help but to stress both the educational importance of case reports, but also their role in shaping often important public health advices.

Rui Amaral Mendes
Professor of the Department of Community Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, United States

“The submission process was straightforward, and the response was fast. I’d had other papers published with other publishers, and this was by far the smoothest experience.”

Dr Clara Maarup Prip
Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark

How BMJ Group is helping deliver the NHS 10-year health plan

The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) 10 year health plan (Fit for the Future), published in July 2025, is the blueprint for transforming England’s health service. It focuses on three radical shifts: moving care from hospital to community, from analogue to digital, and from sickness to prevention. It also calls for higher quality standards, a stronger workforce, innovation, and financial stability.

It is urgent work. Demand is rising, waiting lists are long, and staff are stretched. The Plan states that bold reform is needed.

At BMJ Group, we do not endorse the plan itself. But we do stand shoulder to shoulder with the NHS, supporting its staff and systems as they confront rising demand, long waiting lists, and unrelenting pressures.

At BMJ Group, our longstanding vision of creating a healthier world aligns directly with many of these priorities. Our tools, research, and education programmes make a measurable difference. Here’s how:

The NHS ten year plan dissected

Our expertise spans research, education, and clinical decision support. Our journals provide the evidence base that informs national policy and public health initiatives, for instance:

Additionally, BMJ Best Practice translates this knowledge into practical guidance, offering clinicians prevention strategies and patient-facing resources for a wide range of conditions.

A recent BMJ analysis found that in 2016–17, almost 1.5 million emergency admissions could have been avoided with stronger preventive care outside hospitals. More recently, BMJ research on HPV vaccination has helped strengthen global calls to eliminate cervical cancer, influencing both UK policy and WHO targets. The study published in The BMJ found that England’s national HPV vaccination programme led to a staggering 90% reduction in cervical cancer risk among women vaccinated at ages 12–13, compared to unvaccinated peers. This benefit was seen across socioeconomic groups, making a powerful equity case for the vaccine’s universal rollout. Public health leaders in the UK have built on this evidence to set a national elimination goal. NHS England, for instance, is aiming to eliminate cervical cancer entirely, backed by these compelling data and reinforced by BMJ findings.

The NHS long-term plan calls for safer, more transparent, and continually improving services. Quality improvement (QI) is central to this ambition, ensuring that healthcare is modern, efficient, and capable of delivering better patient outcomes.

One recent UK project designed and implemented a new management pathway for rib fractures. It shows how a pathway, which incorporated BMJ Best Practice and local hospital needs, was designed and implemented. It ultimately improved the quality of care. This shows how BMJ Best Practice can help equip frontline staff with the right knowledge and tools to deliver safer, more consistent, and higher-quality care.

The plan has much to say about training roles, the use of AI in education, and supporting a wide variety of clinical careers.

The plan aims to make the NHS the most AI-enabled health system in the world, embracing genomics, robotics, and wearable tech.

The NHS 10-year plan can only succeed if frontline staff have fast access to evidence, the skills to apply it, and systems that work with them, not against them.

BMJ Group provides those essentials – we always have, and always will. Through evidence, education, and innovation, we are helping the NHS deliver a service that is safe, sustainable, and fit for the future.

Participants who completed the training modules demonstrated significantly improved ECG interpretation skills, with improved sensitivity and specificity for detecting potentially dangerous cardiac abnormalities in athletes.

Professor Jonathan Drezner 
Director of the UW Medicine Center for Sports Cardiology at the University of Washington and editor in chief of the British Journal of Sports Medicine

In a world flooded with misinformation and unreliable health advice, trusted medical information has never been more critical. Misinformation risks patient safety, reduces vaccine uptake, delays treatment, and erodes the trust essential to effective healthcare. According to the World Health Organization, poor quality or incorrect health information increases pressure on health services, delays diagnosis, leads to inappropriate treatment, and causes avoidable complications.

Ireland’s Health Service Executive (HSE) is tackling the challenge of misinformation head on. As part of its national subscription to BMJ Best Practice, HSE provides health professionals with access to BMJ Best Practice patient information. These concise, evidence based patient leaflets help reassure patients and carers and promote informed, shared decision making.

Health professionals use our patient leaflets during consultations to explain diagnoses and treatment options clearly, reduce confusion and provide patients with reliable, easy-to-understand content they can print, download or take home. By embedding accurate, accessible information into routine care, the Health Service Executive enables confident clinical decisions and improves patient outcomes across Ireland.

BMJ Best Practice patient leaflets are widely used across the Health Service Executive to strengthen communication between healthcare professionals and patients. An internal HSE report (2024) recorded 288,000 sessions and 1.7 million interactions in one year, underlining their value in daily clinical practice.

The Health Service Executive’s network of 28 libraries spans three regions across Ireland: east, south and west. These healthcare library services have traditionally focused on staff needs. However, the introduction of BMJ Best Practice has enabled a meaningful shift towards empowering patients and the public with trusted, evidence based health information.

This move is backed by findings from the National Health Library and Knowledge Service’s 2021 user survey, which showed that access to accurate, accessible information improves clinical decisions and patient outcomes, reduces unnecessary tests, adverse drug events and misdiagnoses, and helps ease pressure on healthcare systems.

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.”

Brendan Leen
Area library manager (HSE Library), Health Service Executive, Ireland

Encouraged by the success of BMJ Best Practice, the HSE is considering expanding its library services to enhance patient education and advocacy further. These services include creating a dedicated post focused on patient information. This role would be responsible for developing the best evidence based health information resources for patients, promoting health literacy, and enabling patients to play an active role in decisions about their care.

In the UK, one in four adults has two or more medical conditions, and one in three adults in hospital has five or more conditions. In the US, 42% of people are dealing with two or more multiple chronic conditions, and 12% have at least five.

These conditions lead to poorer functional status, reduced quality of life, and increased use of healthcare resources.

Treat the whole patient

To tackle the complexities of multimorbidity, BMJ Best Practice launched its integrated Comorbidities Manager in 2022. The tool prompts health professionals to consider the patient’s comorbidities when accessing treatment information and produces an initial management plan tailored to the patient’s unique needs.

Credible evidence demonstrates both the importance of taking comorbidities into account when managing patients and the role that the BMJ Comorbidities Manager can play in this regard. Treating patients’ acute presentation alongside existing conditions enables hospitals to increase the quality and efficiency of care. It leads to better clinical outcomes, shorter hospital stays, and fewer readmissions.

A 2024 pilot study evaluating the usefulness of BMJ Best Practice Comorbidities Manager by using a semistructured online questionnaire in a cohort of recently qualified junior hospital doctors revealed that:

• 85% of participants obtained useful information from the resource
• 95% of participants considered that they could apply this information to provide evidence based treatment

This evaluation suggests that the BMJ Best Practice Comorbidities Manager has the potential to enhance the preparedness of junior doctors by providing useful information at the point of care. Such findings emphasise the tangible difference that innovative digital point of care information systems can make in enhancing
clinical preparedness and decision making, fostering a healthcare environment where both patients and providers benefit from timely, reliable information.