The dog has its day

Has bedside teaching had its day?

Though a diverse array of teaching methods is now available, bedside teaching is arguably the most favoured. Students like it because it is patient-centred, and it includes a high proportion of relevant skills. It is on the decline, coinciding with declining clinical skills of junior doctors. Several factors might account for this: busier hospitals, broader roles of clinicians, competing teachi...

Has the sun protection factor had its day?

The concept of the sun protection factor was originally proposed by the Austrian scientist Franz Greiter and subsequently adopted by many regulatory authorities and the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. It is popularly interpreted as how much longer skin covered with sunscreen takes to burn compared with unprotected skin. This interpretation can encourage users to prolong their sun exposu...

“She’s a dog at the end of the day”: Guide dog owners’ perspectives on the behaviour of their guide dog

A guide dog is a domestic dog (Canis familiaris) that is specifically educated to provide mobility support to a blind or visually impaired owner. Current dog suitability assessments focus on behavioural traits, including: trainability, reactivity or attention to environmental stimuli, low aggressiveness, fearfulness and stress behaviour, energy levels, and attachment behaviour. The aim of this ...

Has a Robotic Dog the Buddha-nature? Mu!

Japanese Zen Buddhism offers a perspective on humanrobot interaction (HRI) that notably differs from views normally encountered in the Abrahamic religious traditions of the West. Professor Masahiro Mori’s book, The Buddha in the Robot: A Robot Engineer’s Thoughts on Science and Religion, supplies an especially clear articulation of a Buddhist vision of contemporary robotic technology. The prese...

The time has come to promote true day surgery.