Medical Centre

The COVID-19 pandemic brought many terms into the spotlight, one of which was "non-pharmaceutical interventions" (NPIs). Used widely in academic papers, public health guidelines, and media reports, NPIs became a catch-all phrase for measures like contact tracing, quarantine, and hand hygiene; essentially anything that wasn’t a drug or vaccine. However, BMJ Editor Kamran Abbasi and I argue in our editorial  it is time to end the use of this term in favour of "public health and social measures." Here’s why this shift matters. The Problem with Defining by Negation The term "non-pharmaceutical interventions" defines these strategies by what they aren’t rather than what they are. This framing is inherently limiting. Imagine calling surgery a "non-drug intervention"—it sounds absurd because surgery stands on its own as a complex, evidence-based practice. Similarly, public health measures like sanitation or hand hygiene aren’t just stopgaps until a drug...

Our recent article in the Journal of Patient Safety discusses the topic of missed appointments in healthcare. Missed appointments are often seen as an administrative inconvenience in healthcare; wasting appointments that could have gone to other patients. However, missed appointments are also a critical patient safety concern that can delay necessary interventions, worsen health outcomes, and erode trust between patients and clinicians. Instead of viewing them as patient noncompliance, we must shift our perspective to understand the underlying barriers that prevent people from attending their scheduled appointments. Understanding the Root Causes of Missed Appointments Patients miss appointments for a variety of reasons, many of which are outside their control. Socioeconomic challenges, work obligations, caregiving responsibilities, mental health issues, transportation difficulties, and previous negative experiences with the healthcare system all contribute to non-attendance. Disadva...