Dr Muiris Houston

The latest trend of extreme embalming used in some funerals in the Americas is unlikely to threaten the traditional spiritual reverence and celebration of life seen at wakes in the West of Ireland, writes Dr Muiris Houston

Medical abbreviations and acronyms can be a useful tool for doctors, but some of them should come with a health warning writ large, writes Dr Muiris Houston

With bugs increasingly likely to become resistant to the last line of antibiotics, Dr Muiris Houston imagines a nightmare future post-antibiotic world where society is radically changed due to the re-emergence of killer infectious diseases

Dr Muiris Houston looks at some worrying evidence from a recent report on the pressures of general practice in the UK, which showed striking similarities to the problems experienced by doctors in Ireland — issues around workload, communication and funding to name a few

The Medical Council’s new Ethical Guide has arrived, with some interesting additions, just as more departures have been announced at the ICGP, writes Dr Muiris Houston

With our longed-for summer travels not far away, Dr Muiris Houston has some helpful tips to avoid that embarrassing cultural faux pas while abroad, particularly in far flung Asia.

While its highlighting of the inequities in access to diagnostics is to be applauded, Dr Muiris Houston is concerned that a maturing ICGP may be in danger of losing some of the things that made it such a dynamic organisation in its early years

Dr Muiris Houston wonders if Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, and the HSE might share the same cultural deficit that makes it impossible for highly motivated professional to make things better.

As people are not cars with parts designed to be replaced after a certain mileage, applying Taylorism or ‘lean’ management to healthcare can be detrimental for both patient and practitioner, says Dr Muiris Houston.

Dr Muiris Houston wonders how we reached a stage where guidelines are seen as all-or-nothing dicta, and suggests that a collaborative approach may better serve both doctor and patient when it comes to quality of clinical care.