Megan Tatum

Malaysia had big plans for its medical tourism industry in 2020—only for the pandemic to hit. Megan Tatum reports on a sector full of profit and promise that is now full of uncertainty.

In five years’ time, every student at Sheffield University – whether they study maths, music or drama – will also need to get to grips with sustainability. Be it the climate crisis, global poverty or gender inequality, every course will examine some of the major challenges the world faces.

Michal Mor hopes that one day, checking metabolism could be as routine as brushing your teeth. “The vision is that everyone manages lifestyle based on their unique metabolism,” she says. “It’s this metric that will help us live longer and healthier.”

Ten years ago, Manchester became the first UK city to sign up to the WHO’s Global Network of Age-Friendly Cities and Communities, an international initiative that challenges urban planners to design senior-friendly cities for the two billion people that will be 60 years or older by 2050.

I slide the mask up over my nose and lean towards the electronic thermometer. “You have a temperature of 36.8C,” says the smiling restaurant maitre-D. At least I assume he’s smiling. His own surgical mask is pulled up to right below the eyes.
He gestures with gloved hands to a guestbook in which I record my name and phone number. These details will be submitted into a centralised database and retained for 30 days. Should anyone in the restaurant test positive for Covid-19, the Malaysian gover...

As apparel stores begin to reopen, many will do so without a fitting room in sight due to strict social-distancing measures. So what if consumers could try on as many items as they
liked without touching a single garment?

You'd probably think of diet pills as a public health crisis we've dealt with. But now figures show that use of DNP - a chemical almost as explosive as TNT - is on the rise once again.

Prior to Covid-19 The Clean Kilo in Birmingham was a proud packaging-free grocery chain. Shoppers at the city’s two branches, in Bournville and Digbeth, would arrive with reusable containers and fill them with flours, cereals, nuts, and seeds from the tall glass dispensers lining the wall. Fresh fruit and veg sat unwrapped in wooden crates, while oils, liquids and vinegars could be decanted straight into empty bottles.
But as infection rates began to accelerate across the UK in March, owners ...

As concerns over deaths related to the diet pill 2,4-dinitrophenol (DNP) increase, healthcare professionals — including pharmacists — are being called on to play their part in raising awareness and preventing DNP-related harm.
In the early hours of the morning on 12 April 2015, 21-year-old student Eloise Parry swallowed eight capsules of weight loss pill ‘DNP’. Less than 12 hours later, she was dead.
Parry was bulimic and had bought the 2,4-dinitrophenol (DNP) pills online from a website run ...

Nearly seven years ago a DNA test triggered the UK’s most notorious food scandal.
It was late 2012 and Irish food safety officials had niggling suspicions about the meat in supermarket freezers. A spike in the clandestine movement of horses around Europe had triggered alarm bells for the EU’s food safety monitors. That coupled with ongoing downward pressures on the price of beef was enough to leave chief executive Alan Reilly and his team with a hunch. They set about investigating.
What they ...

George is seriously ill. Sat on the hospital bed facing his doctor, he begins to grow pale and clammy. His breathing becomes laboured and his heart rate slows. Time is running out. The doctor must diagnose George or his condition could deteriorate fast. In the worst case scenario he could die.
Luckily, if that happens, the student doctors treating him will reboot the software they’re using and try again.
George is the creation of virtual reality (VR) software provider Oxford Medical Simulatio...

Feathers, feet and internal organs are taken out. The chicken is hung upside down, its legs in metal clamps, before it is jolted forward along an automated production line toward a towering aluminium spraying unit. Multiple nozzles, both in front and behind the poor bird, spurt a clear chlorine rinse that douses it from breast to thigh, solution dripping from its fleshy wings before off it zooms again. Next stop: packaging and sale.
It’s a process that takes no more than a few seconds and one...

As the prevalence of sexually transmitted infections continues to rise and sexual health services remain under financial strain, pharmacists are increasingly being called upon to do more to bridge the gap.
Diagnoses of gonorrhoea in England are at their highest level in more than 40 years, rising 26% between 2017 and 2018. Cases of chlamydia increased by 6% within the same period, syphilis by 5% and first-episode genital herpes by 3% (see Figure)[1].
These increases are translating into rocke...

The one size fits all diet is no longer enough. Armed with data from Fitbits, DNA kits and stool samples, shoppers are now demanding nutrition tailored to their very specific needs. But what does that mean for an industry designed for the masses?

Not long ago the idea of lab meat sounded like science fiction. Now global start-ups say they're close to turning clean meat into a commercial reality.