“The great pleasure of ignorance is the pleasure of asking questions. The man who has lost this pleasure or exchanged it for the pleasure of dogma, which is the pleasure of answering, is already beginning to stiffen.” So said Robert Lynd in 1959. In this age of continuing medical education we are relearning the pleasures of asking questions. The BMJ has many times contemplated joining this bandwagon but so far always desisted. Today, we momentarily give in. For revalidation the easy way answer the following questions.
(1) For a woman who smokes what is the cumulative probability of dying of lung cancer relative to breast cancer at age 65 (p 1307)? (a) Half; (b) Same; (c) Twice.
(2) Who says meta-analysis “is now a somewhat discredited technique for analysing trials?” (a) Werner Zoege von Manteuffel (p 1330); (b) John R Hampton (p 1326); (c) Douglas G Altman (p 1309).
(3) Is he right? (a) Yes; (b) No; (c) “It all depends.”
(4) Who was the first surgeon to advocate the use of boiled, sterilised rubber gloves? (a) Werner Zoege von Manteuffel (p 1330); (b) John R Hampton (p 1326); (c) Douglas G Altman (p 1309).
(5) What is the eye problem caused by the antiepileptic vigabatrine (p 1322)? (a) Glaucoma; (b) Visual field defect; (c) Blepharitis.
(6) Who edited the BMJ from 1966-75 (p 1323)? (a) Drummond-Jackson; (b) Brer Rabbit; (c) Martin Ware.
(7) What was the bed occupancy found in a survey in England and Wales of acute psychiatric units (p 1279)? (a) 99%; (b) 78%; (c) 104%.
General practice questions
(8) You are called to a local primary school and asked what to do about a child who has been treated for meningococcal meningitis. No one has provided information about the child. Do you? (a) Prescribe prophylactic antibiotics to every child in the school; (b) Say that the child is not on your list; (c) Visit the hospital where the child was admitted and discover that the actual diagnosis was “mesenteric adenitis” (p 1306).
(9) Will corticosteroid injections or physiotherapy produce better results after seven weeks in patients with painful stiff shoulder? (a) Corticosteroid injections; (b) physiotherapy (p 1292).
Answers: 1c, 2b, 3b, 4a, 5b, 6c, 7a, 8c, 9a. Score and prescription: <3: return to medical school, do not pass “go,” do not collect £250, do not answer any calls from Sir Donald Irvine, who is president of (a) CHIMP; (b) CHUMP; (c) GMC? (Answer: all three?); 3-7: feel free to continue watching the Simpsons every evening; >7: you have enough knowledge to abandon medical practice and become president of the quango of your choice.