TY - JOUR T1 - Editor’s Briefing JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 59 LP - 59 DO - 10.3399/bjgp12X624996 VL - 62 IS - 595 AU - Roger Jones Y1 - 2012/02/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/62/595/59.abstract N2 - This month's BJGP is packed with material that explores and challenges the interactions between doctors, patients, and governments in the promotion and maintenance of health, and the management of disease and of dying. Many of these articles are, in one way or another, a salutary reminder of the limits of medicine, while others develop arguments to suggest that more collaborative partnerships between doctors and patients and with their communities are likely to be themselves salutary. Some touch on the future of our health service.The clinical focus this month is on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and there are valuable contributions on differential diagnosis, the effects of ethnicity on disease prevalence and management, and the risks of air travel, along with a fine editorial from our colleagues in Utrecht, which concludes by saying that ‘active patient information and involvement will … ER -