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In August 2021, Dr Bruce Kirenga and his team at the Makerere University Lung Institute published a pivotal study in BMJ Open Respiratory Research on the efficacy of convalescent plasma for covid-19 treatment in Uganda.

The study’s findings on the limited efficacy of convalescent plasma (CP) helped shape major treatment guidelines, including the World Health Organization Therapeutics and COVID-19: Living guideline. Where most publications in the biomedical and clinical sciences field receive only two to three citations, this study has far exceeded that benchmark. BMJ Impact Analytics shows 46 citations in health policy, eight in clinical guidance, and uptake across five countries.

Dr Magaly Blas, medical epidemiologist at Cayetano Heredia Peruvian University, Peru, led the Mamás del Río programme to improve maternal and newborn care in remote Amazonian communities. Published in BMJ Innovations, the work informed national policy, was integrated into Peru’s health system, and expanded from 13 to 84 communities with improved newborn outcomes.

Dr Clara Maarup Prip, a urologist and gynaecologist at Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark, documented an unusual case of kidney swelling caused by a menstrual cup compressing the ureter. Published as “Ureterohydronephrosis due to a menstrual cup in BMJ Case Reports,” the paper spread quickly after it was press-released by the BMJ Group media relations team, sparking widespread discussion on safe cup use and symptom awareness.