Lessons from BLAT

Abstract

As acronyms go, BLAT has little to commend it. It has been likened to the sort of expletive beloved by children's comics and can be roughly translated into Polish. The latter, with its allusion to a lady of the streets, is not totally inaccurate, as BLAT is at the service of the medical and health professions. BLAT actually stands for The British Life Assurance Trust, and it represents the coming together in 1966 of the British Medical Association and the British Life Offices, for the purpose of establishing a charitable trust to promote innovation in health and medical education. BMA requires no explanation; BLO is the professional organization of the companies who make up the life assurance industry in the UK. Health is the obvious common ground between the two parent bodies, with the facetious claiming that both have a common financial interest in keeping people alive: the one to maintain the patient list, the other to maintain the premium paying list.¹