This is a hugely important subject – overdiagnosis. Tonight’s Inside Health is all about CKD, chronic kidney disease. Basically the measurements we use to measure kidney function changed in 2006 and millions of people have been given a ‘disease’ label – and the vast majority will not benefit from this. Here are some of the […]

piece in BMJ, here.

or not. References for tonight’s Radio 4 Inside Health are here. http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0007103 http://www.bmj.com/content/309/6970/1690.1     http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2174599/Were-thrown-deep-end-warn-junior-doctors-Lack-help-supervision-deadly-risks-patients.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9350659/New-junior-doctor-rules-will-stop-NHS-killing-season.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9441885/Thousands-of-juniors-start-jobs-in-NHS-killing-season.html  

    References used for Radio 4 Inside Health debate on telehealth   http://mediacentre.dh.gov.uk/2011/12/05/govt-boost-to-uk-life-science-industry/ http://m.gponline.com/article/1127969/Exclusive-GPs-demand-telecare-savings-evidence http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/newsarticle-content/-/article_display_list/13313760/gps-urge-ministers-to-rethink-telehealth-drive-as-low-takeup-in-pilot-area-revealed http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/blog/wsdan_results.html http://www.bmj.com/content/344/bmj.e3874 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6963/11/184/ http://www.bmj.com/content/344/bmj.e3874#ref-13 http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/main-content/-/article_display_list/14160777/data-does-not-support-the-dh-s-extraordinary-claims-for-telehealth http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1149633

Mail piece here.   References include http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa070972 The Great Prostate Mistake. New York Times, March 2010. www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/opinion/10Ablin.html Franks LM, Latent Carcinoma of the Prostate, J Pathol Bacteriol, 68,2,603-606. http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/content/92/16/1280.short There are far more references here, many about screening.

LifelineScreening The Guardian, the Times, the Herald; there are probably more newspapers who have carried full pages adverts for Lifeline Screening over the last few years. This company offers screening tests – that is, tests on people who are completely well. If you have symptoms, the situation is very different. Screening sounds logical – picking […]

            These are the references I used for tonight’s Radio 4 Inside Health http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b019dl1b http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/im-worried-about-my-dandruff-and-other-gripes-gps-are-sick-of-hearing-7936430.html   http://www.pagb.co.uk/publications/pdfs/Minorailmentsresearch09.pdf   http://www.selfcareforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/chhosewellsummercampaignpressrelease.pdf   http://www.selfcareforum.org/   http://www.pagb.co.uk/media/responses.html   http://www.selfcareforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/chhosewellsummercampaignpressrelease.pdf   This is the very biased survey. https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=7MOnHTVGuEuNN2dkaCK%2fzQ%3d%3d   http://www.southofengland.nhs.uk/2012/07/12/51-million-unnecessary-gp-visits-nhs-investigate-why/   http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9392184/Millions-see-GP-for-stuffy-noses-and-dandruff-in-waste-of-appointments-survey.html

references for tonight.   Mike Richards and the ‘3 week cough’ awareness campaign discussion   http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2361660/ http://www.bmj.com/content/339/bmj.b3094.full http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2361660/?tool=pubmed This may also be of interest, which is an article about the (lack of) evidence for the 3 week cough campaign; http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/main-content/-/article_display_list/14033555/wake-up-to-perils-of-awareness, with references NHS Cough 2012 Department of Health. Lung Cancer Awareness Campaign cluster briefing slide pack. 2012 […]

Following on from twitter discussion. I am a GP; I qualified in 1994. I spend two or three hours  a week reading and learning new things about evidence and medical practice. I encounter at least one problem daily that I think I should go and find out more about. I have passed lots of exams, […]

Delicious statement from the CQC – see twitter for context. More tomorrow hopefully on Inside Health. ‘Rumours that practices will have to throw out toys from their waiting rooms have no basis in fact. This and other rumours such as carpets and soft furnishings in waiting rooms will have to be removed due to infection […]