Trying to make an evidence based decision about this. I am a slow cyclist and prefer cycle paths to roads; I would extend my journey considerably if I could go by path instead. I don’t like busy roads and right hand turns. Twitter is being a great help: I am going to put down the […]
Continue Reading →Commercialisation, post conception, and via your GP
Excellent article in the Guardian about the National Childbirth Trust. The NCT have found that some hospitals are paying 5K to allow access to companies to come on to antenatal wards to sell their wares; photographs of babies, free samples of nappies, etc. I have complained about this before, in my own antenatal care. I […]
Continue Reading →Julian Tudor Hart
Recent mentions by @amcunningham as to his Cochrane lecture on EBM have prompted me to put up his seminal paper on the Inverse Care Law from the Lancet in 1971. Enjoy.
Continue Reading →My bicycle
I am very excited to be getting a new bicycle – albeit one that is about 60 years old. She is simply beautiful; a Rudge Ladies Roadster. She is now being stripped, sorted, retyred, basketted and relit at the wonderful Common Wheel, which I’ve written about years ago here. Buying a bike in such a […]
Continue Reading →Freedom of information requests vs science research
Free link, and follow up in the BMJ to the newspaper headlines such as “Hundreds of preteen children treated for eating disorders”.
Continue Reading →“Better GP training needed to reduce maternal deaths”
Oh no it’s not. It’s all political. The headline is from the Herald. It originates from this BMJ editorial, whose first line is “Since the first report of the Confidential Enquiry into Maternal Deaths in 1952, the maternal death rate in the United Kingdom has decreased dramatically.” They say that “many doctors are unfamiliar with […]
Continue Reading →Breast screening challenged (again)
Surely we shall see some progress on proper information about breast screening soon? From this week’s BMJ: basically, improvements in breast cancer treatment, not access to breast screening, can explain improvements in mortality from the disease. This is important information for women who are deciding whether or not to have breast screening. As I’ve said […]
Continue Reading →The polypill, relative risks and press releases
free link to BMJ article here
Continue Reading →GENERIC PRESS RELEASE FROM (health charity)
I do feel slightly guilty about this, because there are some very good health charities out there. BMJ summer column. Dear [health journalist], As awareness day/week/month for [disease] is coming up fast—just the thing for those summer slow news days!—we have lots to offer you for features, comment, articles, photos! CELEBRITY! We are very happy […]
Continue Reading →We are in serious trouble over screening
BMJ summer column, here but cut and pasted till the login works below. We are in serious trouble over screening. For all that medicine has cringed at paternalism and “doctor knows best,” has wrung its collective hands, and promised to do better, screening is still the last great preserve of unethical practice. If you are […]
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