“And in all these areas, the data will be updated regularly,” he said. Whitehall sources say that clinical audit data will show which GPs have never diagnosed a case of cancer, for example. The figures will be available from December. Information about individual GP practices will also be made available with patients able to judge […]
Continue Reading →NSAIDs and cardiac arrhythmias
I am beginning to understand Twitter a bit. I was intending to go and write about the headlines earlier this week, about NSAIDs and the risk of cardiac arrhythmias, which made several front pages earlier this week. The Metro put it like this ” popular painkillers such as ibuprofen can put patients at risk of heart […]
Continue Reading →New law on irradiating well people: will it stop screening companies profiting?
I don’t know. I hope so. An amendment has been made to the Ionising Radiation (Medical Exposure) (Amendment) Regulations 2011. It comes into force on July 25th. It says that “At the end of regulation 3(a) (application) of the Ionising Radiation (Medical Exposure) Regulations 2000(3) after “medical diagnosis or treatment” insert “, including any exposure […]
Continue Reading →The Surgical Checklist – twitter journal club
Quite excited about Twitter journal club, which is 8pm on Sunday @twitjournalclub The paper for TODAY(!) is “A Surgical Safety Checklist to Reduce Morbidity and Mortality in a Global Population“. At the time it was published ,in 2009 in the NEJM, I had concerns about it, here. A few other people did too, but criticisms […]
Continue Reading →Instantly diagnosing mild dementia; not possible/not desirable
Today GPs are no good at diagnosing dementia. Clare Gerada did good work on You and Yours today discussing a paper just out from Leicester University. The press release says that “general practitioners (GPs) are struggling to correctly identify people in the early stages of dementia resulting in both missed cases (false negatives) and misidentifications […]
Continue Reading →Libel debate in Prometheus
A series of articles about the dreadful state of Libel Law in the UK. Lots to read: Peter Wilmshurst, John Garrow, me, David Colquhoun. Free to access till end of September.
Continue Reading →Sick people die more often: not very surprising
ASSOCIATION IS NOT CAUSATION. Now that I’ve cleared that up, let us examine the paper causing the headlines today . “Over 65s who take more than one medicine should consult their doctors. Taking some commonly used medications in combination leads to an increased risk of death or brain impairments in over 65s” says the Guardian. […]
Continue Reading →“It is time to stop this screening nonsense”
North America is not catching up: I think they are getting ahead in terms of sense about screening. PSA screening in the UK is available, and meant to be about ‘choice’, even then health charities say they “Supports the right of every man over 50 – and younger men at higher risk – to make an […]
Continue Reading →Older people and alcohol: Royal College of Psychiatrists gets screening wrong
Much ado about the RCPsych report out today on ‘Our invisible addicts’; supposedly, older people addicted to drugs or alcohol. I don’t think this is a new concern. Part of the ‘problem’ is that the care of people with addictions has slowly got better and people are living longer. Northern Doctor has written very well […]
Continue Reading →Sleeves, ties, MRSA and politicians
in the Daily Mail.
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