I’m most impressed at the unabashed and vigorous plea for ‘medical professionalism’ when it comes to doctors and their relationships with pharmaceutical and other commercial companies in the US. It’s in this report, just out, from the Association of American Medical Colleges. It places the need for clear information about potential financial and other biases in […]
Continue Reading →Statins: benefit (again) overstated?
Regular readers will know my ongoing concerns about statins: these drugs now make up one of the most frequently prescribed medications, and especially to well people. The benefits for people who have had a heart attack or stroke are one thing, but the potential benefit to people who are scored at being as high risk […]
Continue Reading →The Fertility MOT
MOT fertility information leaflet Another press release offering a fertility ‘MOT’ from ‘fertility and pregnancy expert Zita West and her team’. The only problem is that the only real test of being able to get pregnant is trying to: plenty of couples with perfect hormonal tests struggle to get pregnant, and other couples with erratic […]
Continue Reading →NICE and their astonishing view of the clinical relationship
If you are pregnant, NICE want you to given a carbon monoxide test. This test is to see if you smoke. But look at the flowchart on page 11- you are to have this test even if you say you don’t smoke, and even if you say you do. I don’t think this is conducive […]
Continue Reading →Radiation and risk
The NEJM carries a concerning article: a woman having a CT of head was exposed, accidentally, to a radiation overdose. She became unwell afterwards, and she’s suing. However the article also points out that new imaging techniques, getting more information about brain structures and blood flow mean that radiation doses from scans can now be […]
Continue Reading →Best science joke of ’10 (so far)
Schrodingers’ cat walks into a bar. And doesn’t. (Thank you Julie Miller)
Continue Reading →what’s a mistake?
Diagnosis is an odd thing: occasionally it is easy and satisfying (at least to the doctor). More often it is elusive, taking time, tests, and possibly time again to become clear. I’m not even sure if I do make a definite, cast-iron diagnosis that often. Another way of looking at symptoms, and which seldom appear […]
Continue Reading →Sense from Scandinavia, and where is the UK?
Here’s a great editorial on informed consent in screening. 15 years ago, I always felt a bit alone when voicing my concerns about the way that medical screening tests were often oversold to patients, who weren’t often told of the problems and failings of testing, never mind the problems we could end up dealing with […]
Continue Reading →The moral of the whale and the dolphin
If you are ever thinking of a tattoo, read Northern Doctor first.
Continue Reading →The shared electronic medical record: not much use, and still, more harm than good
At least that’s what I’m concluding from this BMJ paper “Adoption and non adoption of a shared electronic summary record in England: A mixed-method case study.” The authors examined many instances of the record being used and decided that it didn’t seem to improve safety, but that it might rarely avoid medication errors. And that […]
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