I like this: from JAMA; even though findings are not statistically significant, reporting and interpretation of those same findings in research papers can make it appear so. This confirms what I keep finding. When we blame journalists for bad reporting of health stories, we may just be shooting the messenger.
Continue Reading →H1N1 vaccinations and the WHO
I’m preparing for the Cheltenham Science Festival on Wednesday – and this video feature from the BMJ/Bureau of Investigative Journalism is outstanding. Do watch, if you are interested in the conflicts of interest the WHO might not have told you about when issuing guidelines for dealing with H1N1. I am up for defending myself for not […]
Continue Reading →Reneging on medical records
This answer in Hansard seems to suggest that medical records will continue to be uploaded to the NHS Spine unless one opts-out – which does not seem to be consistent with election campaign pledges. Opting out is not the best way to obtain consent, and the need for these records seems to be based in […]
Continue Reading →Fit to have a gun: who is?
Recent tragic events in Cumbria have brought the problems with gun licensing into sharp relief. The police take most of the responsibility for who should be allowed a shotgun license: but it is doctors, usually GPs, who are asked to sign to say that there are no health concerns with gun ownership. GPs are used to dealing […]
Continue Reading →Revalidation for doctors halted : evidence over policy?
Interesting stuff: the Government telling the GMC that it wants evidence based revalidation. The first page of the letter is here (do send the other if you can) and a report is here. It’s not being stopped completely, but there is to be a further year of pilots before a decision. Good. Revalidation for doctors […]
Continue Reading →More on acupuncture, in mice
Previous blogs have related the interesting conundrum about acupuncture: it seems to have a beneficial effect on pain, but not because of the traditional ways of explaining it, via meridians and etc. Rather, there seems to be something biological happening, and the next job is to try and explain it in a rational, science-based way. There has […]
Continue Reading →Private “NHS” provision, continued
Previous post on Clinicenta here: This week the medical newspaper Pulse reports multiple ongoing concerns . I note that one of the major problems is felt to be staff inexperience. Of course, if recruiting on the basis of cost is a factor then this is going to be, too: and when you are in a […]
Continue Reading →Neville Rigby: |Few GP practices have been resourced, mobilised or motivated to address their patients’ obesity in any meaningful way”
The strategic advisor of the National Obesity Forum says so, in the Guardian. He’s right about awareness campaigns, which are generally useless for lots of reasons. But he’s wrong in thinking that the solution to obesity somehow rests in my consulting room. Lots of evidence suggests that the only long term successful treatment for obesity […]
Continue Reading →Would you be a patient in the hospital where you work?
A while ago I commented that if you really wanted to know how good a Trust was, you’d find out if the staff would have their own, or their loved ones, medical care there. I reckon this is a better test than any amount of stars or league tables. Here, from the Daily Mail, a […]
Continue Reading →Memo to Andrew L:
First, good move on halting those Darzi centre builds: they were inefficient, and unnecessary. Further cuts are quite easy to make without impinging adversely on patient care: Connecting for Health (very expensive, unnecessary, inefficient) All managers monitoring 4 hour waits in A and E (scrap the target while you’re there), managers monitoring junior doctors hours, […]
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