I’ve just had a complaint responded to. The company concerned will now apparently withdraw their non evidenced based claim that their product “helps detect cancer early”. This claim has been made for some time, it’s nonsense, and it’s right that it goes. But: the letter from the ASA says that since the company will voluntarily amend their […]
Continue Reading →What’s a conflict of interest when it comes to breast screening?
The medical press is carrying a lot about the latest international arguments about breast screening. The BMJ carried an excellent editorial ‘Mammography wars” highlighting the recent Canadian taskforce on the subject. This called for a halt to routine breast examination, and a starting age of 50 before starting screening mammography, which they recommended to be […]
Continue Reading →Dr Foster, association and causation
The headlines today have been driven by publication of the ‘Dr Foster’ (“the UK’s leading provider of comparative information on health and social care services”) annual hospital guide. The Guardian have reported it as have the Telegraph, who headline “Experts warn hospitals not to cut staff over weekend death risk.” They have presented their data as […]
Continue Reading →Show us the evidence for the flu jab
Article in Pulse magazine about flu vaccination in healthcare professionals. Concluding; there is not good enough evidence, and we should be invited to join a trial, not told we are ‘selfish’ for not having it. (Free registration required)
Continue Reading →GPs ‘failing cancer patients’
From the Guardian, and also making it’s way forth into the Daily Mail, the Mirror, Management in Practice, and Pulse , amongst others. The story is apparently that “GPs are failing to identify conditions such as osteoporosis, heart disease and bowel trouble that can affect patients’ lives for years after they have become free of tumours, claims […]
Continue Reading →More or Less
Little 7 minute section on the placebo effect, acupunture, and ethics. Available on listen again on iplayer, here.
Continue Reading →Choices for screening and paternalism
Luisa Dillner wrote a statistically correct and informative article about breast screening in the Guardian recently; she has been replied to by Chris Askew, the chief executive of Breakthrough Breast Cancer. He makes a big mistake. In his first paragraph, he says “Breakthrough Breast Cancer hopes this will not discourage women from attending their breast-screening […]
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 →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.
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