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 →FEAST clinical trial
You can do high quality research work in rural Uganda – randomised controlled trials save lives. This video is wonderful http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hK9VUkL-DqU
Continue Reading →“we don’t drink enough water”
Advert on the BMJ website for “Hydration for Health“. It’s well worth noting that the sponsors are Danone Water. Water is a good drink, yes yes, but tapwater in a refilled bottle is far better than expensive bottled water. Also kidneys are excellent at ensuring that your fluid balance is perfect. Your body is pretty […]
Continue Reading →Twitter and me
have gone and done it. I don’t really understand it to be honest and am hardly a haiku artist. anyway it’s here and am willing to learn @mgtmccartney
Continue Reading →NHS reforms at the Guardian
reply below I wouldn’t argue – at all – that patient groups can be very useful for people and carers for many reasons. Patient groups, formal or informal, have been going on for years, and many people find them useful – many doctors find them useful as a resource for patients. But there are real […]
Continue Reading →Macmillan cancer
Did you know? that Macmillan nurses/consultants are funded by Macmillan for the first three years (but I know of several people funded for only two) – but the deal is that these posts must be then funded by the NHS but forever known by the moniker. So it’s always going to be Macmillan nurse Smith, […]
Continue Reading →Prostate cancer screening: how will this be reported?
I’d love to do a study of column inches of negative trials versus positive ones. This Swedish study in the BMJ, published on the 31st March, found that over 20 years of screening, in almost 1500 men, there was no change in death rate from prostate cancer whether you had prostate cancer screening or not. As […]
Continue Reading →“Consent rituals”, meaningful decision making, and ethics
Gerd Gigerenzer and Muir Gray’s new book is out: Better Doctors, Better Patients, Better Decisions. The message is that patients have to be involved in making decisions about their health, and I couldn’t disagree. As Gigerenzer (one of my heroes) has pointed out in Reckoning with Risk, the numbers we base our decisions on, however, […]
Continue Reading →The GMC’s response to that ATOS article
is here, which is in return a reply to a letter from Dr Cooper saying that doctors seeing people within ATOS centres aren’t really in a ‘normal’ doctor patient relationship. I cut and paste Jane O’Brien, Assistant Director, Standards & Fitness to Practise Directorate General Medical Council, 350 Euston Road, London, NW1 3JN “Edward Cooper is […]
Continue Reading →Your options for cancer
Well, I’d recommend an evidence based approach. I feel most upset when I read on the ‘Yes To Life – Your options for cancer website ‘ stories like this ” I’ve always been interested in the field of complementary medicine/therapy, so I started to investigate this in relation to my situation. I found an integrated […]
Continue Reading →