Smeeth paper   Jade Goody – cervical cancer -> rise in smear rates – month after her death was 33,000 smear tests than expected http://jpubhealth.oxfordjournals.org/content/33/1/80.full Kylie Minogue increase in breast screening 20% increase in young women 25-44 having mammon increased by not bx rate https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2005/183/5/impact-news-celebrity-illness-breast-cancer-screening-kylie-minogues-breast http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18515324 MMR – sorry saga http://jech.bmj.com/content/54/6/473.full Cochrane review on The […]

This was such good fun to make. Two part series for Radio 4 on the changing face of general practice. Some things are just the same as in the 18th century, though

ACTIVE trial  Press release from Alzheimers’ Society Brain training found to reduce dementia risk over a 10 year period New research has shown a scientifically tailored computer brain training program can reduce the number of cases of cognitive decline and dementia over a decade by a third. The research was presented today (Sunday 24 July) […]

Consent Form Screening Screening Information Sheet http://www.bmj.com/content/353/bmj.i1156 http://legacy.screening.nhs.uk/suddencardiacdeath Comparative study of death rates from sudden cardiac death Italy BMJ overview     

Caldicott eview of care data UK differences – BMJ ICO anonymisation/pseudoanonymisation Data sharing rules broken    identifiable data http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/your-practice/practice-topics/it/revealed-independent-experts-overseeing-caredata-have-approved-31-releases-of-identifiable-patient-data-since-april/20005572.fullarticle Pharmacy FU Dean street clinic note the NHS is fined more for an accident, the commercial sector fined less for a deliberate profit making sale of data    

Lancet 2012 on multimorbidity http:/http://www.thelancet.com/cms/attachment/2009245825/2032056163/gr1.jpg Guidelines and multi morbidity = BMJ Guidelines and drug interactions  Burdens of treatment  the work done by patients when doctors stick to guidelines Polypharmacy aids  for deprescribing Drug Drug interactions 

GP Forward view. Many of the points are not evidence based – esp access, e.g. text message consultations – we may end up doing more with little benefit to patients and actually creating more work for ourselves. The ForwardView recommends touch typing and speed reading to release time to care – move upstream – needs […]

Come to Edinburgh! Not something a Glaswegian says very often, but…. My next (and last book about health) will be out around October: The State of Medicine – keeping the promise of the NHS. I’ve been doing a lot of reading, writing and thinking about why the NHS is in such a mess: how we […]

paper in the BMJ, co-authored by members of the RCGP overdiagnosis group free link 

HEALTH CHECKS the NHS Health Check programme is being implemented in the absence of direct randomised controlled trial evidence to guide it – Public Health England BJGP editorial http://bjgp.org/content/64/627/493 BMJ OPEN January 16 http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/6/1/e008840.full BMJ review of public health policy http://www.bmj.com/content/343/bmj.d7310 Inter99 – A community based, individually tailored intervention programme with screening for risk of ischaemic […]