The Patient Paradox is on kindle for 1.99 for the next week. thank you, Pinter and Martin

Gardiasil   http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/mhra_reports_for_gardasil?unfold=1#incoming-260466   http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/vaccines/HPV/Index.html   http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/Vaccines/HPV/jama.html http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7015/9/54 http://www.bmj.com/content/337/bmj.a769 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=PubMed&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=17993361 Sunscreens and cancer http://news.mst.edu/2012/05/sunscreen_ingredient_may_pose.html http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120507131951.htm http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleListURL&_method=list&_ArticleListID=2126870568&_sort=   Hearing and vitamins http://oto.sagepub.com/content/143/6/826.full.pdf+html http://www.unboundmedicine.com/evidence/ub/citation/8484483/Vitamin_B12_deficiency_in_patients_with_chronic_tinnitus_and_noise_induced_hearing_loss_ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20534742   acne http://www.sgm.ac.uk/news/releases/DUB12_MGE.cfm and the unbelievable press release. here. It’s nonsense. We need good information to make choices, not nonsense statistics and scaremongering. Press Release: For immediate release   The “world’s most […]

Review of Channel 4’s Drugs Live, for the BMJ,  in which I conclude that it didn’t help people understand how to do a clinical trial.

Update BMJ May 2014: a further randomised controlled trial showing baby helmets’ aren’t necessary and make no difference    Inside Health tonight had a piece about about baby helmets for so-called ‘flattened head’ syndrome. I think the evidence of benefit for these helmets – costing 2K upwards – simply isn’t there, and I think parents are […]

Ben Goldacre’s excellent piece in the Guardian this weekend outlines clearly why it is that we can’t trust much of the data we have about pharmaceuticals. Data gets buried, the wrong questions get asked about what works, and we end up prescribing things that are later shown not to be useful, or even harmful. Meantime, […]

Free link to Statins for all? in the BMJ and a column on why Emma’s Diary should be ditched, here.

mammography screening This is the paper attracting the headlines. It would make an ideal paper for students to analyse if they fancied doing it with How to Read a Paper by Trish Greenhalgh. What we really have to ask is in what way this can be more authoritative than the Cochrane review on the subject. It’s not […]

For ease, here are all the articles I’ve written for the BMJ about Atos. Well enough to work http://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.d599 Atos and changes to disabled people’s benefits http://www.bmj.com/content/344/bmj.e1114 The disturbing truth about disability assessments http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/bmj.e5347?ijkey=hCXfT1z84M6BopW&keytype=ref with blogs on Atos adverts here Atos adverts tug at heartstrings and on plans to remove GPs from long term sickness […]

The Daily Telegraph reported yesterday that “Breast cancer screening ‘works and we should move on” – “Women should undergo breast cancer screening because it halves the chance of them dying of the disease, according to a new study that claims to draw a line under the controversy”. So simple? No! Here’s the paper. It’s a […]

ASA judgement, all my points upheld. http://www.asa.org.uk/ASA-action/Adjudications/2012/9/RSL-Steeper/SHP_ADJ_154343.aspx It upsets me to see helmets for deformational plagiocephaly sold at huge cost to parents.