As of today, I will be making my FT blog posts to the FT Health blog at http://blogs.ft.com/healthblog/ where readers can read about and comment on the science, policy, management, technology, business and delivery of healthcare. I will also be posting entries to my personal blog, which is currently under construction (rumours that my webmaster […]
Continue Reading →The fashion for genes
Over the past few weeks, I have been offered massages, gym visits, vitamin supplements, make-up tips and consultations with cosmetic surgeons. All these generous invitations came from PR companies keen to create a media glow for their clients’ products. Since an awful lot of column inches seem to be devoted to genome testing at the […]
Continue Reading →The Prince of Wails
…and his Foundation for Integrated Health. An excellent analysis of a recent meeting held at the King’s Fund in London at David Colquhoun’s website.
Continue Reading →Free pens, free lunch, and drug reps
I may not have seen a pharmaceutical rep for over five years, but still the branded pens they gift to medics continue to infiltrate my house and my handbag. I conciously throw out the drug company pens I find, but they just seep back in: every time I lose my own plain biro, there is […]
Continue Reading →Eye surgery? My view
Squeamishness is relative. I am unfazed by childbirth, urinary catheters and vomit. I am less good with injuries to the ends of fingers or toes, which always make me want to look away. My biggest fear, however, is of eyes. Operative ophthalmology, in particular, sets me on edge – the eyelid clamped back, the surrounds […]
Continue Reading →Weight gain
The ritual of weekly baby weighing clinics is unlikely to end anytime soon, and so I am delighted to learn that – at last- the old World Health Organisation baby weight charts are being ditched in favour of more evidence-based ones. Previously, the charts “smoothed over” the differences in normal childrens’ weight gain in the first […]
Continue Reading →Masking the problem?
We are living in uncertain times. Circumstances will probably have changed by the time this column appears, but whatever happens, swine flu will probably still be making headlines. People don’t like uncertainty, either as patients or doctors. It would be easier if we could predict the spread of disease reliably, or the effect of medications […]
Continue Reading →Simon Singh vs the British Chiropractic Association
This starts in the Royal Courts of Justice today. There are restrictions on what can be reported currently. I am reliably informed that this legal blog http://jackofkent.blogspot.com/ will have updates. Best wishes, Simon.
Continue Reading →Protect and perfect and not at all convinced
Boots the chemist are making much of research just published in the British Journal of Dermatology. It involves their Protect and Perfect product, which is on sale in my local store, where there are signs saying that customers are allowed to buy only 6 bottles. Clearly they are anticipating great demand. In 2007, the BBC […]
Continue Reading →Trouble brewing
I live with an Irishman, which means that at home we drink Barry’s Tea. In my early married life I was “not allowed” this Irish brand, as apparently I did not appreciate it enough. Now, there is a supplier in Glasgow and we no longer have to import boxes of the elusive blend from Dublin. […]
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