The problem with so many ‘wonder drugs’ is that one is prone to wonder drug fatigue. So is the new prostate cancer drug, abiraterone, lauded on so many front pages today the real thing? “Cancer drug could save the lives of 10,000 a year” says the Times, and it’s a big ‘could’. It’s a bit unusual for a study containing only 21 patients […]
Continue Reading →Channel 4 and the ‘cervical cancer vaccine’
I am always dubious about being interviewed (I prefer asking the questions.) I worry about how able I am to say what I mean to say, and often realise there was a better way of saying what I was trying to – but half an hour after I’ve left the building. A piece I wrote last year about the ‘cervical cancer vaccine’ […]
Continue Reading →Incentives for incisions
The BBC are reporting that surgeons “could earn bonuses for successful operations”. Imperial College Healthcare Trust in London are said to be piloting such a scheme. The news has been greeted with general outrage on the BBC’s messageboard, and quite right too. The scheme presumes medical professionalism is dead. I don’t think it’s dead, but it is certainly […]
Continue Reading →Rate my doctor
Restaurants have toptable, teachers have ratemyteachers, and doctors are now to have views on them placed on the web at iwantgreatcare.org. This website has been designed to allow patients to rate their doctors for trust, listening and whether they would recommend them or not. When I first heard about it, I reckoned it was a silly idea likely […]
Continue Reading →Breast self examination – more harm than help
It seems so sensible to try and find breast cancers early. Yet the truth in medicine is often counterintuitive, and this is one such example. The headlines today are about breast self examination – regular exams done by women themselves looking for lumps – being ineffective to reduce deaths from breast cancer.
Continue Reading →Welcome
Hello. I am a GP in Glasgow and write the Second Opinion column in the FT magazine. My column used to be in the FT Weekend Life and Arts Section, and can be found here . I am hoping that this blog will be a forum for discussion of some of the myriad problems in healthcare, especially […]
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