We recently published, in the F&N edition, a paper reporting an RCT looking at inhaled steroid in wee premature babies to see if the treatment reduced the incidence of death and chronic lung disease. Did we do a good job? The trial was prospectively registered, before enrolling patients, randomised and stated it was […]
Latest articles
“I don’t want that needle!” (AKA Do fewer things)
We (doctory, paediatric types) tend to pride ourselves on minimising distress to children and young people wherever possible. A couple of social media interactions over the last few days have made me re-question that – this one ..also responsibility to not create unnecessary fear. Not all blood tests go smoothly. Did the child really need […]
Dethrone the “Landmark Trial”
There is a long honoured tradition in a number of specialities, and sub-specialities, of knowing The Landmark Trials. The studies that demonstrated that something works or that some method is better than another. But Landmark Trials are bunkum. […]
More than numbers: Grounded theory
New research in a qualitative area can be tricky – how do you know what you should be looking at or how you understand the way people are thinking? One method would be “grounded theory”. The technique here is to take a whole bunch of information – unclear on what it might be all about […]
Being a (part time) Consultant
Inspired by the wisdom of @ian_wac in the previous post, I wracked my brain to think of five top tips that I would give (if ever asked) on “How to be a Consultant”. […]
Being a Consultant
A colleague recently asked me, because he’d been asked to give a talk, what my top five tips would be regarding being a consultant. I thought that crowd-sourcing your talk was a bit cheeky, until I realised that I could spin off a blog post about it. […]
Guest Post: Asking questions – engaging children and young people in healthcare
Listening to children, young people and their families enables us to get a better picture of what it is like for them, their lives and experiences, this in turn enhances our practise and impacts on the service we can effect and deliver. How-ever each presentation is unique in nature, each patient is individual, and a […]
Overdiagnosis in paediatrics
WHY is the rate of admission for bronchiolitis skyrocketing? HOW CAN we combat this clearly terrible condition? Perhaps we can stop diagnosing it as worth of hospitalisation? […]
Work-Life Balance
Of course, you’ve got to maintain a work life balance. Of course you have. Of course. And, while we’re at it, we should discuss getting a life. We discussed just that down at my local “Get a life” club recently. (Joke courtesy of Barry Crier). But I’d like to put forward a different perspective. […]
Basics: Blame it on me
In my clinical role, it’s fairly easy to take the blame for most bad things that happen to my patients. I give them cytotoxic chemotherapy (for good reason, honest) and it’s a group of substances that we label with TERATOGENIC! HARMFUL! QUITE BAD FOR YOU! tags a lot of the time. But how do we […]