With almost every endeavour participants have many more ideas on what might be done that than there are resources to get them done. Prioritisation is thus essential, but, my goodness, […]
Month: October 2010
Richard Lehman’s journal review, 25 October
JAMA 20 Oct 2010 Vol 304 What do fish oils and Mozart have in common? Answer: both have been proposed as ways to enhance neurocognitive development in utero. But I […]
Helen Jaques: Evidence and policy making in public health
“Should evidence always dictate policy?” This was the key question at a recent debate at the Royal Society of Medicine organised as part of the Battle of Ideas, a festival […]
James Raftery: NICE changes its position on Alzheimer’s disease drugs
The provisional guidance from NICE on drugs for Alzheimers’ disease – donepezil, galantamine, rivastigmine, and memantine – marks a dramatic shift from restricting access to those with moderate disease to […]
Research highlights – 22 October 2010
“Research highlights” is a weekly round-up of research papers appearing in the print BMJ. We start off with this week’s research questions, before providing more detail on some individual research […]
Annabel Ferriman: Of magnetricity, hand dryers, and levitating frogs
It is not often you get to swig champagne with a swarm of superior British scientists at the Science Museum but on Tuesday I did just that. I was substituting […]
Ike Anya on awakening Nigeria’s sleeping giant
A major milestone passed in October this year, when Nigerians marked 50 years of independence. While our government celebrated, most Nigerians reflected on why the country had not fulfilled the […]
Tony Waterston: A Turkish tale of children’s rights
Istanbul by train sounds a long way, but it offers a much lower carbon footprint than flying and was also a richer experience. Not quite the Orient Express, and the […]
Richard Smith: Important study points towards a different future
In what I think is a very important BMJ paper, John Ioannidis and Fotini Karassa have shown that systematic reviews, the highest level of evidence, may be highly deceptive. We did, […]
Charlotte Wirl: Ageing and disease prevention
At the recent European Health Forum Gastein, a group of “young Gasteiners” blogged live from the talks. A selection of the blogs are on the BMJ blogsite. Tessa Richards, assistant […]