Earlier this week I attended a meeting at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh on global health to beat my drum on the importance of non-communicable disease (NCD). Others […]
Month: September 2013
Marcus Müllner: A talk on relative effectiveness that I never gave
Yesterday I was invited by the European Parliament’s committee on the environment, public health and food safety (ENVI) to give a presentation on “Assessing the effectiveness of medicines in comparison […]
Mary E Black: Moving public health contracts out of the NHS and over to local authorities
The problem with us Brits is that when handed the impossible to deliver we actually go ahead and do it, methodically, honestly, and with many a sincere task and finish […]
Saleyha Ahsan: Syrian frontline medicine is under fire
Two weeks ago we braced ourselves for US military strikes in Syria. I have been based in a northern Syrian hospital, working under the umbrella of non-governmental organisation Hand in […]
Richard Cook: Managing the decline
I was out cycling with a friend recently when he told me about the comments of an ex professional cyclist. When asked about how he enjoyed cycling after his retirement, […]
Richard Smith: The dangers of a moustache
A kiss without a moustache, the proverb says, is like an egg without salt and, added Jean Paul Sartre, like good without evil. The proverb doesn’t make clear which kisser […]
Marcus Müllner: Dealing with conflicts of interest in the regulatory decision making process
Conflicts of interest are a wonderful topic: Everybody has them, most believe they don’t, and the more you believe that, the stronger you value judgments about them. The European Medicines […]
Georgios Lyratzopoulos: Overdiagnosis—is informed decision making by patients the way forward?
I enrolled for the Preventing Overdiagnosis conference assuming that the focus would be on cancer screening, but I was thankful that the conference covered every clinical specialty, including paediatrics, psychiatry, […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review—16 September 2013
NEJM 29 Aug-12 Sep 2013 Vol 369 799 When comparing a new fixed-dose anticoagulant with conventional warfarin based anticoagulation, what do you look for? Thrombotic events, death, major bleeding? Yes, […]
William Cayley: Does uncertainty and fear of the unknown drive overdiagnosis?
Edward Davies hits the nail on the head: “The fear of both patient and doctor can sometimes override the best knowledge, research, and information known to man.” I do not […]