The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has recently published to a targeted audience final consultation draft papers on its new “proactive” transparency policy on clinical trial results. As reported, information published under […]
Month: May 2014
K M Venkat Narayan: Letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi—please make the nation’s health an urgent priority
Dear Prime Minister Modi: Congratulations on your impressive victory in the world’s largest election, and best wishes as you take office. Talking to people in my native city of Bangalore, […]
The BMJ Today: Sham surgery and the placebo effect
Imagine you have severe gastro-oesophageal reflux. You are taking the maximum dose of your antacids and guzzling your way through bottles of Gaviscon, yet you’re still plagued by heartburn. It […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review—27 May 2014
NEJM 15-22 May 2014 Vol 370 1944 The introduction of pay for performance in the NHS attracted great interest in the USA, which is still trying to come up with […]
The BMJ Today: H pylori—some factoids
Burping, bloating, rumblings, and tummy pains. Patients with dyspepsia have crowded my GP days of late. I have turned my computer screen around for patients to deliver my familiar online […]
Nick Rose: Severe mental illness after a natural disaster—notes from the Typhoon Haiyan area of the Philippines
The occurrence of severe mental illness doubles in the months following a mass disaster (1). But few international agencies provide the specialist help needed at this time. And too often […]
Tom Jefferson et al: EMA’s data sharing policy—towards peeping tom based medicine?
Tom Jefferson and Peter Doshi are two of the guys who battled for four years to access clinical study reports on antivirals for influenza for their Cochrane review. Here they […]
The BMJ Today: E-reefers and cannabis gummi bears
Everybody must get stoned! Sang Bob Dylan back in the lazy hazy days of the mid 1960s. In that respect, it was clear from walking around Amsterdam last week, where […]
Rhys Davies: Reinventing the Watch—The Longitude Prize 2014
“Relax! It’s not calculating longitude at sea.” In the 18th century, before the advent of either rocket science or brain surgery, this is what folk would say to put the difficult […]
Kristy Kruithof and Mafalda Pardal: Are we entering a new era of cannabis regulation?
Throughout the world, cannabis legalisation advocates and opponents have been following the recent debates and developments in the United States (Colorado and Washington state) and Uruguay with great interest. Although […]