Global health is fundamentally dependent on the availability and use of health research. It is well known that much research is of poor quality, is not applicable to low-resource settings, […]
Month: July 2015
Richard Lehman’s journal review—20 July 2015
NEJM 16 July 2015 Vol 373 209 I’ll say it again: “Cancer boasts the worst trials in medicine. Also the worst drug regulation. Also the worst cost/benefit ratio for new […]
The BMJ Today: #ImInWorkJeremy
• NHS news—This weekend social media has been awash with NHS health workers proudly tweeting their secretary of state for health, Jeremy Hunt, with photos and declarations of their commitment to […]
Muriel Gillick: When life gives you lemons—the 2015 White House Conference on Aging
In the heady days of the early 1960s, when the oldest of the baby boomer generation were teenagers and only 9.2% of the population were age 65 or older, the […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Breaking worst
There are other ways of breaking words besides the ones we have so far dealt with: metanalysis, aphaeresis, aphesis, and apocope. Take, for example, ellipsis (Greek ἔλλειψις), which means coming short. […]
The BMJ Today: Homeopathy, sexual health, and saying sorry
• Homeopathy: patients like it Our rapid response boards have been ablaze this week since we published a Head to Head debate on homeopathy. Many of you have rallied to […]
Neville Goodman’s metaphor watch: More misunderstood science, some usefully
Staying with astrophysics (qv), let’s think about dark matter and light years. As the Wikipedia entry states, “Dark matter is a hypothetical kind of matter that cannot be seen with […]
Ferelith Gaze: The NHS is a duty to uphold, not just a function to devolve
The government is heralding the Cities and Local Government Devolution Bill—currently making its way through parliament, with broad cross party support for its intentions—as reversing 150 years of centralisation. The […]
Lyndal Trevena: Bringing evidence based practice and shared decision making together
As I write this blog, research teams from the four corners of the globe are travelling to Sydney for the first joint conference of the International Shared Decision Making (ISDM) […]
Michael Devlin: Duty of candour—make apologising easy
Seven months ago a statutory duty of candour was introduced for hospitals in England, and four months later it was extended to all healthcare bodies registered with CQC. Are we […]