In an earlier blog I noted the impossibility of knowing which words came first, language having evolved thousands of years before written records, although claims have been made for the […]
Month: August 2015
Neville Goodman’s metaphor watch: Powerhouses and workhorses
The mitochondrion was termed the “powerhouse of the cell” in a Scientific American article in 1957 by Philip Siekevitz, who died in 2009. I suspect that anyone with biological knowledge […]
Khaled El Emam, Tom Jefferson, Peter Doshi: Maximizing the value of clinical study reports
In late 2010, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) became the first regulator in history to promulgate a freedom of information policy that covered the release of manufacturer submitted clinical trial […]
Jonathon Hope: What happens when doctors don’t know best?
A recent story of how a teenage cancer patient’s online research of symptoms was dismissed by doctors before death raises the question of where patients go to get information when […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review—27 August 2015
NEJM 6-13 Aug 2015 Vol 373 503 Outcomes in early breast cancer surgery just keep on getting better. But between 20-40% of patients who have a partial mastectomy need to […]
Anant Bhan: The Call to Action Summit 2015—thoughts on some key areas for discussion and action
India is hosting the Call to Action Summit on the 27-28 August in New Delhi. The summit is focused on ending preventable child and maternal deaths, and will be co-hosted […]
Liz Wager: GPP3—thoughts on becoming a guideline grandmother
The third version of the Good Publication Practice guidelines (GPP3) were published last week which makes me a guideline grandmother. Like any grandparent I am excited and proud of my “offspring,” […]
William Cayley: Comfort always and advocacy for the vulnerable
Reading the Monday morning paper, I was greeted by stories about ongoing fights over whether or how to undo the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) and controversies over solitary confinement. Later, while driving […]
Samir Dawlatly: Could general practice survive without the NHS?
General practice is often described as the cornerstone of the NHS. Though its funding doesn’t necessarily reflect this, having its proportion of funding decline in recent years, 90% of all […]
Daniel S Goldberg: COI bingo
I am fortunate to possess content expertise on ethics and conflicts-of-interest (“COI”) in medicine and science, and I teach it in a variety of health professional settings. After reading the […]