I just attended the launch of the concordat to support research integrity developed by some major UK funders and Universities UK. It’s easy to quibble at documents that try to […]
Columnists
Marge Berer: All I had to do was take a pill every day, I was told, and hey presto, I didn’t have to worry about getting pregnant
I was among the first generation of women in the 1960s to experience the miracle of the pill just at the age when I was wanting to start having sex. […]
Edzard Ernst: The “middle ground” fallacy
When we are confronted with two opposing views, we tend to look for the comfort of the middle ground hoping the truth might lie somewhere between the two extremes. For […]
Richard Smith: “Whole of government and whole of society”: making it real
Have you heard the phrase “whole of government and whole of society?” If you haven’t you soon will. It’s the summary of the formula for fixing many of the world’s […]
Martin McShane: New job
I got a new job last week. My daughter was appearing in Annie at the Retford Majestic Theatre. She belongs to the Mini-Operatic Bunch (MOB), the junior branch of the […]
Pritpal S Tamber: Doctors only trust doctors
I’m petrified. I’ve been invited to participate in the Institute of Medicine‘s Roundtable on value and science driven healthcare. The focus of the all-day meeting is “continuous learning and the […]
Tiago Villanueva: Portugal’s health system in intensive care
Austerity is already asphyxiating Portugal’s health system, and recent developments may soon put it in the intensive care unit. The current state of affairs is so serious that for the […]
Pritpal S Tamber: Err, so what are we talking about again?
Orbiting around the hallowed nucleus of the doctor-patient relationship is an entire healthcare industry that occasionally—although not often enough—impacts on clinical practice. Having spent five years in this orbit one […]
Richard Smith: Medical journals: a gaggle of golden geese
I used to be part of running a course for editors of medical journals, and on each course we’d encounter editors, usually distinguished professors, who worked evenings and weekends on […]
Julian Sheather: Vulnerable adults, coercion, and the inherent jurisdiction of the High Court
In law, the capacity to make a specific decision has a binary quality. Somewhat like a light it is either on or off, you either have it or you don’t […]