Naomi Campbell is more often associated with toppling heels and fashion-pack tantrums than fundamental clashes in human rights, but as we all know, in our celebrity-strewn culture, fame can be […]
Columnists
NICE and the influenza antivirals for healthy adults – No, again and again and again
NICE’s latest technology appraisal of the flu antiviral drugs (amantadine, oseltamivir and zanamivir), published in February 2009 marks the sixth time these drugs have been considered. The timelines are shown […]
“Just doing my job,” by Liz Wager
Determining the appropriate authorship of publications causes all sorts of problems (in part, I believe, because none of the available guidelines apply in all situations, and many journals offer little […]
Richard Smith asks: Is medicine as excessive as the banks?
Is medicine, like the banks, falling into excess? I asked myself this question at the end of last year as I read about the death of Faith Williams, the conjoint […]
James Raftery on NICE’s cost per QALY threshold: does the public have a view?
One approach to setting NICE’s cost per QALY threshold might be to survey the public. In 2003 NICE and the Department of Health did just that, with a study “assessing […]
Richard Smith on learning from health systems in Asia
It depresses me that despite the spread of the internet we are still most of us stuck in our intellectual and geographical silos. Why, I wondered at a conference in […]
Richard Smith asks who is the E O Wilson of medicine?
A friend has written to me asking whom I think might be the “E O Wilson of Medicine,” and I’m stumped. Perhaps some readers of the BMJ have never heard […]
Julian Sheather on men, women, and chocolate
Once upon a long time ago I worked for a small charity that was much concerned with the plight of indigenous peoples. My role in the cause was a small […]
Julian Sheather on opening the data floodgates
The Coroners and Justice Bill is currently in Committee stage in the UK House of Commons. Section 152 of the Bill amends the Data Protection Act. It gives ministers of […]
James Raftery on a greater role for industry in NICE’s cost per QALY?
In December 2008 the Department of Health in England published the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme. It describes how the scheme will operate for at least five years from 2009. The previous scheme was […]