“Classification” is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as “a systematic distribution, allocation, or arrangement of things in a number of distinct classes, according to shared characteristics or perceived or […]
Columnists
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Biomarkers for predicting adverse drug reactions
The early hopes of those who have promoted pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics as tools for determining the therapeutic use of medications in the individual patient were that gene variants (polymorphisms) would […]
Peter Brindley: Sorry seems to be the hardest word
When I was a medical student, a professor lowered his glasses and bellowed at me: “if you want to be popular then get a dog.” His point, presumably, was that […]
Hilda Bastian: Should we trust meta-analyses with meta conflicts of interest?
Authors evaluating their own studies in meta-analyses is common, but is it problematic? […]
Expanding neverland—applying never events management to hospital infrastructure
It had been a tough weekend for our colleagues. They had to deal with a complex patient in cardiac arrest. Yet the response team took days to get to them. […]
Richard Smith: Flying a Jumbo jet and doing a kidney transplant for the first time: a parable
Recently a young friend flew a Jumbo jet across the Atlantic for the first time, reminding me of a contrasting story of another friend doing his first kidney transplant. The […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Biomarkers—advantages and disadvantages
Last week I suggested that many terms, such as “biological markers”, “surrogate markers”, “intermediate markers”, “surrogate response variables”, “surrogate endpoints”, “intermediate endpoints”, “biomarker endpoints”, and “intermediate marker endpoints”, could be […]
Matt Morgan and Peter Brindley: The car seat of life
While stuck in an angry snarl of traffic during another grey morning commute, I had time to contemplate the view from the car’s rear-view mirror. If this was the “family […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Biomarkers—definition and uses
Many clinical outcomes, both primary and secondary, which I discussed two weeks ago, are not the desired outcomes, but markers of such—surrogate markers or biomarkers. The term “biomarker” comes from […]
Richard Smith: Chair of NHS England wants a £50 billion NHS bond, culture change, a good relationship with the private sector, and innovation
Lord Prior, the chair of NHS England, is tall and thin, has a playful smile most of the time, and answers questions with a directness unusual in the higher echelons […]