After a consultation on changes to its methods for appraising health technologies, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has gone public with its way forward. As discussed previously, the consultation […]
Columnists
Billy Boland: Fail fast, learn fast
I have been talking about failure a lot at the moment. How it should be encouraged and celebrated. We all do it often enough, so we might as well try […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Translational research—a new operational model
To recap: over the past three weeks I have used the metaphor of crossing bridges in discussing translational research in clinical medicine; derived a model of it from definitions in […]
Richard Smith: A day of wisdom, song, dance, and bonding in Bangladesh
Bangladeshis love to sing, dance, make music, recite poetry, talk, eat, and let off steam. So icddr,b day, the day of what may be the largest health research institution in […]
Matt Morgan: The (free) elephant in the burnout room
As an intensive care consultant, the risk of “burnout” is ever present. Everyday, I will deliver devastating news to families when they least expect it. I will often make life […]
Liz Wager: How much of a conflict of interest is too much for a peer reviewer?
One of the conundrums of peer review is that reviewers need to be knowledgeable about the research being reported but shouldn’t have conflicts of interest. The trouble is that the […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Translational research—a further model
In the past two weeks I have used the metaphor of crossing bridges in discussing translational research, and have derived a model of it from definitions in the Cooksey report, […]
Richard Smith: A call for action to treat the untreated million children a year with heart disease
The Indian state of Kerala is aiming to reduce infant mortality from 12 for every 1000 live births to 8 by 2020 and 6 by 2030, and in order to […]
Neville Goodman’s Metaphor Watch: Elephants, skeletons, and spectres
There are a lot of elephants in a lot of rooms these days. The popularity of an elephant in the room in general English has increased ten-fold since the early […]
Richard Smith: Quality in the NHS in 2017
Britons invented the first antibiotic, the MRI scanner, in vitro fertilisation, and much more, and Britain punches way above its weight in science, said Sir Bruce Keogh, NHS England’s medical […]