To recap. A weasel word is defined in the OED as “an equivocating or ambiguous word, which takes away the force or meaning of the concept being expressed”. “I can […]
Jeff Aronson’s Words
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Weasel words
It has been reported that Department of Health lawyers have said that the secretary of state for health, known to us as the SoSH or the Cunctator, never intended to […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . A contract or a contra-act?
So, the junior hospital doctors’ “contract” has been published, and the secretary of state for health, described in BMA documents as “SoSH”, which is also an obsolete word meaning a […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Mechanisms and evidence
To recap: my definition of a pharmacological mechanism, slightly expanded from before, is “one or more entities and activities organised spatially and temporally to interact in such a way as […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Mechanisms
Invited last week to the MuST9 philosophy conference—Evidence, Inference, and Risk, in the Center for Mathematical Philosophy in Munich’s Ludwig Maximilians Universität, the ninth in a series held in turn […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Naming biologics—biosimilars
To recap. Medicines are given International Nonproprietary Names (INNs) by an expert panel of the World Health Organization, using principles that are not uniformly adhered to. When the names are […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Naming biologics—principles and practice
Last week I discussed how drugs get their International Nonproprietary Names (INNs). The World Health Organization’s expert panel that assigns INNs has nine principles to guide its decisions, two primary […]
Jeff Aronson: When I Use a Word … Naming biologics—rINNs and pINNs
This week I went to Harrogate to take part in the Royal College of Physicians’ (RCP’s) annual conference “Medicine 2016”, to contribute to a session on biological medicines (biologics). It […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Value and fulfilment
Some think that the current dispute between the UK Government and the junior hospital doctors is about money. Some think it’s about patient care. Both are only partly right. What […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Andrew Herxheimer and his Golden Rules of drug therapy
Andrew Herxheimer, an old friend and colleague, has died, aged 90 (picture). Andrew was primarily a clinical pharmacologist, but much more besides. His main interest was in improving patient care, […]