This week’s Evidence Watch highlights serious uncertainties with the current evidence-base for influenza vaccination Carl Heneghan, Editor in Chief A systematic review of vaccines in the elderly [1] highlights the difference vaccination makes in a single season (lowers risk of influenza from 6% to 2.4%); but adds caution, in that we have very little […]
Category: Carl Heneghan
Evidence Watch: Carl Heneghan’s view on evidence that impacts practice
This week’s Evidence Watch highlights preoperative physio, the risk of heart disease in relation to the number of cigarettes smoked per day, use of antipsychotics in hospital and risk of pneumonia, the effect of exercise across 17 countries and the impact of having a large preterm baby. Carl Heneghan, Editor in Chief Does a single […]
Evidence Watch: Carl Heneghan’s selection of evidence that impacts on practice
This week’s Evidence Watch highlights the risk of pre-eclampsia with metformin, the role of repeated influenza vaccination, de-prescribing medications and assessing harms in the elderly at the time of elective surgery. Carl Heneghan, Editor in Chief A meta-analysis evaluating the risk of pre-eclampsia in women taking metformin before, or during pregnancy found that there […]
Evidence Watch: Carl Heneghan
This week’s Evidence Watch highlights the risk of acute kidney injury, appropriate use of antibiotics, chest pain rules, interventions to reduce pre-term birth and calcium and vitamin D supplements Carl Heneghan, Editor in Chief Concern over renal injury with contrast-enhanced CT was laid to rest with a meta-analysis of 28 studies in the Ann […]
Evidence Watch: BMJ EBM
Each week our editors select from over 100 journals reliable and useful evidence summarised in BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine. Carl Heneghan, Editor in Chief There’s a lot of research at the moment on blood pressure and what’s the right target to treat too. A JAMA systematic review looked at mortality and cardiovascular disease across blood pressure […]
What do we mean by Informed Health Choice?
In BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine, Iain Chalmers and colleagues set out the Key concepts for Informed Health Choices. Carl Heneghan Shared Decision Making, according to NHS England, means patients can review all the treatment options available to them and participate actively with their healthcare professional in making that decision. The National Institute for Health and […]
What makes a systematic review “complex”?
Originally published on BMJ Opinion Kamal R Mahtani, Tom Jefferson, and Carl Heneghan discuss: What makes a systematic review “complex”? Systematic reviews involve systematically searching for all available evidence, appraising the quality of the included studies, and synthesising the evidence into a useable form. They contribute to the pool of best available evidence, translating […]
Oxygen in heart attack: has practice caught up with the evidence?
Use of oxygen in heart attack patients has remained uncertain for over 40 years, but clinical practice has only recently caught up with the evidence. Carl Heneghan My Oxford Handbook of Acute Medicine – getting rather old now, like me – states to give oxygen in the initial management of myocardial infarction. Oxygen was routine […]
We need better evidence in humanitarian disasters: here’s why
Humanitarian aid is the help provided in response to humanitarian disasters. The objectives of humanitarian aid are to save lives, alleviate suffering, and maintain human dignity. Therefore, it makes sense, well it does to me, that to achieve these objectives there is a need for better evidence. And here’s why. Carl Heneghan First, a […]
Why do rates of knee arthroscopy differ?
A recent trial of keyhole knee surgery for partial meniscectomy showed surgical intervention was ineffective. Surgery rates have varied markedly over time and across the UK, suggesting there is a lot of overtreatment. Carl Heneghan Published in the Annals of Rheumatic Diseases the randomised trial reported arthroscopic partial meniscectomy was no more effective than […]