A pal of yours is told at a conference by a slightly drunk principal investigator about a drug trial, that’s been first-pass data cleaned and a basic analysis undertaken. The results are clear … even given the possibility of the effect shrinking with more complex adjustments … giving Drug A (the experimental use of an otherwise […]
Category: practice of medicine
Happy holidays everyone
There will be a lull in blogging as a variety of people are off doing other things. Have a lovely summer (N hemisphere folks) / enjoy the rigours of Winter (S hemisphere chaps). […]
(Guest post) No more broken backs
In this guest post, Gabriella Morley reflects on her experience as a just-qualified doctor in paediatrics in Birmingham, UK, and what the experience of the “Learning From Excellence” model feels like to those under the greatest strain at the moment – junior doctors in England. It could probably be said that this was one of the most […]
Child Well-being
We, the child health community, are proud to focus on ‘well-being’ much more than numerical things, like fractional shortening, GFR or HbA1c*. In a recent discussion, it was identified that there has been a sociological academic discussion on looking at how interventions in childhood are more about well-becoming rather than well-being. Which intrigued me … […]
Of Vets and Paediatricians
I’ve heard it said, by those ignorant the joys of working in paediatrics, that our chosen speciality is “a bit like veterinary medicine”. Presumably this is a dig at both parties – at paediatricians because our patients couldn’t possible give us a history, could they? And also at vets because, well, their patients really can’t give […]
“I don’t want that needle!” (AKA Do fewer things)
We (doctory, paediatric types) tend to pride ourselves on minimising distress to children and young people wherever possible. A couple of social media interactions over the last few days have made me re-question that – this one ..also responsibility to not create unnecessary fear. Not all blood tests go smoothly. Did the child really need […]
Being a (part time) Consultant
Inspired by the wisdom of @ian_wac in the previous post, I wracked my brain to think of five top tips that I would give (if ever asked) on “How to be a Consultant”. […]
Being a Consultant
A colleague recently asked me, because he’d been asked to give a talk, what my top five tips would be regarding being a consultant. I thought that crowd-sourcing your talk was a bit cheeky, until I realised that I could spin off a blog post about it. […]
Work-Life Balance
Of course, you’ve got to maintain a work life balance. Of course you have. Of course. And, while we’re at it, we should discuss getting a life. We discussed just that down at my local “Get a life” club recently. (Joke courtesy of Barry Crier). But I’d like to put forward a different perspective. […]
Guest post: The scary thing about research
You know that question that always comes up after a journal club/critical review of a paper session – “so where do we go from here?” and you also know the standard answer – “more research is needed”. Have you ever thought about why you use that answer? Well, firstly, its what we were taught from […]