Recently in Bangladesh I had breakfast with a Harvard professor of economics who told me: “Economists pay no attention to what people say, only to what they do.” Now I know, as we all do, that there is a big gap between what people say and what they do, and consequently I’ve always been wary […]
The other night, as is my wont, I imagined myself dying, and I wondered as I came near the end whether I would suddenly fear that I might be going to hell. Even if it doesn’t happen to me, there must be huge numbers of people in the world facing that prospect as they die. […]
It was the White Queen who told Alice that she had at times thought six contradictory things before breakfast. We humans have a remarkable tolerance for incompatibility, happily living with any number of self-cancelling beliefs about ourselves and the world. So difficult is it to imagine – or at least for me to imagine – […]
Recent reports that NICE was to be bypassed by drugs which were “innovative,” with funding from a new separate budget, sent me in search of the source report – the Life Sciences Blueprint, a statement from the Office of Life Sciences . […]
As we begin to assimilate the reality of assisted suicide we should also take the next step to living funerals. I’ve never been to one, but a living funeral is exactly as the name implies: the “funeral” is held while the star turn is still alive – but close to death. If the person is […]
” Appraising the value of innovation and other benefits: a short study for NICE, ” the report by Sir Ian Kennedy contains one of the best critiques of the new buzz word “innovation” but perversely goes some way to recommending it be included in cost effectiveness. […]
A journal editor told me he was once asked to act as an expert witness defending a doctor accused of negligence for failing to diagnose a rare condition. The defence hinged on how soon a doctor could reasonably be expected to be aware of a medical development after it had been reported in a journal. […]
So they’ve been at it again, the men in white coats. Putting on their grey beards and playing God, getting the jump on poor old mother nature. There are times when you could almost feel sorry for her. All those pipette-pushers forever tunnelling deeper and deeper into her mysteries. Leave her alone, I can almost […]
How international do we want to be? Many organisations find themselves discussing that question in a globalising world—and most don’t find it easy to answer. Britain itself can’t answer the question, flirting with the US and remaining semi-detached in Europe. I’ve spent the day trying to answer the question with an organisation—let’s call it the […]
I’m fed up of being told not to panic over swine flu. If I want to panic then I’ll panic. I’ll run naked and screaming down the street imploring my neighbours to do the same. But then I realise that I don’t know what exactly you do when you panic. Do you turn to jelly, […]