The report of this judgment made me laugh out loud several times. Mr Justice Holman twice describes proceedings as “bizarre”. A key confidentiality agreement with Dr Kanis could not be found. “Perceived conflicts of interest” led the removal of Dr Kanis from NICE’s Guideline Development Group. Dr Kanis went on to make a statement expressly […]
Category: Columnists
Julian Sheather on the case of Naomi Campbell
Naomi Campbell is more often associated with toppling heels and fashion-pack tantrums than fundamental clashes in human rights, but as we all know, in our celebrity-strewn culture, fame can be a lightning rod, drawing down great matters on otherwise unremarkable souls. While there may be more moving sights than the gyrations of exposure-hungry models seeking […]
NICE and the influenza antivirals for healthy adults – No, again and again and again
NICE’s latest technology appraisal of the flu antiviral drugs (amantadine, oseltamivir and zanamivir), published in February 2009 marks the sixth time these drugs have been considered. The timelines are shown below. […]
“Just doing my job,” by Liz Wager
Determining the appropriate authorship of publications causes all sorts of problems (in part, I believe, because none of the available guidelines apply in all situations, and many journals offer little help – but I’ve written about that elsewhere, so I’ll try not to rant about it here). What I wanted to write about was the […]
Richard Smith asks: Is medicine as excessive as the banks?
Is medicine, like the banks, falling into excess? I asked myself this question at the end of last year as I read about the death of Faith Williams, the conjoint twin who died 23 days after the operation to divide her from her sister, Hope, who died during the operation. Does it really make sense […]
James Raftery on NICE’s cost per QALY threshold: does the public have a view?
One approach to setting NICE’s cost per QALY threshold might be to survey the public. In 2003 NICE and the Department of Health did just that, with a study “assessing the feasibility of estimating the value that the UK population might attach to a QALY.” […]
Richard Smith on learning from health systems in Asia
It depresses me that despite the spread of the internet we are still most of us stuck in our intellectual and geographical silos. Why, I wondered at a conference in California last month, do we hear in Britain so little about Asian systems when they have so much to teach us? […]
Richard Smith asks who is the E O Wilson of medicine?
A friend has written to me asking whom I think might be the “E O Wilson of Medicine,” and I’m stumped. Perhaps some readers of the BMJ have never heard of E O Wilson. For those that haven’t he is a Harvard biologist who has twice won the Pullitzer Prize and who invented “consilience,” the […]
Julian Sheather on men, women, and chocolate
Once upon a long time ago I worked for a small charity that was much concerned with the plight of indigenous peoples. My role in the cause was a small one – it was a summer job photocopying press cuttings and grant applications in a pleasant, high-ceilinged room in a large house in West London […]
Julian Sheather on opening the data floodgates
The Coroners and Justice Bill is currently in Committee stage in the UK House of Commons. Section 152 of the Bill amends the Data Protection Act. It gives ministers of state the power to enable the sharing of any data that falls within their sphere of responsibility. It defines data sharing as both “the disclosure […]