The British people have spoken. Just over half of those who voted in the referendum supported leaving the EU. Although their votes are not legally binding, politicians of all parties have agreed that they will follow their instructions. The big question is “what is next?” I was in Norway on the night of the 23 […]
Category: Columnists
Richard Smith: Transparency for better decisions—still a long way to go
We may like to think with websites that allow us to compare prices and get feedback on books, plays, and restaurants that transparency is empowering us, but is the balance of information fair? Do we know more about Google, Tesco, and the government than they know about us? Clearly not, and, argued Roger Taylor and […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Leave or remain
Among all the misleading statements and frank untruths with which we’ve been bombarded by both sides in the debate on the forthcoming referendum, one form of argument has not, as far as I can tell, been mentioned—the etymological one. As followers of this blog know, the English judge Sir William Jones observed, in 1786, that […]
Richard Smith: On being misunderstood, exploited, and abused
A friend has pointed out to me that I am listed as an “exemplary professional” on the website of the Alliance for Human Research Protection. Others on the list include Florence Nightingale and the Nobel prize winner Sydney Brenner. I clearly don’t belong in such exalted company, but another on the list is Andrew Wakefield—yes, […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Delamothe
Tony Delamothe retires from The BMJ today, after nearly 30 years. His experience and expertise will be greatly missed. Here I am interested in his name. “Ant[h]ony” comes from the Roman name Antonius, of unknown origin. The intrusive h comes from confusion with the Greek word ἄνθος, a flower. But what about “Delamothe”? Some surnames are […]
Richard Smith: What will the post journal world look like?
SMACCDUB is the conference of young critical care doctors, with a few mature ones thrown in for the mix, and the most energetic I’ve been to in a long time, perhaps ever. In a plenary session I sat on a white sofa drinking a 25 year old Irish whiskey next to Jeff Drazen, the editor […]
William Cayley: Whither the communication of evidence in the social media world?
Notwithstanding the epistemological inconsistency inherent in discussions of “my evidence” vs “your evidence” (after all, if “evidence” is not about an objectively verifiable shared reality, then it’s not evidence”), I appreciate the call by Douglas Badenoch and André Tomlin to “dramatically improve the way important new evidence is communicated to the people who need it […]
David Kerr: Liquid expectations for health
“Mobile is eating the world.” Next June will see the tenth anniversary of the launch of the iPhone. Without a doubt, the impact of the smartphone has been enormous, and for healthcare providers the continued growth in smartphone use has major implications going forward—especially since more than half of patients/consumers now say that they want to be […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . .Tariffs
The news that certain companies have been charging over the odds for non-branded pharmaceutical products is not surprising, given activities in this market elsewhere. Last year the US rights to Daraprim, which contains pyrimethamine, used to treat toxoplasmosis and malaria, were acquired by Turing Pharmaceuticals, who raised the price of a tablet from $13.50 to […]
Desmond O’Neill: Ageing—simply complicated
Carinthia is a fascinating corner of Austria, formally included in the new Austrian Republic in a plebiscite in 1919 and imbued with the confluence of Austrian, Slovenian, and Italian cultures. Packed with history and culture, it provided rich material for underpinning a keynote lecture for the Austrian Geriatrics and Gerontology Society conference in Villach on how […]