Richard Smith: “This house needs new drugs”—no it doesn’t

Last week I took part in a debate at the Cambridge Union on the motion “This house needs new drugs.” The motion was proposed by the chief executive of AstraZeneca, a global pharmaceutical company that is moving its global headquarters to Cambridge and emphasising science over marketing. The Cambridge Union is designed in part to […]

Read More…

djfhdkfdkjfhakdjfhkadsfhldksjfajdfkdajfhkdlsfhkdlsfhkdsfhskldfhdkfhdskl

Richard Smith: Time to rethink marriage

At a meeting on the politics of marriage last week at the London School of Economics three protagonists of very different stripe—the founder of the Marriage Foundation, a feminist philosopher, and a gay rights activist—all agreed that marriage was an outdated institution that should be rethought. My wife and I, who went together to the […]

Read More…

djfhdkfdkjfhakdjfhkadsfhldksjfajdfkdajfhkdlsfhkdlsfhkdsfhskldfhdkfhdskl

Richard Smith: Doctors and patients heading in opposite directions

Doctors and patients are heading in opposite directions: patients increasingly have multiple conditions, while doctors are specialising not just in organ systems but in parts of organs. What are the consequences of this divergence? We have known for many years now that patients have multiple conditions. As the figure from a Scottish study shows, by […]

Read More…

djfhdkfdkjfhakdjfhkadsfhldksjfajdfkdajfhkdlsfhkdlsfhkdsfhskldfhdkfhdskl

Richard Smith: The hypocrisy of medical journals over transparency

Medical journals generally favour transparency, but we’ve recently discovered that when there’s a trade-off between transparency and their financial interest they opt for the money. The International Committee of Medical Journals Editors, the Roman Curia of editors, wants all clinical trials to be registered and data to be shared. The BMJ is so keen on […]

Read More…

djfhdkfdkjfhakdjfhkadsfhldksjfajdfkdajfhkdlsfhkdlsfhkdsfhskldfhdkfhdskl

Richard Smith: A Big Brother future for science publishing?

There have been big changes in science publishing in the 25 years since the appearance of the internet, but at the same time science publishing is still dominated by journals, a 17th century invention. The tipping point when true transformation begins has long been predicted and may now be close. Why do I say this? […]

Read More…

djfhdkfdkjfhakdjfhkadsfhldksjfajdfkdajfhkdlsfhkdlsfhkdsfhskldfhdkfhdskl

Richard Smith: Little global progress in countering non-communicable disease

In 2011 the United Nations held a high level meeting on preventing and controlling non-communicable disease (NCD) and produced a declaration on what countries should do. In 2018 it will hold another meeting to review progress, and unless there is a dramatic acceleration the meeting is likely to conclude that progress has been poor, said […]

Read More…

djfhdkfdkjfhakdjfhkadsfhldksjfajdfkdajfhkdlsfhkdlsfhkdsfhskldfhdkfhdskl