NEJM 12 Dec 2013 Vol 369 2283 This week most of the NEJM is taken up with trials of genotyping to guide starting doses of vitamin K antagonists. Fair enough: this is a common clinical problem, and warfarin initiation is an important test case for genotyping as the gateway to personalised therapeutics. Dosing people with […]
The European Court of Justice has struck down and ordered a rehearing of the cases for an interim injunction to stop the European Medicines Agency’s new transparency policy on clinical trial results. The two companies, AbbVie and Intermune, will have to give more specific arguments as to why the relevant data should not be disclosed, […]
I was once in a restaurant in London when Nicole Kidman brushed past my table. Six feet of silver glamour. The effect was very much more intense than shaking hands with Prince Charles, meeting Tom Jones in a Paris hotel, or even watching Princess Diana at a garden party. Oddly I was reminded of Nicole […]
Last month, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) partnered with Blue Shield of California Foundation and the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute to bring together patient and family advisory council leaders from across the US. These organizations comprise a vibrant and growing resource for leadership and partnering on behalf of care that is patient centered, effective, […]
NEJM 5 Dec 2013 Vol 369 2183 Respect: this trial collected nearly a thousand patients who survived out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and ended up in one of 36 intensive care units spread across Europe and Australia. They were then randomised to treatment involving hypothermia to 33 deg celsius—as recommended by current guidelines—or without hypothermia. This logistic […]
Faith and healthcare do not comfortable bedfellows make. The majority of coverage of their convergence is around the tensions and conflict they can cause. Here in the US, the battleground of contraception coverage is being publicly and aggressively fought between the government and Catholic Church. The BMJ last week published a personal view from an […]
The Grand Convergence is the Big Idea of the Lancet Commission on Investing in Health. It is the idea that by 2035 the poor world could have similar mortality to the rich world. Is it achievable? Can it bring the “fractious global health community” together into one aim to replace the Millennium Development Goals? The […]
The infamous pugilist Mike Tyson doesn’t get a lot of airtime in the BMJ and I wouldn’t normally advise he be used as a paean of common sense. The guy has a big tattoo on his face. But here at the Lown Institute conference in Boston, there’s a quote from his early career that seems […]
Vaccines are among the greatest success stories in the history of individual and public health. Since the eradication of smallpox, the near eradication of polio, and control of several other infectious diseases, they have saved millions of lives and cost, and have boosted societal and economic progress. Yet for some pathogens, like HIV, with multiple […]
NEJM 28 Nov 2013 Vol 369 2083 I like it that the NEJM has chosen to start this week’s firework show with a dud. Stand ready to be awed and deafened by the Mighty Thunderboosh! Pssh, sputter, pop. Sorry folks, that was it. So rather than the vaccine that heralds the end of HIV, we […]