Researchers have long debated the relative complexity and importance of different scientific disciplines. Traditionally, sciences that used the most mathematical equations—such as physics—were deemed the most intellectual and placed at the top of an academic hierarchy, while social sciences were consigned to the lowest point. Willard Van Orman Quine, who held the Edgar Pierce chair […]
Richard Smith: Is global health too medicalised?
When I teach young doctors in Amsterdam about responding to NCD (non-communicable disease) in low and middle income countries, I ask them how they would allocate 100 units of resource. I give them four buckets. One bucket is for treating people with established disease: patients with heart attacks, strokes, cancer, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. […]
The BMJ Today: Medicines have a new competitor—gamification
Gamification is a theory, not just a trend. It is the use of game mechanics to solve real world problems, and that includes those that originate in the body. If the word instils in you a sense of fear and dread—as it did in me—look no further than this Feature by Stephen Armstrong to feel […]
Daniel Maughan: What has climate change got to do with mental health?
This blog is part of a series on sustainable healthcare, which looks at health, sustainability, and the interplay between the two. The blog is coordinated by the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare and shares ideas from experts across the healthcare field. The World Health Organization and the Lancet Commission have both stated that climate change is […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review—15 September 2014
NEJM 11 September 2014 Vol 371 1016 Ticagrelor has had mixed fortunes since it was introduced as a new thienopyridine platelet aggregation inhibitor a few years ago. The PLATO trial left lingering doubts whether it is better than the much cheaper clopidogrel when used in acute coronary syndromes. Rather than attempting to resolve these, the […]
The BMJ Today: You don’t always get what you pay for
On bmj.com today, researchers have found that a much cheaper treatment for wet age related macular degeneration causes no more side effects than the far more expensive licensed treatment. Zosia Kmietowicz reports that the authors of the Cochrane review have found that ranibizumab (Lucentis), which is most commonly used in the UK and costs about […]
Ian Bushfield: Respond to EMA and FDA consultations
On Monday 15 September, two important consultations (one by the EMA and one by the FDA) will close, ending the public’s opportunity to respond to these consultations and help defend the independent analyses of medical data. The AllTrials campaign has been urging interested parties to respond and have their say on these two consultations, which are outlined […]
Richard Smith: Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, live
When Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, was buying his Sunday papers a few weeks ago he encountered an elderly woman complaining that her newspaper didn’t contain the television section. It did, as the newsagent pointed out to her before asking her, “Would you like me to walk you home?” Stevens was struck that […]
The BMJ Today: Watch out for the quiet ones
I’m always pleased to see that people keep an eye on changes that are announced quietly by big organisations. Jim Murray alerts us to a discreet switch made by the European Commission. He explains in his blog: “In the UK, the Department of Health is the ‘parent,’ or sponsoring department, for the Medicines and Healthcare […]
David Kerr: An Apple a day keeps the doctor away?
It might be cool, but will it make a difference to health? This is still the unanswered question after the launch of the latest must-have device from Apple, 30 years after the launch of the original Mackintosh computer in the same building in California. Due to be released next year at a starting price of […]