Twenty years ago this week the statistician Doug Altman published an editorial in the BMJ arguing that much medical research was of poor quality and misleading. In his editorial entitled, “The Scandal of Poor Medical Research,” Altman wrote that much research was “seriously flawed through the use of inappropriate designs, unrepresentative samples, small samples, incorrect […]
In the wake of the 50th US Surgeon General’s report on smoking and health, published last week, and in the spirit of Lewis Carroll, whose birthday it was this week, I thought I’d tell you a tobacco tale so absurd and fantastical it can’t possibly be true. Except it is. Before I lived there, I […]
At The BMJ we often talk about the “Chinese wall,” a clear demarcation between the advertising sales and editorial teams. This safeguard helps to avoid conflicts of interest, and means advertisers have no prior knowledge of an article that may mention their product, either positively or negatively. But is the term racist? […]
Access to HIV viral load monitoring in resource poor settings has long felt a bit like the search for the Holy Grail—a seemingly hopeless, but essential quest. But at the recent ICASA conference, the corridors were buzzing with the possibility that routine use of this technology in sub Saharan Africa could soon become a reality. […]
A recent BMJ article by one of the authors of this post (SW), argued the need for universal mental health checks in schools. This personal view stemmed from a wider collaborative research project (SW and KD), which explores the school as an effective site for early identification and intervention in mental health. The response to […]
As independent contractors, GPs cannot be instructed to take up innovation. They will adopt innovations that they can see will benefit their patients and also their practices in terms of finance or efficiency. They can be given financial incentives, but there is a limit to the funds available and Quality Outcome Frameworks (QOFs) have historically […]
An impromptu in hospital video by a 15 year old took healthcare social media by storm last week. Posted on Forbes.com on Thursday, by the evening it was in the top 25 most popular on the entire Forbes site, with active discussions on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Late on Friday it peaked at #3—on all […]
“Jeez, this is a bit like having a serious conversation on top of a mountain fifteen yards apart in 90mph winds,” tweeted doctor and journalist Ben Goldacre (@bengoldacre). “Yes, and I’m a lousy typist to boot!” hollered back Randy Schekman, Nobel laureate and editor of open access journal eLife (@elife). They were attempting a debate […]
NEJM 23 Jan 2014 Vol 370 301 It’s hard to think of two places less alike than the icy expanses of Alaska and the hot claustrophobic depths of a South African gold mine. But back in the 1960s, people who huddled for warmth in Alaska often spread tuberculosis among themselves, and a randomised trial showed […]
After 35 years working as a theatre scrub nurse, I permit myself a day off once in a while. So I was cycling through the park, on my way to the tennis court, when my phone rang. An anaesthetist I used to work with asked me if I would care to join a plastic surgery […]