JAMA 13 Feb 2013 Vol 309 559 Last week I had a go at the editors of the NEJM and The Lancet for publishing misleadingly reported pharma funded trials, in contradiction to their own idealistically stated views. Now, on p 607, the editor of JAMA maps out the moral high ground which he thinks necessary for […]
Several years ago in a study carried out at the Dept of Neurosurgery in AIIMS New Delhi, the authors continuously monitored the pulse rate, blood pressure and ECG of neurosurgeons while they were operating, and correlated it with the actual surgical steps in different procedures. It was observed that the pulse rate and blood pressure […]
Thou shalt not judge. A GP asked me recently whether he should sign patients off sick when he thought they were swinging the lead. I talk to a lot of GPs and I get asked a lot of difficult questions – it goes with the ethics territory – but this one looked like a no-brainer: […]
Overwhelmed by the relentless tide of bad news stories about UK primary care? Well, this is a good news story. A webinar organised by The Commonwealth Fund (a US philanthropic organisation originally created by the Harkness Family to identify policies and practice that could improve the US health system) discussed findings from the latest International […]
In January the government announced the establishment of a new service that will be operational in 2014. While this news seems to have gone under the radar so far, I’m confident that every GP in the country will be referring people to this service every week. The new service is an Independent Assessment and Advisory […]
Emma Bell, Susan Bewley, Silvia Petretti, Lynda Shentall, and Alice Welbourn. Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) [1], increases the vulnerability of women and girls to acquiring HIV. Research from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and now the UK shows that gender based violence, of which IPV is one part, is also experienced by women with HIV—often precipitated […]
This blog reports on the third workshop held by the Department of Health on the methods being planned for value based pricing, due to start in January 2014. Previous workshops on wider social benefits (WSBs) and quality adjusted life year (QALY) weights were reported in previous blogs. This workshop extended the work reported previously, with […]
Where do we find the latest, high quality research to inform our own research or clinical practice? Although new media have introduced a range of alternatives, such as the National Elf Service, the primary vehicle for disseminating research continues to be the learned journal. And the primary means of rating the […]
The Department of Health has just written to GP’s to encourage them to stop being so mean when it comes to providing blood glucose testing strips to people living with type 1 diabetes. Part of the reasoning for sending the letter relates to guidance from the UK Driving and Vehicle Licensing Agency for patients which […]
There is a sense that if you are not working at something that helps counter climate change (or climate disruption, as it should be called) then you are wasting your time. You are Nero, and Rome is burning. Those of us who work on non communicable disease (NCD) are “lucky” in that most of what […]