Editors, by definition, are different. The annual short course for medical journal editors brought together a bunch of bright energetic free thinkers—mostly doctors. These new editors bring their own perspective on the rapid changes in medical publishing: Journals are gradually migrating to the web, publishers are selling bundles, big journals are creating off shoots, and […]
David Pencheon: The future of sustainable practices
When will this tale be possible? Towards the end of the working day, I jump on a train that takes me smoothly well in excess of 100 mph to another large town in England in less than 45 minutes (It took 90 minutes before 2009). I get picked up by a GP in an electric […]
Matthew Coldiron: Where the road ends—treating yaws in the Republic of Congo
We’re in Kpeta, a village of nearly 400 Aka pygmies in the Department of the Likouala in the northern Republic of Congo. Our team has driven five hours from the nearest functioning hospital, paddled an hour in a leaky pirogue to cross a river, trudged through a swamp in knee deep mud for half an […]
Richard Smith: Accelerating towards the future of publishing science
One of the conclusions of Ben Goldacre’s important book Bad Pharma is that our current system of publishing science is broken. More and more people are reaching that conclusion, and pressure is building to blow apart the present system. Goldacre’s prime concerns are not only that many drug trials are not published, but also that […]
Fred Kavalier: Not very harmonious
Newspapers these days have a steady stream of stories about the alleged failings and dirty dealings of private companies who are providing services to the NHS. Saturday’s Guardian (10 November 2012) has a story about Harmoni, the UK’s biggest out of hours provider that has recently been sold to Care UK for £48m. According to […]
Ian Liddell-Grainger: What more can be done to improve patient access to medical technologies?
Despite an increasing number of medical technologies that have the power to save and enhance lives, a high proportion of healthcare professionals still believe that the NHS has been too slow to embrace innovative ideas and technology. Many point out the stark variations in uptake of medical technologies across the country, not to mention the […]
David Payne: Doctors in Mugglemarch
My last encounter with a JK Rowling novel was an abortive attempt to get through a Harry Potter boxed set given to me as a present ten years ago (why did nobody have the guts to tell the world’s most successful author to make the Goblet of Fire and subsequent volumes shorter?). […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review—12 November 2012
JAMA 7 Nov 2012 Vol 308 1747 Big trials: don’t you love ‘em? James Penston doesn’t, arguing in his book stats.con (2010) that we have been duped into adopting interventions with small but statistically significant effect sizes that merely prove that most people receiving the treatments derive no benefit from them. And this is true: […]
James Raftery: Breast cancer screening review—would NICE have done it differently?
The publication of a summary of the benefits and harms of breast cancer screening in the Lancet, with the full report to follow, raises the question of whether referring this to NICE would have made any difference. The most obvious difference is that NICE would have gone on to appraise cost effectiveness. The final sentence […]
Desmond O’Neill: The location of Ireland’s new national children’s hospital
One of the hottest topics in Irish medical politics finally came to a head this week with the announcement of the location of the new national childrens’ hospital, amalgamating the three Dublin paediatric hospitals on the site of an adult hospital. For the host institution, this was a step of the utmost importance, as its […]