Imagine a country without a health system; imagine the chaos, and inefficiency. In such a setting, the only form of health systems research necessary would be to generate evidence towards achieving universal coverage. Research will not only be about which interventions work, but where and how the interventions would be most optimal. Indeed, if we […]
Tony Falconer on leading healthier lives
The coalition government seems keen to engage with individuals and organisations, to help them help themselves lead healthier lives. This, we are told, will be done through encouragement and collaboration as outlined in a paper by the Cabinet Office behavioural insights team at the end of last year. […]
Lesley Henderson: Cot death in EastEnders
The current cot death story in BBC soap opera EastEnders has generated numerous complaints to the BBC and regulatory body Ofcom. One of the actors involved is now reportedly leaving the programme after being traumatised by her harrowing scenes and being abused by a member of the public while out walking with her family. Yet […]
Liz Wager: Does the Wakefield et al case mean we should demand public access to raw data?
The latest chapter in the sad saga of the Wakefield et al paper on the MMR vaccine raises some difficult questions about access to individual patient data. It is possible that the apparent discrepancies between the patient records and the publication might have come to light a whole lot sooner, perhaps even before publication, if […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review, 10 January 2011
JAMA 5 Jan 2011 Vol 305 43 Implantable cardioverter-defibrillators are a good intervention for those who have bad systolic heart failure with a risk of ventricular arrhythmia, and would rather die slowly than suddenly. The “utility” of the device is that it can have a statistically significant effect on mortality in younger, properly selected patients; […]
Research highlights, 7 January 2011
“Research highlights” is a weekly round-up of research papers appearing in the print BMJ. We start off with this week’s research questions, before providing more detail on some individual research papers and accompanying articles. […]
Brian Deer: Piltdown medicine: The missing link between MMR and autism
On 21 November 1953, what is now Britain’s Natural History Museum stunned both science and the public by calling the fraud in the case of “Piltdown Man.” Fragments of fossilized jaw, skull, and tooth, unearthed shortly before World War I from gravel beds, 45 miles south of London, were not, as had been believed, the remains […]
James Raftery: What does “value based pricing” mean for NICE?
The “value based pricing” consultation paper” makes the following relevant references to the future of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). […]
Richard Smith: Will we follow Easter Islanders into extinction?
What contrary creatures we humans are. I begin the year convinced that our civilisation will collapse soon but at the same time enjoying the continuous Mozart on Radio 3, abandoning alcohol for the month with enthusiasm, and committing myself to three runs and 70 000 steps a week. As my wife, who also thinks that […]
Richard Lehman’s journal review, 4 January 2011
NEJM 30 Dec 2010 Vol 363 2588 A sizeable multinational study seeks to find out whether providing free daily anti-retroviral drugs as well as free condoms might help to reduce the transmission of human immunodeficiency virus in men who have sex with men. The majority of the subjects were recruited in Peru, with smaller groups […]