Calm settled over swine flu coverage this week as the northern hemisphere headed into the summer holidays; but much remains uncertain. Stories tracking the Health Protection Agency’s weekly flu figures fell from the front pages. But based on the agency’s numbers, the press report that cases, consultations, admissions and deaths from swine flu are far […]
Grace Tan asks: “Are medical students being discouraged from attending scientific conferences?”
One of the top five reasons given by medical students for not regularly attending meetings is “discouraged to attend by department and university,” a survey by the American Association of the History of Medicine, an academic society devoted to the history of medicine and all aspects of health, has found. This finding resonates with me […]
Julian Sheather on fat and human freedom
It was the White Queen who told Alice that she had at times thought six contradictory things before breakfast. We humans have a remarkable tolerance for incompatibility, happily living with any number of self-cancelling beliefs about ourselves and the world. So difficult is it to imagine – or at least for me to imagine – […]
Tom Nolan: How much flu is out there?
Measuring the tip of the iceberg The Health Protection Agency estimates that there were 110,000 new cases of swine flu in England last week,10,000 more than the week before. But how did they work this out and how accurate is it? […]
James Raftery: Bypassing NICE for the sake of innovation?
Recent reports that NICE was to be bypassed by drugs which were “innovative,” with funding from a new separate budget, sent me in search of the source report – the Life Sciences Blueprint, a statement from the Office of Life Sciences . […]
Anna Donald’s last blog
Anna Donald died on 1 February 2009. The blog below was found on her computer posthumously. At a memorial service for her at UCL on 26 April 2009, a six minute video was shown that was edited from material shot for a documentary and interactive website that will be launched in late 2009. Follow this […]
Richard Smith on living funerals
As we begin to assimilate the reality of assisted suicide we should also take the next step to living funerals. I’ve never been to one, but a living funeral is exactly as the name implies: the “funeral” is held while the star turn is still alive – but close to death. If the person is […]
James Raftery on the Kennedy report
” Appraising the value of innovation and other benefits: a short study for NICE, ” the report by Sir Ian Kennedy contains one of the best critiques of the new buzz word “innovation” but perversely goes some way to recommending it be included in cost effectiveness. […]
Helen Macdonald on side effects, Tamiflu, and the swine flu hotline
A hundred and five thousand people with flu symptoms were prescribed Tamiflu via the new hotline last week. But there are some unintended consequences. Although consultation rates for flu like symptoms are levelling, Pulse magazine reports on a new problem. Now patients are making appointments to see their GP complaining of the side effects of […]
Tom Nolan: Collection point nonsense
Talk of swine flu seems to have died down considerably since the launch of the national flu pandemic service in England last week. Despite the lack of news generally, it’s no longer on the front page of every newspaper – perhaps due to the telling off that the media got at the weekend (see Monday’s […]