Mission impenetrable
I've just returned from a 1-day conference organised by the National Research Ethics Service. I can't say I've finished the day with a wonderful sense of optimism about the future of ethical review of clinical research.
The day began with a talk that was supposed to be an update about what NRES was doing. In fact it was mainly about NRES's mission statement, the drafting of which seems to have occupied an outrageously disporportionate amount of NRES's intellectual efforts. As I wrote on my feedback form for the event, this focus on writing a mission statment shows "an alarming lack of perspective". Maybe I'm just old fashioned, but I've never really seen the point of any mission statement that doesn't begin with the words "Your mission, should you decide to accept it...". Did the Pharaohs have a mission statement when they built the pyramids? Did Nelson have a mission statement at Trafalgar? You wonder how much could have been achieved if all the effort that had clearly gone into the (as yet unfinished) mission statement had been spent on doing something useful instead.
Continue reading→Peer review of stem cell research
I heard an interesting story on the radio this morning about stem cell research. It's also reported on the BBC news website, although strangely enough I couldn't find it reported anywhere else in the media.
Continue reading→UK Biobank
I have just received an invitation to take part in the UK Biobank study. I have some serious concerns about their attitude to data protection, and I won't be participating. Continue reading→New team member
I am delighted to announce that as of today we have a new team member at Dianthus. Ruth Allwood has joined us in the role of client support manager. Her role will be to manage all the administration around our projects, take care of finances, keep our clients up to date with status reports, etc.
A hearty welcome to the team to Ruth from all of us at Dianthus Medical.
Continue reading→Last few places available
We still have a small number of places left on our forthcoming introduction to medical writing course, but not very many. If you are considering booking a place on the course, please do so as soon as possible if you want to be sure of a place.
Continue reading→Does Tamiflu prevent complications of flu?
There was a very strange story surrounding yesterday's publication of a systematic review of the role of drugs such as Tamiflu in treating flu. This made the lead story on yesterday's Channel 4 News. The story involved the Cochrane Collaboration, the British Medical Journal, and Roche (makers of Tamiflu), and I have to say I don't think any of them has emerged from the story with much credit.
Continue reading→EMWA conference in Frankfurt
Last week I went to the EMWA conference in Frankfurt, which once again was very successful and a lot of fun. I was teaching two workshops this time, including a brand new one on statistical analysis of binary data. To my surprise, the workshop sold out very soon after conference registration opened. This is unusual for a new workshop (as workshops are not eligible for EMWA professional development credit the first time they are run) and, let's face it, statistical analysis of binary data doesn't exactly sound very sexy.
Continue reading→Medical writing training course
Our next introductory course in medical writing is now open for booking. Places are still available, but numbers are limited so please book early if you want to be sure of a place. Continue reading→Bexhill half marathon
I'm delighted to report that I ran my first ever half marathon yesterday, namely the Bexhill Poppy Half Marathon. The weather was rather unpleasant, but at least the rain had eased off by the time the race started and we avoided the heavy downpours of earlier in the day. I wasn't sure what time to expect, but given that I've done a couple of 10 mile races earlier this year with a time of just over 1 h 40 min, I thought I'd probably complete the half marathon in somewhere around 2 h 10 min to 2 h 15 min.
Continue reading→Ikea
In my previous post "Everything is crap" I promised to write more about Ikea once the legal stuff was all over. Well, it is, so here goes.
Almost exactly a year ago, we had some furniture delivered from Ikea. One of the delivery men dropped the furniture on the hearth of our almost brand new and expensive limestone fireplace, and broke it. When we pointed out the damage, the other delivery man then became quite rude and abusive, denying all responsibility and shouting a lot.
Continue reading→