History of medicine walking tour
Jul
16
2010
In the 12 years or so that I have been a member of EMWA, I have travelled all over Europe attending their conferences. At most conferences, the social programme includes a walking tour of the city. It’s always a popular event, and is a great way to see something of the conference’s host city (sometimes [...]
UK Biobank part 3
Jul
14
2010
Readers with a long memory will recall that I blogged about the UK Biobank project back in January (with an update in May), and that at the time I made a Freedom of Information request to try to receive the ethics application form for the study.
By law, public bodies are required to respond to Freedom [...]
Weight watchers and churnalism
Jul
12
2010
Today, a story appears in the news citing the latest research which shows that sending obese patients to Weight Watchers helps them lose twice as much weight as normal NHS weight loss treatments. The story appears, in remarkably similar form, on the BBC, and in The Guardian, The Telegraph, and even The Sun.
By an amazing [...]
Homoeopathy: is it all bad?
Jul
08
2010
There has been much discussion in the blogosphere and the Twittersphere lately about homoeopathy, partly because of some Early Day Motions being put before the British parliament on the subject, and partly because of the BMA’s vote against homoeopathy at their recent conference.
Now, this may come as a surprise to anyone who is familiar with [...]
A rose by any other name…
Jul
06
2010
I sit on a research ethics committee, which for the most part is a fascinating experience. It is always interesting to see what research people want to do, and satisfying when we can help it become more ethical.
However, sometimes I really despair about the way ethics committees are managed. Today, I have received a letter from NRES, [...]
