http://dianthus.co.uk Medical writing, data management and statistical services. Tue, 27 Jul 2010 14:40:04 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Back in April, I wrote that perhaps I should start a "dodgy statistic of the month competition". OK, May and June have been and gone with no more nominations, so I'll make up for it by nominating 3 for July. The first nomination goes to Vince Cable. This surprises me, as ... http://dianthus.co.uk/more-dodgy-statistics First of all, for blindingly obvious reasons, I should acknowledge that the title of this blog post is not original. "Plagiarism hurts" was the title of an article in EMWA's journal The Write Stuff by Elise Langdon-Neuner, its editor-in-chief (page 13 of this issue, 1.6 MB pdf). I'm sure that ... http://dianthus.co.uk/plagiarism-hurts For anyone who hasn't yet read the first 3 parts of this story, they are here, here, and here. Just to recap, my main concern is that the NHS disclosed my confidential data (and the data of about 5 million other people) to the UK Biobank team without my consent. OK, ... http://dianthus.co.uk/uk-biobank-part-4 Are you trying to get a job in medical writing but finding it difficult without experience? We currently have internships available for bright and motivated individuals wanting to start a career in medical writing. You will be helping with a research project in medical writing, and seeing the day-to-day work in ... http://dianthus.co.uk/internships-available The Lancet have recently introduced an interesting new policy. They now require anyone submitting the results of research (not just randomised trials, apparently, but all research) to The Lancet to include a systematic review with their research. This can be a reference to a recently published systematic review, but if ... http://dianthus.co.uk/new-lancet-policy-on-systematic-reviews 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 ... http://dianthus.co.uk/history-of-medicine-walking-tour 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 ... http://dianthus.co.uk/uk-biobank-part-3 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 ... http://dianthus.co.uk/weight-watchers-and-churnalism 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 ... http://dianthus.co.uk/homoeopathy-is-it-all-bad 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 ... http://dianthus.co.uk/a-rose-by-any-other-name