http://dianthus.co.uk Medical writing, data management and statistical services. Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:53:30 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en We will be exhibiting at the ICR conference on 19-20 April. Please come and see us on stand 7 if you're going to be there. http://dianthus.co.uk/icr-conference-2010 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 ... http://dianthus.co.uk/mission-impenetrable 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. Apparently, a group of prominent stem cell researchers have written an "open letter" to journal editors ... http://dianthus.co.uk/peer-review-of-stem-cell-research I have just received an invitation to take part in the UK Biobank study. For those of you who are not familiar with it, it is an ambitious project to set up a prospective cohort that can be used for a wide range of epidemiological studies, and in the words ... http://dianthus.co.uk/uk-biobank 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 ... http://dianthus.co.uk/new-team-member 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. http://dianthus.co.uk/last-few-places-available 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 ... http://dianthus.co.uk/does-tamiflu-prevent-complications-of-flu 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 ... http://dianthus.co.uk/emwa-conference-in-frankfurt 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.  Click here for more details and to download the registration form. http://dianthus.co.uk/medical-writing-training-course 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 ... http://dianthus.co.uk/bexhill-half-marathon