Evidence, Experience & Exclusions: A review of a recent workshop
‘Can experience be used as evidence?’ That was the question at a workshop organized earlier this month by the Health Experiences Group at Oxford. The question does not only interest academics. Researchers from different disciplines were joined by clinicians, policy...
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Statins and their side effects
Statins were the 20th century ‘blockbuster’ drug. Almost everyone could benefit from turning a Euro-American cholesterol into a Japanese one according to their supporters … And now they are off-patent, statins look better and better value to those seeing health...
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n of 1,2,3? How many PPI patients is enough?
Patient Public Involvement (PPI) is ubiquitous in healthcare, and it tends to be used as a valuable tool for improving healthcare delivery. But how about questions of what it might do for the patient themselves. This aspect of PPI is...
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Health tomorrow?
Health apps are all the rage, but have they really been taken to heart by the end consumer?
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Ethics at the coalface
Two different research papers caught my eye this week, and for once both were open for anyone to read. Drawing on studies in very different places – a neuro-degenerative research centre in the UK (Brosnan et al.), and a research...
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On being involved
Our son was born last November with a cleft lip and palate. Since then we have learned a lot. We know how to squeeze milk rhythmically into his mouth; massage scar tissue and deliver pain medications with the minimum of...
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Be happy, be healthy and get well soon
Rows continued to rumble this week about the proper content of general practice in the new NHS. Are GPs ducking their responsibility for out of hours care? Are they being pulled away from medical practice by the new responsibilities of...
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Our NHS: a place for ethical consumption?
Two weeks ago the news covered a tragic death: a seven week old baby, Axel, succumbed to a chest infection despite repeated contact with the health services. The story gained traction not so much as a narrative of professional mistakes,...
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‘Strategic ignorance’: in praise of blind decisions?
We’re marking the last assessments of the academic year – just in time to start teaching the next set of students. We’re ready to put new names to new faces and to work on creating relationships that help everyone to...
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Polypharmacy?
Have you ever worried about mixing different medications? Have you ever been prescribed several medicines at once and found it difficult to keep track of different pills? Researchers at Barts in London think they have an answer, proposing that several...
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Taking a break: a note on the sociology of snacking