Every day hundreds of thousands of doctors and patients around the world discuss the benefits and risks of drugs. You might think therefore that we know how to communicate the information well, but the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the Food and Drug Administration agree that we don’t.
Indeed, the EMA logically thinks that before we [...]
Filed under: Medicine, Society | Leave a Comment »
The differences between rural and urban China are stark. Beijing, Shanghai, and other major cities are filled with new buildings, best illustrated by those built for the Olympics, whereas rural China has as many as 300 million people living on under a dollar a day, more than any other country. Indeed, China can be described [...]
Filed under: Medicine, Society | Leave a Comment »
Perhaps I should have realised from the title, but when I began to read The Book of Dead Philosophers I didn’t expect it to be funny. In fact Simon Critchley’s stories of how “190 or so” philosophers died and some of what they said about death is at times hilarious—as well as rich with meaning.
Let’s [...]
Filed under: Book, Society | Leave a Comment »
Slowly but surely the internet is transforming industries—finance, travel, music, entertainment—but so far it has had little impact on public services. But can it transform public services and if so how and when? These were the questions that ran through a day of “cocreation” organized by Patient Opinion, an organisation founded by GP Paul Hodgkin [...]
Filed under: Medicine, People, Society | Leave a Comment »
Demos is one of my favorite think tanks, a left-of-center research institution responsible for many of Tony Blair and New Labour’s policies. Peter Bradwell and his colleagues are running an interesting research project through a series of focus groups with citizens in different parts of the UK. One of the topics is how personal medical [...]
Filed under: Meeting, PKB Lecture, Society, Technology | Leave a Comment »
I attended the launch event for the NESTA report by Laura Bunt and Michael Harris, The Human Factor: how transforming healthcare to involve the public can save money and save lives. The three speakers were Andrew Lansley, Shadow Secretary of State for Health, Tim Kelsey, Chairman of Dr Foster Intelligence, and Jonathan Kestenbaum is Chief [...]
Filed under: Meeting, Society | Leave a Comment »
I’ve just spent five days—yes, five days—talking about health literacy. Before my five day conversation I’d never thought much about health literacy, but now I see myself as an expert. Pick a small enough subject and you can be a world expert in about 20 minutes. But health literacy is actually [...]
Filed under: Medicine, Society | Leave a Comment »
My father in law sent me this video recording of the wonderful BBC television show, Jimmy’s Food Factory. See if you can figure out why.
Filed under: Society, Technology | Leave a Comment »
It is my great pleasure to announce that the Journal of Participatory Medicine has launched. I am on the editorial board and the inaugural issue includes a paper by our chairman, Dr Richard Smith.
Participatory medicine is about a new approach to patient care: where patients are part of the team, and everyone in the team [...]
Filed under: Medicine, Society | Leave a Comment »
My paper was published today in inaugural issue of the Journal of Participatory Medicine, whose editorial board includes our CEO, Dr Mohammad Al-Ubaydli.
Abstract
Summary: After 30 years of practicing peer review and 15 years of studying it experimentally, I’m unconvinced of its value. Its downside is much more obvious to me than its upside, and the [...]
Filed under: Medicine, PKB publication, Society | Leave a Comment »
Dr Mohammad Al-Ubaydli
Dr Richard Smith