Ben Goldacre's other blog

I am stomping like Godzilla. Video post test.

bengoldacre — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 16:42:20 +0000

Blah blah

Dug of Di duff Isaac DKK Ogden ova xiii an chic an Occ and vs of ska.

Awesome videos on history of Cochrane

bengoldacre — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 16:42:00 +0000

I spend a of my time shouting about systematic reviews, and how baffling it is that they're so recent. Cochrane Collaboration were instrumental in developing these ideas, and they've just released a bunch of videos to celebrate the anniversary. There are lots of interviews and old pictures featuring people you should have heard of, and some great human history of the battles for evidence that have shaped medicine. Some are memorable moments (like David Weatherall talking about the criticism of the Oxford Textbook of Medicine) but there are also some fun one liners, like Muir Gray saying, "I've taught Iain a lot, especially this: all civil servants need our help, some need a lot of our help…"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkhU5gU43RI

I shout about systematic reviews in this clip here, and there's a couple of pages in Chapter one of Bad Pharma on textbooks ignoring evidence, if you've got a copy kicking around.

Bored? Procrastinating?

I'm @bengoldacre on Twitter.

My first book is Bad Science

My second book is Bad Pharma

My main blog is here.

My throwaway blog is here.

I did this TED talk, and this TED talk.

Event for journalists about reporting on the new NHS systems. AND: a drunk video idea.

bengoldacre — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 16:26:07 +0000

This looks like an interesting backgrounder, via @paulbradshaw

I have, incidentally, a fantasy YouTube video series that I would like to commission: civil servants from the Department of Health explain the administrative structures of the new NHS after the current redisorganisation, to drunk people, and then the drunk people have to explain it back to the camera. It'll be like Drunk History meets the King's Fund.

Anyway, here's the event. Get in touch if you want to make the video, I'm ben@badscience.net and we'll need: some civil servants from DH (off camera is fine), a camera (I've got one), and some drunk people. So, basically get in touch if you work at DH and want to do this.

http://reportingccgs.eventbrite.com/

'GPs in control? Reporting the new health system' is an event bringing together the people who will be part of the new clinical commissioning system with those reporting on it.

It will discuss what are likely to be the important issues, as well as providing an opportunity for building new relationships with bodies such as CSUs and CCGs, as well as hyperlocal bloggers and health experts.

Speakers come from both the health system and health journalism, and include former Health Service Journal editor and public policy expert Richard Vize.

The event is being organised by the BBC College of Journalism, Birmingham City University and Help Me Investigate Health.

If you're bored:

I'm @bengoldacre on Twitter.

My first book is Bad Science

My second book is Bad Pharma

My main blog is here.

My throwaway blog is here.

I did this TED talk, and this TED talk.

Gorgeous, informative song about techy details of evidence based practice

bengoldacre — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 13:16:03 +0000

This is a gorgeous, informative song about techy details of evidence based practice

I totally agree with the principles set out here – the importance of thinking critically about the merits of surrogate outcomes, or benefits which are statistically significant but only clinically modest – though I'm not sure I agree with all his implicit summary conclusions about specific interventions.

But that's kind of THE POINT.

If you're bored:

I'm @bengoldacre on Twitter.

My first book is Bad Science

My second book is Bad Pharma

My main blog is here.

My throwaway blog is here.

I did this TED talk, and this TED talk.

I’m sad about Chavez. Here’s an amazing documentary that had access during the coup against him.

bengoldacre — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 22:06:49 +0000

Chavez was a mixed picture, but he had some amazing lines, and he was elected. Here's an amazing documentary that was filmed during the coup against him. It has some very scary moments, and the people on the other side don't come out looking too good.

If you're bored:

I'm @bengoldacre on Twitter.

My first book is Bad Science

My second book is Bad Pharma

My main blog is here.

My throwaway blog is here.

I did this TED talk, and this TED talk.

Nurse refuses to perform CPR on dying patient. Chilling.

bengoldacre — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 18:56:40 +0000

This 911 call is absolutely chilling. A nurse refuses to give CPR to a dying patient, explaining that it's not her job, and that her boss won't let her. She also refuses to hand the phone to any passer-by who will help save the life. The recording of the call is upsetting, it's a very peculiar situation.

If you're bored:

I'm @bengoldacre on Twitter.

My first book is Bad Science

My second book is Bad Pharma

My main blog is here.

My throwaway blog is here.

I did this TED talk, and this TED talk.

The dangers of approving things before the evidence is in: you don’t get the evidence

bengoldacre — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 10:55:15 +0000

There's a good editorial in the NEJM this week: the evidence for endovascular therapy is poor, but now that it's approved, and paid for, it's hard to get people into randomised trials to find out if it's any good.

As you know, my interest in pharma is just a subset of my interest in the broader issues around poor evidence based practice in medicine. We invented the ideals of evidence based medicine, much more recently than most people realise, and now we run around acting like we have instantiated it. The reality is very different: the "information architecture" of EBM is fractured and ad hoc, built on legacy systems that don't join up properly.

We should be identifying uncertainty, and minimising it, as rapidly as possible, with research embedded in routine clinical care (as discussed in Bad Pharma Chapter 5), to improve patient outcomes wherever possible.

This editorial makes a similar observation: maybe Medicare should only pay for this particular treatment in the context of an RCT?

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe1215730?query=OF

However, conducting randomized endovascular trials involving patients with acute ischemic stroke is easier said than done. The two above-mentioned trials that were conducted primarily in the United States (IMS III and MR RESCUE) had substantial difficulty in recruiting patients, because once the FDA approved the devices and Medicare provided reimbursement for these procedures, endovascular treatment became widespread and many physicians who were treating patients with acute stroke felt that the “answer was in.” Therefore, treatment equipoise was lost. It is hoped that equipoise will return on the basis of the results of these three trials. Nevertheless, recruitment in new trials will still be challenging, particularly among patients with large disabling strokes and their concerned families who “want everything done,” especially with new endovascular devices available and third-party payers willing to reimburse for these procedures. A decision by Medicare to place a moratorium on reimbursement for endovascular treatment of acute ischemic stroke outside of randomized trials would facilitate recruitment in these urgently needed trials. Once the new trials are completed, endovascular treatment will have been given ample opportunity to prove itself.

If you're bored:

I'm @bengoldacre on Twitter.

My first book is Bad Science

My second book is Bad Pharma

My main blog is here.

My throwaway blog is here.

I did this TED talk, and this TED talk.

i think the australian medical students association have some odd ideas about me

bengoldacre — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 01:08:38 +0000

Invitation to AMSA National Convention 2013.pdf Download this file

i haven't seen her for ages.

———- Forwarded message ———-

From: Academic Convenors 2013 <@amsa.org.au>

Date: Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 11:42 AM

Subject: Invitation to the 54th AMSA National Convention

To: ben@badscience.net, sballard@unitedagents.co.uk

Dear Dr Goldacre,

It is with great pleasure that we would like to invite Ms Natalie Portman to address

the delegates of the 54th National Convention of the Australian

Medical Students' Association (AMSA). This event will be held on the

Gold Coast, Australia, in July 2013. Please find your formal invitation

to this event attached. If you are available during this time and are

interested in speaking, we would love to send you some more

information on the conference.

We sincerely hope that you will be able to attend, and look forward to

hearing from you soon.

Kind Regards,

Rhys Youngberg and Stefanie Tran

Academic Convenors AMSA National Convention 2013

Australian Medical Students' Association

WARNING: This e-mail, including any attachments, is for the personal use of the recipient(s) only. Republication and re-dissemination, including the posting to news groups or web pages is strictly prohibited without the prior consent of the Australian Medical Students' Association. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender immediately on 0421 217 407.

The Australian Medical Students' Association does not warrant that this email and any attachments are virus free and recommends that all attachments be checked for computer viruses.

Do MPs go to prison more than you’d expect for 600 posh people?

bengoldacre — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 16:13:42 +0000

I just got called by a radio show asking me to discuss this flippent tweet:

Huhne. Is the imprisonment rate higher for MPs than for general popul’n, accounting for class mix? bbc.co.uk/news/uk-213209…

— ben goldacre (@bengoldacre) February 4, 2013

But I think it's a really important and interesting question. Do more MPs go to prison than we'd expect, accounting for class and gender mix of parliament (since those may be confounders in either direction)?

To calculate this, we would need:

1. a list of every MP prison term for, say, two terms (easiest), or the past ten years, or something.

2. class and gender breakdown of parliament over the same period.

3. UK "going to prison" rates for the general population, stratified by social class and gender.

from that, with some whizzy maths, we're done.

i don't have time to grab the figures, but if someone does i'll cheerfully help.

If you're bored:

I'm @bengoldacre on Twitter.

My first book is Bad Science

My second book is Bad Pharma

My main blog is here.

My throwaway blog is here.

I did this TED talk, and this TED talk.

“Storyboard” take stills from any video with subtitles, when the words change, thus turning it into a picture book. Genius.

bengoldacre — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 23:50:34 +0000

"Storyboard" take stills from any video with subtitles, when the words change, and so turns a film into a picture book.

"Storyboard was born of my insane desire to consume videos without actually having to watch them. Normally that would involve putting the TV on in the background and ignoring the video while listening to the audio, but what about the reverse? All visual without the audio. On my kindle."

I think this is a work of automated format-shifting genius.

http://syntaxi.net/2013/01/20/storyboard/

via waxy.org/links

If you're bored:

I'm @bengoldacre on Twitter.

My first book is Bad Science

My second book is Bad Pharma

My main blog is here.

My throwaway blog is here.

I did this TED talk, and this TED talk.