A wise senior colleague told me in the 1990s, when I was involved in some medical committees, “Never stand between your colleagues and a barrel of money.” Maybe that’s a little harsh. I think Paul Keating, when he was Prime Minister, made similar observations about...
It is easy to tell when a sporting event is over. Either a prerequisite number of wins have been attained (e.g. tennis) or a finish line has been crossed. In time-based games, a siren or bell sounds to inform players, umpires and the crowd that time is up, and the...
There is increasing interest in the over use of medical tests, medications and procedures. There has been a belief that more medicine equals better health. In reality it does not. Whilst we absolutely can and do benefit from the advances medicine has made, too much of...
We are constantly fed doom and gloom stories in health. There is a crisis of this or a tsunami of that. This is despite life expectancy continuously increasing for over 100 years. The claims of crisis are inevitably accompanied by a plea for government funding for...
Conflicting views have again emerged about statin medications in two leading British Medical Journals. Statins are used to lower cholesterol and have been the best selling drugs of the past 25 years with sales in the tens of billions of dollars. The Lancet published a...
