Some numbers are so big that one can struggle to comprehend them. Fierce Pharma reported that in the decade from 2007, drugs losing their patents had total sales of $US915 billion. Of this over US$200 billion was in sales of statin medications. A tablet for high blood...
Last week I saw the “controversial” movie “The Magic Pill” which looks at the role of food in our lives and how what we eat might influence our health. It is accepted that 75% of the disease burden in western societies are lifestyle related. This is a function of many...
“It’s Friday!” “Happy Friday!” “Fri-YAY!” If you are a healthcare professional, chances are good that this gets under your skin. Weekends? They don’t exist in your world. And if you have a weekend, rejoice – you can finally catch up on… more work? Isn’t play for lazy...
I was not a particularly talented footballer which might explain why my “career” ended in year nine. That said there was fun to be had playing footy with your mates on a Saturday morning. The area was still being developed and the team was new. Some weeks we struggled...
Research has shown that those who do not drink alcohol at all die younger than those who do. Like many of these studies we will never hear more about it. Yet it confirms the pattern often seen that studies, particularly about nutrition are contradictory. No wonder we...
A recent paper in the Medical Journal of Australia (here) provides a nice overview of the biases that lead doctors to overtreat and overinvestigate, but also offers useful solutions that we need to act on. A cognitive bias is where existing beliefs persist in the face...
