Three separate articles neatly summed up the issues facing healthcare as the year ends. None are exactly new. All three covered separate aspects of what are the central problems. And that is the medicalization of life with the extension of diagnosis to over diagnosis,...
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...
Regular readers know my view on hectoring health “experts” who are detached from the real world. This excellent extract from “Skin in the game” by Nassim Nicholas Taleb explains the phenomenon, we see in many areas of life. – Dr Joe What we have been seeing worldwide,...
The Times newspaper in Britain, has apologized to five scientists over articles that suggesting research they did into e-cigarettes was funded by tobacco companies. According to the Guardian the five had intended to sue the paper. It quoted one of the five, David Nutt...
One of the things doctors worry about the most is missing a diagnosis. Treatment starts with diagnosis and to miss a cancer or other serious illness risks exposing people to considerable harm. This driving force has led to the concept of screening for illness in an...
There was an interesting review published in The Lancet about the placebo rate in use of antidepressants. The review found that that the placebo response rate had remained steady over the last 20 years – at around 40%. What was even more interesting was the way this...
