Recent work by CCHSR shows that GPs find a whole range of reasons for doubting the results of patient surveys.
I visited our local A&E department recently, where they now have consultant physicians in A&E till 10pm every day. The rationale is simple. More senior people can make better decisions about when to admit people. In contrast, juniors play safe and admit people when admission may not be needed. In a nutshell, experienced staff are …read more
Recently I came across a BMJ editorial titled “Let the patient revolution begin” – so what is the patient revolution? The authors make the case that information asymmetry between doctor and patient is an issue of great concern, which may lead to an uncertainty among patients and (in)advertently discourage them from exercising informed choice and …read more
In a recent BMJ article, Charlotte Paddison and I argue that we need a new approach to patients with multimorbidity. Or not so much a new approach as rediscovering some old values. First, we argue that we need to put more value on clinical judgement. Guidelines are generally developed for people with single conditions and …read more
The first paper I ever submitted to a journal was accepted without revision. Brilliant. Choose a journal, write the paper, send it in, sorted. Oh, my poor deluded younger self. Imagine my surprise when my next paper was summarily rejected, painfully revealing the reality of Getting Your Paper Published. Somewhere. Anywhere! Now well versed in …read more
Big data seems to be the new catch word. What’s so special about it and why does it matter? ‘Big data’ refers to datasets so large that it becomes difficult to process them using conventional methods. Big datasets arise partly from ‘big science’, for example astrophysics and genetics. They also arise from measurements of human …read more
E-learning – that is, the use of Internet platforms on various electronic devices (PCs, mobile technology) to deliver any form of teaching, training or further education – is a growing area for researchers across disciplines. It is often used in the delivery of, or to supplement, courses or advanced training in settings where there is …read more
A common assumption of many statistical techniques is that the data are conditionally normally distributed. For example, an assumption made when performing a t-test is that the variable being tested is normally distributed in each group. In the example of linear regression, one of the assumptions is that the residuals are normally distributed. Clearly it …read more
At the International Forum on Quality and Safety in Healthcare which had 3500 delegates last week in London, Martin Marshall (Professor of Healthcare Improvement at UCL’s DAHR) and myself debated whether primary care really saves money and improves health outcomes. Marshall played ‘good cop’ and trotted out the well-known Starfield data which shows that countries …read more
I offered three challenges to the audience at an international conference of primary care cancer researchers in Cambridge (Ca-PRI, April 15th-16th): First, does primary care for people with cancer need to be improved, second does quality need to be measured in order to improve it, and third, how can the quality of primary care for …read more
The Wellcome Trust – oooh, funding! That’s my usual association. So it was good to remind myself this weekend about all the other things they do, including showing the most fascinating collection of health and disease related objects it is possible to imagine. I spent a rapt hour in the Wellcome Collection’s Medicine Man exhibition, …read more
