Skip to content

Monthly Archives: August 2008

When to weigh the options

30-Aug-08

Norman Geras discusses a US decision to advise against PSA testing for prostate cancer:
I’m in no position to comment on the medical evidence either way. But men who discover they have prostate cancer too late to benefit from curative treatments are unlikely to be convinced by the arguments against screening. Most of them will prefer [...]

They’ve already drank the Kool-Aid

28-Aug-08

Dr Steven Novella is quoted in this article about the rise and growing clout of skeptics.
He’s been an strong opponent of pseudoscientific medicine and purveyors of anti-vaccination propaganda, especially the autism and vaccine linkage conspiracy theory. On occasion, he says, patients who believe in the connection between vaccines and autism confront him.
“[They] seem to [...]

Paul Offit on vaccines

24-Aug-08

Autism’s False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure is a new book by Paul Offit. Here he is talking about his book. Enjoy.

Seeding trials and missed opportunities

23-Aug-08

There is an excellent paper at the Archives of Internal Medicine describing a seeding trial. The authors of the paper helpfully provide a useful and concise description of a such a trial:
Seeding trials are clinical trials designed by pharmaceutical companies to promote the use of pharmacotherapies that were recently approved or are under review by [...]

Recent publications and presentations

23-Aug-08

Apologies for the lack of posting here in August. I’ve been traveling for reasons of both business and pleasure. Here are a couple of recent non-blog related items I have written.
Cox AR, Wood KMG, Marriott JF, Ferner RE. Causality and definitions: How general practitioners decide what to report to spontaneous reporting schemes. Pharmacoepidemiology and [...]