Medicine and Science from The BMJ

Talking up your research - Sex makes a difference

As editors, we feel like we’re spending a lot of time taking the superlatives out from articles - amazing, novel, important… But new research on BMJ.com suggests that we might not be doing that great a job, and that for some reason, papers authored by men tend to have more of them - because men put more in, or maybe a bias against woman writing in that way.
Marc Lerchenmueller, assistant professor at the University of Mannheim joins us to talk about how they did the research, and what it means for women's careers.
Read the full article
https://www.bmj.com/content/367/bmj.l6573

Talk Evidence - digital clubbing, osteoarthritis & sustainable EBM

We’re back for the December Talk Evidence, and this month we’re being very digital
Firstly,(1.20) Helen tells us about arthritic fingers - should we be using prednisolone for treatment when people have painful osteoarthritis of the hand
Then (13.30) Carl gets us all to check our fingers for clubbing, and we find out how useful it is as a test for lung cancer
(23.10) Minna Johansson GP and Cochrane Sweden researcher explains why EBM needs to take into account sustainability, and why that isn’t just carbon footprint.
(33.50) We talk AF and the Apple Watch - and why drop out is going to be a massive problem for the kind of big studies that they’re attempting to do with new consumer smart devices.
This month's reading:
Results of a 6-week treatment with 10 mg prednisolone in patients with hand osteoarthritis (HOPE)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673619324894?via%3Dihub
Cancer research UK - finger clubbing and mesothelioma
https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/mesothelioma/symptoms/finger-clubbing
Cochrane launches new Sustainable Healthcare Field, in Lund
https://sweden.cochrane.org/news/cochrane-launches-new-sustainable-healthcare-field-lund
Large-Scale Assessment of a Smartwatch to Identify Atrial Fibrillation
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1901183

Talk Evidence - Talking about harms

In this special edition of talk evidence, Helen Macdonald and Carl Henneghan talk about creating an evidence base from harms.
We hear from a member of the pubic who experienced harm from a drug, and now advises the FDA. A former regulator who explains why reporting harms is so important. And finally, an investigative journalist who explains what "ghost management" is.

Behind the campaign promises - Doctors in parliament

The UK general election is happening this week, and you’ve probably made your mind up which MP you’re voting for already - and maybe the NHS has influenced that decision.
This year has seen an increase in the number of doctors running for parliament, and in this podcast we find out what motivates doctors to step away from clinical practice, and why their voice on national issues is important to guide the health of their patients.
We’re joined by Louise Irving, gp and former parliamentary candidate for the NHS action party, and Andy Cowper, editor of Health Policy Insight

Behind the campaign promises - what the NHS means for the election

UK general election has been called - polling day is on the 12th of December, and from now until then we’re going to be bringing you a weekly election-themed podcast.
We want to help you make sense of the promises and pledges, claims and counter-claims, that are being made around healthcare and the NHS out on the campaign trail.
This week we're focussing on what the NHS means to the election, from people who have been inside the political process and know about how campaign promises are made. We talk about retail pledges, and why spending claims which don't cause real change might come back to bite politicians.
Joining us are Sally Warren, director of policy at The King's Fund,
Siva Anandaciva, chief analyst at The King's Fund and Bill Morgan, former policy advisor and founding partner of Incisive Health
www.kingsfund.org.uk/Podcast‎
https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/topics/general-election-2019

Behind the campaign promises - Health beyond the NHS

A UK general election has been called - polling day is on the 12th of December, and from now until then we’re going to be bringing you a weekly election-themed podcast.
We want to help you make sense of the promises and pledges, claims and counter-claims, that are being made around healthcare and the NHS out on the campaign trail.
This week we're focussing on health beyond the NHS - public health spending, and pledges to tackle air pollution and climate change. To discuss we're joined by Jennifer Dixon, chief executive of the Health Foundation, and Nicky Philpott, director of the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change.
Reading list
The BMJ's 2019 election coverage
https://www.bmj.com/content/general-election-2019
Health Foundation report: Mortality and life expectancy trends in the UK
https://www.health.org.uk/publications/reports/mortality-and-life-expectancy-trends-in-the-uk
UK Health Alliance on Climate Change general election briefing
http://www.ukhealthalliance.org/general-election-briefing/

Behind the campaign promises - Health and social care spending

A UK general election has been called - polling day is on the 12th of December, and from now until then we’re going to be bringing you a weekly election-themed podcast.
We want to help you make sense of the promises and pledges, claims and counter-claims, that are being made around healthcare and the NHS out on the campaign trail.
This week we're focussing on spending pledges. NHS budgets have not been keeping up with healthcare demand, and social care is in dire financial straits. David Oliver, consultant physician in Berkshire and author of the weekly BMJ “Acute perspective” column, and Hugh Alderwick, assistant director of policy at the Health Foundation.
Reading list
Acute perspective column
https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/category/columnists/david-oliver/
Health Foundations analysis of spending
https://www.health.org.uk/news-and-comment/blogsf
talk through what the parties are promising

Behind the campaign promises - GP numbers, and appointment slots

A UK general election has been called - polling day is on the 12th of December, and from now until then we’re going to be bringing you a weekly election-themed podcast.
We want to help you make sense of the promises and pledges, claims and counter-claims, that are being made around healthcare and the NHS out on the campaign trail.
This week has seen pledges about GP numbers, so we're focussing on primary care - and are joined by two GPs, Clare Gerada, co chair of the NHS Assembly, and former chair of the Royal College of GPs, and Rebecca Rosen, who is also a senior fellow at the Nuffield Trust.
Reading list:
Health, wellbeing, and care should be top of everyone’s political agenda
https://www.bmj.com/content/367/bmj.l6503
Labour pledges to outspend Conservatives on health with £26bn NHS “rescue plan”
https://www.bmj.com/content/367/bmj.l6537
Tories promise 6000 extra GPs by 2024
https://www.bmj.com/content/367/bmj.l6463
Is the number of GPs falling across the UK?
https://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/news-item/is-the-number-of-gps-falling-across-the-uk

Reversing our preconceptions about where innovation comes from

Reverse innovation may sound like some attempt to return to the dark ages - but it has a specific meaning, especially when it comes to med-tech. It’s about where we look for innovation - and overturning our preconceived ideas of where new ideas come from.
Mark Skopec, and Matthew Harris - both from Imperial College London are two of the authors of a new analysis, setting out to highlight those preconceptions, and creating new routes to bring innovation into the NHS.
Read the analysis:
https://www.bmj.com/content/367/bmj.l6205

Talk Evidence - aggravating acronyms, a time to prescribe, and screening (again)

Talk Evidence is back, with your monthly take on the world of EBM with Duncan Jarvies and GPs Carl Heneghan (also director for the Centre of Evidence Based Medicine at the University of Oxford) and Helen Macdonald (also The BMJ's UK research Editor).
This month Helen talks about the messy business of colon cancer screening - which modality is best, and in what population is it actually effective (1.40)
Carl talks about how the Netherlands did the right research at the right time to stop a new pregnancy scan before it became routine (10.35)
The Rant: acronyms in research papers (17.45)
Mini Rant: politicisation of the NHS, and Carl pitches for yet another job (25.15)
Research in the news has talked about the importance of when drugs are taken, to maximise efficacy. Melvin Lobo, cardiologist specialising in hypertension joins us to explain that research and why we seem to have forgotten about that effect.
Reading list:
Colorectal cancer screening with faecal immunochemical testing, sigmoidoscopy or colonoscopy: a clinical practice guideline
https://www.bmj.com/content/367/bmj.l5515
Effectiveness of routine third trimester ultrasonography to reduce adverse perinatal outcomes in low risk pregnancy (the IRIS study): nationwide, pragmatic, multicentre, stepped wedge cluster randomised trial
https://www.bmj.com/content/367/bmj.l5517
Bedtime hypertension treatment improves cardiovascular risk reduction: the Hygia Chronotherapy Trial
https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/advance-article/doi/10.1093/eurheartj/ehz754/5602478