Medicine and Science from The BMJ

Talk Evidence - masks, chronic pain, and baby milk formulae claims

In this episode of Talk Evidence, Helen Macdonald is joined by Juan Franco and Joe Ross, to bring you the newest evidence in The BMJ.
First, chronic pain. As prescribers move away from opioids, Juan finds an overview of systematic reviews asking whether anti-depressants might help.
Joe finds new research on the link between six healthy lifestyle markers and cognitive decline.
Helen looks at a trial to reduce prescribing among older people with suspected urinary tract infection or UTI.
Juan has a nuanced take on the updated evidence on masks to reduce the spread of respiratory viruses.
Finally, an international group of researchers traced the health claims made about infant formula milk back to the evidence or lack of it
Reading list:
Efficacy, safety, and tolerability of antidepressants for pain in adults
https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj-2022-072415
Association between healthy lifestyle and memory decline in older adults
https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj-2022-072691
Effect of a multifaceted antibiotic stewardship intervention to improve antibiotic prescribing for suspected urinary tract infections in frail older adults
https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj-2022-072319
Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses
https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD006207.pub6/full
Health and nutrition claims for infant formula
https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj-2022-071075

Got grit?

Grit is one of those concepts (like the dreaded resilience) that has a specific meaning, but has become a buzzword in healthcare.
It’s the ability to persevere in the pursuit of a goal, in the face of obstacles - and it’s something all doctors have.
However that trait has benefits and drawbacks. It’s not necessarily fixed, but will depend on context, and it is measurable but not a very helpful measure in isolation.
In this episode, Clara Munro is joined by Declan Murphy and Ayisha Ashmore - and they sit down with neurourgeon and researcher Simone Betchen, who has measured grit in women surgeons, and helps them understand their grit scores.
Reading list
Grit in surgeons
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34218313/

Is it time for the Beano to drop the junk food brands?

Claire Mulrenan, specialist registrar in public health, and Mark Petticrew, professor of public health evaluation, both working at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical medicine were surprised to see high-fat, high-salt fast food brands being featured heavily on the website of one of the UK's most beloved children's comics.
In this podcast, they describe why they think that is harmful, and why the Beano should think again about its editorial policies, to protect children's health.
To read the full investigation:
www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj.p197

Talk Evidence - excess deaths, the ONS, and the healthcare crisis

In this week's episode, we're focusing on covid and the ongoing crisis in the NHS.
Helen Macdonald, Juan Franco and Joseph Ross cast their evidence seeking eyes over research into outcomes as well as the workload of doctors.
Firstly, Joe tells us about a new big data study into longer term outcomes after mild covid-19, how those ongoing symptoms relate to long covid, and how often they resolve themselves.
Juan looks back to his homeland to see what Argentina which was very early to offer children vaccinations against covid-19. He tells us how a new study design can help understand how effective different combinations of vaccines were.
Joe has a Danish registry paper, which links people's employment status after a MI, explains how that gives us an insight into morbidity following that event.
Helen looks at a new analysis which outlines the concept of "time needed to treat" - a measure of how much time it would take a clinician to actually carry out a guideline - and you'd be surprised how much GP time would be swallowed by a "brief" intervention to reduce inactivity in their patients.
Finally, the data on excess mortality in the UK has been up for debate recently - our health minister calling into question the Office of National Statistic's data. We hear from Nazrul Islam, Associate professor of medical statistics, advisor to the ONS and BMJ research editor, who has some bad news for him.
Reading list:
Long covid outcomes at one year after mild SARS-CoV-2 infection
https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj-2022-072529
Effectiveness of mRNA-1273, BNT162b2, and BBIBP-CorV vaccines against infection and mortality in children in Argentina, during predominance of delta and omicron covid-19 variants
https://www.bmj.com/content/379/bmj-2022-073070
Guidelines should consider clinicians’ time needed to treat
https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj-2022-072953
Expanding the measurement of overdiagnosis in the context of disease precursors and risk factors
https://ebm.bmj.com/content/early/2023/01/10/bmjebm-2022-112117
Excess deaths associated with covid-19 pandemic in 2020
https://www.bmj.com/content/373/bmj.n1137.abstract

Formal Training Pathways, are they really all that?

One size doesn’t fit all - so what are the alternative career paths of doctors in the NHS? The treadmill of medical school, to foundation training, to specialist training, to a consultant position takes years and is not very trainee-centric in it’s design.
So are there other ways for doctors to be able to work in the NHS, still progress their career, but also tailor the job to themselves? And what are the drawbacks of trying to do that?
In this podcast, Clara Munro is joined by Flo Wedmore and new panelist Jason Ramsingh, a surgical trainee in Newcastle. They speak to Rob Fleming an SAS (speciality and associate specialist) doctor in anaesthetics.

Conflict and food global food insecurity

As we gear up for the winter in the northern hemisphere, the need to stay warm and eat well is pressing - but in 2022, there are global pressures working against us.
Russia invaded Ukraine, and the subsequent restrictions on exports from both of those countries is being felt in terms of fuel costs - but also food costs. At the same time, this year has seen droughts and flooding which have affected global food production, as well as continuing restrictions around covid and economic activity.
All of these factors are working together to increase food insecurity.
Our Guests;
Sheryl Hendricks, professor of food security at the University of Pretoria
Renzo Guinto, chief planetary doctor at PH Lab
Tim Benton, director of the Environment and Society Programme at Chatham House.

Talking evidence at Christmas

It's almost time for the Christmas edition of the BMJ to hit your doormats, and in this festive edition of Talk Evidence we're going to be talking Christmas research.
Joining Helen and Juan, we have Tim Feeney, BMJ research editor and researcher into Surgical outcomes at Boston University.
In this episode we'll be hearing about the health of footballers, and if a career in the sport predisposes Swedish players to substance use disorders. We'll hear about the performance of BMJ’s editors, when it comes to assessing the impact of a paper. We'll find out if AI algorithms can pass UK radiology exams, misinformation and a belief that everything causes cancer, and finally, some tips from BMJ’s statisticians to set the world right

DNACPR

In this episode of the Dr. Informed podcast, the topic of discussion is death and dying, and how to involve patients in DNACPR decisions.
The panel discuss the importance of doctors having discussions with patients about end-of-life care as a way of creating the best possible death for patients. The conversation also touches on the challenges that doctors may face when having these difficult discussions and they give some advice on how they to overcome them.
Joining Clara are;
Mark Taubert, palliative care consultant, and national chair of future care planning for the Welsh Government
Kat Shelley, an anaesthetics trainee, who has stage four breast cancer, and is receiving palliative care
Lucy-Anne Frank, an elderly care consultant.
The article "Do not resuscitate me in Barbados" is published by BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care, and is free to access at;
https://spcare.bmj.com/content/11/3/310

Talk Evidence - endometriosis, falling, and better EBM

In this month's episode, Helen Juan and Joe delve into the clinical - with a new review of endometriosis, and why the difficulty in diagnosis has lead to a dearth of evidence and attention on the condition.
Joe tells us about a risk prediction tool that could be useful in helping to mitigate some of the problems of antihypertensive treatments.
We're also having a geek out about a group of papers we've published lately, on how well evidence is created, maintained, and diseminated.
Reading list;
Development and external validation of a risk prediction model for falls in patients with an indication for antihypertensive treatment: retrospective cohort study
https://www.bmj.com/content/379/bmj-2022-070918
Pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management of endometriosis
https://www.bmj.com/content/379/bmj-2022-070750
Effective knowledge mobilisation: creating environments for quick generation, dissemination, and use of evidence
https://www.bmj.com/content/379/bmj-2022-070195
Consistency of covid-19 trial preprints with published reports and impact for decision making: retrospective review
https://bmjmedicine.bmj.com/content/1/1/e000309
Changing patterns in reporting and sharing of review data in systematic reviews with meta-analysis of the effects of interventions: a meta-research study from the REPRISE project
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.11.22273688v2

#MedTwitter - a force for good or evil?

#MedTwitter consists of an online community of researchers, health practitioners and students who have created an open source decentralised forum for information sharing, medical education and professional networking. #MedTwitter also provides a space for publications to be shared and promoted. While many will credit Twitter with giving a voice to clinicians, it also comes with challenges, the potential for abuse, or the spread of misinformation.
Joining Clara to discuss are;
Jonathan Guckian, a dermatology registrar in Leeds, and director of social media and communications at the Association for the Study of Medical Education (ASMI).
Flo Wedmore, a medical registrar and NHS sustainability fellow
Declan Murphy, an academic medical fellow S2 in ophthalmology in Newcastle, and former Sharp Scratch panelist.