Last week I attended a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) workshop on older people with complex needs. The more common term used in medical and scientific circles for 'complex needs' is 'multi-morbidity.' Which means suffering from two or more conditions at the same time. But I prefer the former term. As statistics from the Office... Continue Reading →
Government pushes forward with review to speed up availability of innovative medicines and treatments
Two posts in one day! Ah, those were the days when we got two Post Office deliveries a day.... Just to say the Government has published the full terms of reference for its Innovative Medicines and MedTech Review to be headed up by Sir Hugh Taylor who is currently Chair of Guy's and St Thomas's. Yes, that's... Continue Reading →
Blog: We have the public to thank for this week’s well-informed decisions in health research
We have had two pieces of good news about health research of patient benefit this week. First, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) issued new guidance saying that tamoxifen or raloxifene taken daily for five years can cut breast cancer risk by 40%. This means women at risk of developing breast cancer have... Continue Reading →
'A nation of General Practitioners' and other bits of philosophising
The news earlier this week that the National Institute of Clinicial and Health Excellence (NICE) is to lose its powers for deciding which drugs should be made available on the NHS (to be replaced by a new system based around GP commissioning) brought an alternative version of Adam Smith's remarks about shopkeepers to mind: "To found a... Continue Reading →
Sunshine, stem cells and policy hypochondria over the NHS
It has been a busy 24 hours in medical research. Beginning with the sunnier side of things, I am sure few of you will have esacaped the wall-to-wall coverage of the study published yesterday showing Vitamin D exerts an influence over certain genes associated with diseases like multiple sclerosis and arthritis. The research is notable for its... Continue Reading →
Andrew Lansley Speeches, Office for Life Sciences etc
For those just joining us....there is a brief report on Lansley's speech on the BMA conference website. The headline is 'Lansley promises NHS power to doctors' and I feel almost compelled to put 'Discuss' after it. The BMA piece details Lansley's 5 Ps or priorities for the NHS. Another piece running on the Press Association... Continue Reading →
NICE announcement on anti-TNF therapy
Today's guidelines by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) to widen access to anti-TNF drugs for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis has been widely welcomed by patient groups and medical research charities such as Arthritis Research UK. Those digging further into the story may be interested to know that it was researchers... Continue Reading →
Time to open up about industry
Every so often a story and resulting furore crops up in the media about charities, patient groups and their closeneness to industry and, in particular, pharmaceutical companies. Journalists and the public will quite rightly ask: is it in the public interest? I can well remember my first encounter with big pharma in my early days... Continue Reading →
