RT @trished: "I need permission to give a drug to half my patients, but not to give it to them all", but MRHA is making that easier http ... Rosalind L Smyth, Brough professor of paediatric medicine Author Affiliations r.l.smyth@liv.ac.uk The research community needs to support a new initiative to reduce the regulatory burden Over the past three to five years, there has been a barrage of criticism and dissent about the complex and bureaucratic systems that govern clinical research in the United Kingdom. One such initiative is the implementation, since April 2011, by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) of a risk adapted approach to the regulation of clinical trials of investigational medicinal products.3 This approach defines three types of trial according to the risks associated with the product—none (A), some (B), and markedly higher (C) than for standard medical care.
RT @mellojonny: @RoyLilley @clarercgp What is the role of a GP today? My thoughts from the frontline Brief notes before the Battle of Ideas 2011 debate, Radical surgery for the NHS: what is a GP’s role today? The answer depends on who is defining the role. The answer (as always) should not come from GPs, (or those pesky meddlers the Kings Fund, or the Dept of Health) but patients. And not the pushy, entitled, ‘fix my sore throat before I interview Sir David’ journalists, that cannot understand why GPs don’t keep the same opening hours as Tescos (do they think Tescos could afford 24hour opening if it took 10 years of training to operate a checkout?) Nor the people who run think-tanks who write long papers about what they would want from a GP if they were a patient, only they’re not actually chronically sick or worried half to death that they might be; these are healthy people, not patients. Studies have shown that at the start of medical school, GPs are in fact normal people, capable of blending in at any social occasion. The commonest question my patients ask me is, “Will you be my doctor?”
RT @ruskin147: BBC News - 7 billion people and you: What's your number? possibly the cleverest thing the BBC websit ... Sources: All population data are based on estimates by the UN Population Division and all calculations provided by the UN Population Fund. The remaining data are from other sections of the UN, the Global Footprint Network and the International Telecommunications Union. Want to find out more? Visit the UN Population Fund's detailed population calculator, 7 billion and me. Notes on the data: Only birth dates after 1910 can be accommodated and only countries with populations of more than 100,000 people are included. Three country groupings - developed, developing and least developed - featured in the conclusions are those referenced by the UN for assessing the Millennium Development Goals. Read the answers to frequently asked questions here.
Pharma & Fun, Not Oxymoronic? Here Comes Gamification! Speaking of Boehringer Ingelheim's (BI's) long-awaited -- but not yet available -- Facebook game, Syrum, John Pugh, head of BI online communications, said it's about "pharma and fun.” He quickly added “This is not an oxymoron. You can have the two in the same sentence.” The objective of the game is to "save the world, one disease at a time, by harvesting molecules (a little like Farmville) and then using them as trading cards to play against diseases (a little like Pokemon). A player must first investigate molecular compounds at a research desk before putting them to the test in the laboratory, then conduct clinical trials and, if successful, advance a treatment to market" (see the MM&M review here). You can see a Syrum "trailer" here. BI's objective is to create a "kick-ass game," says Pugh. I can't wait to try out the game and get to the last level, which I presume is "marketing." Is this game -- or any other game dreamed up by pharma marketers/PR people -- really "kick-ass?"
Using comparative effectiveness research t... [Pharmacoeconomics. 2010 RT @markhawker: Brian Cox is wrong: Blogging your research is not a recipe for disaster. A few days ago, the Guardian ran a Q&A session with Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw. Cox and Forshaw are professors of physics at the University of Manchester, both involved in research with the Large Hadron Collider at Cern. Cox is of course well known for his wonderful media exploits on the BBC. Forshaw and Cox have written a book together, their second collaboration, which is coming out this week. In an emailed question for the Q&A, reader Stephen Marks asked: "How do you feel about scientists who blog their research rather than waiting to publish their final results?" Brian Cox: The peer review process works and I'm an enormous supporter of it. Jeff Forshaw: I think it's unfair for people to blog. Well, that's a little disappointing. I agree with Cox that peer review deserves our respect. His "recipe for disaster" remark is surprising, considering his own field of work. The majority of scientists writing online about their work are not anti-establishment mavericks with a hero complex.
RT @jranck: 17 Alternatives to Klout actually, I'm so over this crap, who cares... As we wrote about earlier this week, Klout has reworked its algorithms, and your scores have changed. Some have gone up, some down. Despite claiming more transparency with their algorithms, they are still mostly opaque and mysterious. As one of our readers commented, "Klout just pulled a Netflix, taking trust off the table." So while they tinker with their code, you might want to explore other alternatives that can help you measure your social media effectiveness. Before I run through the services, let's discuss eight different issues with social media metrics and how the ideal metric should be constructed. There is no single number that can really be universally useful. So what alternatives to Klout are out there, and are any of them any better at capturing what you should be doing better for your social media activities? Twitter-only metrics Twitter Score gives you a single score (I got a 2 out of 10, which seems somewhat low). Facebook-only metrics Google-owned metrics Multiple site focus
“@nlafferty: OER in the field: institutions solving problems openly from @dkernohan - for life in a 'cold climate' With the uncertainties of a new funding model to deal with, it is becoming harder than ever to convince institutional managers to support nice-to-have projects. Everything needs to be justified, both on a balance sheet and within a wider battle for hearts and minds. But the way in which open educational resources (OER) allow institutions to meet their strategic goals alongside making the world a better place means that it is moving from being nice-to-have to becoming an essential component of academic practice. More than 10 years on from the formal establishment of the OpenCourseWare project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the casual observer could be forgiven for assuming that the case for OER (materials suitable for learning and teaching, made available for reuse under an open licence) had been made and accepted. David Kernohan is a programme manager at JISC, an organisation that encourages UK colleges and universities in the innovative use of digital technologies.
RT @GuardianTeach: Just in case you missed @dajbelshaw blog on mobiles in class here it is again pls RT In an interview earlier this year Education Secretary Michael Gove hinted that he would like to see mobile phones banned in schools. Claiming they lead to "disruption" and can be used for bullying, Mr Gove bracketed mobile phones and iPods in the same category as weapons such as knives. Many objected to this broadside with an online petition. As a former Director of E-Learning, teacher for seven years, and current educational researcher, I have witnessed transformational learning experiences where mobile devices such as iPods and mobile phones have been key. Part of the problem stems from the fact that all of us own a mobile phone and all of us went to school. That's not to say that all teachers want to see mobile devices used in the classroom, of course. An unacknowledged fear - but that which parents and teachers perhaps fear most - is that mobile learning is a "trojan horse" for a whole raft of changes sweeping the educational landscape. Could you be one of our bloggers?
RT @bengoldacre: "It's just random error you dicks". My column. A funnel plot of bowel cancer mortality rates in different areas of the UK The BBC has found a story: "'Threefold variation' in UK bowel cancer rates". The average death rate across the UK from bowel cancer is 17.9 per 100,000 people, but in some places it's as low as 9, and in some places it's as high as 30. What can be causing this? Journalists tend to find imaginary patterns in statistical noise, which we've covered many times before. Paul Barden is a quantitative analyst. We know that there will be random variation around the average mortality rate, and also that this will be different in different regions: local authorities with larger populations will have less random variation than areas with smaller populations, because the variation from chance events gets evened out more when there are more people. You can show this formally. Then Barden sent his blog to David Spiegelhalter, a professor of statistics at Cambridge, who runs the excellent website "Understanding Uncertainty".
Adventures in Depression Some people have a legitimate reason to feel depressed, but not me. I just woke up one day feeling sad and helpless for absolutely no reason. It's disappointing to feel sad for no reason. Sadness can be almost pleasantly indulgent when you have a way to justify it - you can listen to sad music and imagine yourself as the protagonist in a dramatic movie. You can gaze out the window while you're crying and think "This is so sad. But my sadness didn't have a purpose. Essentially, I was being robbed of my right to feel self pity, which is the only redeeming part of sadness. And for a little bit, that was a good enough reason to pity myself. Standing around feeling sorry for myself was momentarily exhilarating, but I grew tired of it quickly. I tried to force myself to not be sad. But trying to use willpower to overcome the apathetic sort of sadness that accompanies depression is like a person with no arms trying to punch themselves until their hands grow back. Which made me more sad.
Social Network Technologies for Learning [All Presentations] Social Network Technologies for Learning October 27, 2011 Keynote presentation delivered to Instituto Cervantes, Providence, Rhode Island. Social network technologies are reforming the way we communicate with each other inside and outside our learning environments. In this presentation, Stephen Downes offers an inside look at these technologies, how they work, what they can do, and where they will likely lead the future of learning online. [Slides] [Audio] [Conference Link]
Phil Hammond: the reforms remain more question than answer 27 October, 2011 | By Phil Hammond Fresh from his appearance on BBC1 two weeks ago, Dr Phil Hammond argues that the benefit of NHS reform is still no clearer to being understood, and that a change in direction is needed. It might just win over Andrew Lansley’s critics, too. BBC1’s Question Time is not the place for nuanced debate. The producers encourage you to be adversarial, to make three “broad brush” points in under a minute and assume that those watching have no knowledge of the issues in depth. They also wind up the studio audience, telling them it is their show, and they even do a dry run show with volunteers on the panel so everyone can practise booing and interjection. My debut appearance was billed as Private Eye’s medical correspondent up against the health secretary. Alas I found it impossible to debate with Andrew Lansley without getting angry. NHS reforms are like overhyped wonder drugs. Humanity, integration, transparency. www.drphilhammond.com