DC's Improbable Science

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This is a story of everyday researchers and teachers, struggling to do their job in a world pervaded by management bollocks.
This page is a continuation of the diary that started in June 2007, with the demise of UCL’s Pharmacology department (for the time being).
It continued from June [...]

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The term ‘evidence-based medicine’ seemed to me, when I first heard it, utterly ludicrous. It still does. What’s the alternative? Guess-work based medicine?
Quacks are fond of using cuddly words like ‘holistic’ and ‘integrative’, partly, one suspects, in an attempt to gain respectability and to disguise some of their barmier views. See, for example, Prince [...]

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Hot off the press
The Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health (FIH) has been spreading misinformation about medicine since 1993.  It has featured often on this blog.
Now it has closed its doors.

An announcement has appeared on the FIH website

30 April 2010

The Trustees of The Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health have [...]

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This post recounts a complicated story that started in January 2009, but has recently come to what looks like a happy ending.  The story involves over a year’s writing of letters and meetings, but for those not interested in the details, I’ll start with a synopsis.
Synopsis of the synopsis
In January 2009, a course [...]

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What follows is mostly from the press release for the report of the Science and Technology Select Committee’s report on homeopathy.
Comments on their hearings can be found in Comedy gold in parliament and tragedy from Prince of Wales: editorial in British Medical Journal (Although published before Christmas, the comments on this [...]

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I don’t know about you, but I’m bored stiff with homeopathy. There are a lot more important things. Nevertheless, it remains a gross insult to reason, and there has been such enormous success in combating it over the last five years so, this is not the moment to stop.

Hats off to the Merseyside [...]

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Snow on December 18th                             Roaring fire
Lindy contributes acute comments regularly here.  She is also an accomplished musician.  She has kindly allowed me to post here four of her re-written carols.
Adam lay ybounden  |  Hark the Herald  |  Holly and the Ivy  |  Merry Gentlemen
Adam lay ybounden

The Middle English [...]

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The Yuletide edition of the BMJ carries a lovely article by Jeffrey Aronson, Patent medicines and secret remedies. (BMJ 2009;339:b5415).
I was delighted to be asked to write an editorial about it, In fact it proved quite hard work, because the BMJ thought it improper to be too rude about the royal [...]

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The King’s Fund recently published Assessing complementary practice Building consensus on appropriate research methods [or download pdf].

It is described as being the “Report of an independent advisory group”. I guess everyone knows by now that an “expert report” can be produced to back any view whatsoever simply by choosing the right “experts”, [...]

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Chinese medicine and herbal medicine are in the news at the moment.  There is a real risk that the government could endorse them by accepting the Pittilo report.
In my view traditional Chinese medicine endangers people.   The proposed ‘regulation’ would do nothing to protect the public.  Quite on the contrary, it would add to the dangers, [...]

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The much-delayed public consultation on the Pittilo report has just opened.
It is very important that as many people as possible respond to it.  It’s easy to say that the consultation is sham. It will be if it is left only to acupuncturists and Chinese medicine people to respond to it. Please write to [...]

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Homeopathy has become boring, so I’ll keep this short.
It’s clear that the public have rumbled the fraud and that homeopathy is heading back to where it was in the 1960s, a small lunatic fringe on the High Street.
All university ‘degrees’ in homeopathy have closed their doors in the last two years. 
Even Peter Fisher sounds [...]

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The first post was NICE falls for Bait and Switch by acupuncturists and chiropractors: it has let down the public and itself.
That was followed by NICE fiasco, part 2. Rawlins should withdraw guidance and start again.
Since then, something of a maelstrom has engulfed NICE, so it’s time for an update.
It isn’t only [...]

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The Prince of Wales’ Foundation for Integrated Health (FiH) is a propaganda organisation that aims to persuade people, and politicians, that the Prince’s somewhat bizarre views about alternative medicine should form the basis of government health policy.
His attempts are often successful, but they are regarded by many people as being clearly [...]

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The Health Professions Council (HPC) is yet another regulatory quango.

The HPC’s strapline is
“Working with health professionals to protect the public”

At present the HPC regulates; Arts therapists, biomedical scientists, chiropodists/podiatrists, clinical scientists, dietitians, occupational therapists, operating department practitioners, orthoptists, paramedics, physiotherapists, prosthetists/orthotists, radiographers and speech & language therapists.
These are thirteen very respectable [...]

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