British Medical Journal

See the following -

"More Marketing Than Science" - An Anonymous Confession About Deceptive Marketing Published in the British Medical Journal

Roy M. Poses | Health Care Renewal | June 26, 2012

The British Medical Journal just published an anonymous article by a pharmaceutical company insider that explained once again how pharmaceutical companies turn research studies, apparently scholarly articles, and medical education into stealth marketing efforts. Read More »

Dr. Don Berwick: Medical Error Is The Third Leading Cause Of Death In The US

Tori Bedford | WGBH News | May 5, 2016

The two most common causes of death in the United States are medical: heart disease and cancer, respectively. According to a new study, the third cause could also be medical—in a terrifying way. According to research published in the British Medical Journal, medical errors in hospitals and other medical facilities could be the third leading cause of death in the U.S., claiming 250,000 lives every year. One of the study’s authors wrote, “it boils down to people dying from the care that they receive, rather than the disease for which they are seeking care”...

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Is the American Heart Association a Terrorist Organization?

Kevin Michael Geary | Medium | June 21, 2017

A few days ago, the AHA stole the attention of headlines across the globe with a report that sounded like it was straight out of the 1990s: Dietary Fats and Cardiovascular Disease: A Presidential Advisory From the American Heart Association. In this report, the AHA doubled down on their attacks against coconut oil and saturated fat. Frank Sacks, lead author on the report, reportedly said that he has no idea why people think coconut oil is healthy...

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On the Financial Conflicts of Interests of Medical Societies and Rising Drug Prices

The notion that health care prices are high and are rising continuously in the US should hardly be novel...We first posted about high drug prices in July, 2005, with the example of BilDil...But only a few days later we noted that three cancer costs had yearly costs in the five figures, and one, Erbitux, cost as much as $100,000.  Most amazingly we noted that Thalidomid was priced at $25,000  a year...Since then, the ridiculously high prices of many tests and treatments, but most notably new drugs and devices, has been so widely covered, our discussion has been limited to special cases.,,

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Open Access Button – that's 'OA Button', not 'Blue Button'

Running into a publisher’s 'paywall' when looking for a recent journal article and/or key findings is a major frustration that many researchers tend to encounter. Students and health advocates David Carroll and Joe McArthur decided to take these dead ends and turn them into something useful. Check out this hot new idea –  the Open Access Button!  Less than 30 days from inception to action - a working prototype of the OA Button. Read More »

OpenNotes Introduces Advisory Board

Press Release | OpenNotes, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center | September 12, 2016

OpenNotes is pleased to announce that ten extraordinary advocates for health care quality and improvement are the founding members of the OpenNotes Advisory Board. OpenNotes is a national movement that urges doctors, nurses and other health care providers to share the notes they write with the patients they care for...

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TPP Treaty Could be a Serious Threat to US Public Health System

While trade agreements may seem to be another, albeit international species of wonkery, these agreements could have major effects on patients' and the public's health.  Since these concerns have been essentially ignored by the US medical and health care literature, (although they have appeared in UK journals, Australian, and New Zealand journals in English), they I will discuss them below. Worthy of further discussion is the possibility that these potential threats to health care and public health may arise not just from ideological disagreements, but also from health care corporations' increasing capture of government, facilitated by the conflicts of interest generated by the revolving door. Read More »