Monthly Archives: December 2014

The Global Burden of Disease: non-communicable diseases increase premature death

NCDs

Up-to-date knowledge of cause-specific mortality is essential for the formulation of health policies. Obtaining this evidence is a massive undertaking, and probably the largest attempt to do so is the landmark Global Burden of Disease Study 2010 (GBD 2010). This was the largest ever systematic effort to describe the global distribution and causes of major diseases, injuries,… Read more »

Developing World Medicine

Promise vs perils of electronic cigarettes- a new article collection in BMC Medicine

breaking-cigarette_crop-150×141

Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes, ECs) are the centre of much controversy due to public health concerns associated with some of its components including nicotine which is highly addictive. Additionally, the availability of such devices to young never-smokers and the re-normalization of smoking is a growing concern. This has been highlighted in the news lately where a study shows three times… Read more »

Medicine

Research Involvement and Engagement: Partnership with patients in a new publication

Research Involvement and Engagement

“No matter how complicated the research, or how brilliant the researcher, patients and the public always offer unique, invaluable insights. Their advice when designing, implementing and evaluating research invariably makes studies more effective, more credible and often more cost efficient as well.”  Professor Dame Sally Davies (Foreword in Staley 2009)   Patient and public involvement (PPI) in… Read more »

Medical Evidence Medicine