Ben Goldacre on Bad Pharma
Ben Goldacre is one of my favourite authors. A sensible degree of cynicism mixed with a cynical degree of sensibility. If you enjoyed his early works such as – Bad Science and Bad Pharma…then the next installment will be right up your alley – Do Statins Work?
In this TED talk, Goldacre talks about the publication bias in favour of positive trials – such that ‘only freaks get published’. Highlighting examples such as reboxetine and oseltamivir (tamiflu) he shows that publication bias is a cancer eating at the heart of evidence-based medicine. Goldacre asks all to call for the mandatory publication of all drug trials ever performed to fix this disastrous situation.
References:
- Bad Science – the website
- Bad Science: Quacks, Hacks, and Big Pharma Flacks
- Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients
- I Think You’ll Find It’s a Bit More Complicated Than That
- Do Statins Work?: The Battle for Perfect Evidence-Based Medicine
Chris is an Intensivist and ECMO specialist at the Alfred ICU in Melbourne. He is also a Clinical Adjunct Associate Professor at Monash University. He is a co-founder of the Australia and New Zealand Clinician Educator Network (ANZCEN) and is the Lead for the ANZCEN Clinician Educator Incubator programme. He is on the Board of Directors for the Intensive Care Foundation and is a First Part Examiner for the College of Intensive Care Medicine. He is an internationally recognised Clinician Educator with a passion for helping clinicians learn and for improving the clinical performance of individuals and collectives.
After finishing his medical degree at the University of Auckland, he continued post-graduate training in New Zealand as well as Australia’s Northern Territory, Perth and Melbourne. He has completed fellowship training in both intensive care medicine and emergency medicine, as well as post-graduate training in biochemistry, clinical toxicology, clinical epidemiology, and health professional education.
He is actively involved in in using translational simulation to improve patient care and the design of processes and systems at Alfred Health. He coordinates the Alfred ICU’s education and simulation programmes and runs the unit’s education website, INTENSIVE. He created the ‘Critically Ill Airway’ course and teaches on numerous courses around the world. He is one of the founders of the FOAM movement (Free Open-Access Medical education) and is co-creator of litfl.com, the RAGE podcast, the Resuscitology course, and the SMACC conference.
His one great achievement is being the father of three amazing children.
On Twitter, he is @precordialthump.
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