British Medical Journal (BMJ)

See the following -

Big Pharma Plays Hide-The-Ball With Data

Ben Wolford | Newsweek | November 13, 2014

...[E]vidence released earlier this year by  Cochrane Collaboration, a London-based nonprofit, shows that a significant amount of negative data from [Tamiflu's] clinical trials were hidden from the public. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) knew about it, but the medical community did not; the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which doesn’t have the same access to unpublished data as regulators, had recommended the drug without being able to see the full picture...

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Copyright Clearance Center Announces Findings From Open Access Roundtable Discussion With UK Institutions and Publishers

Press Release | Copyright Clearance Center | January 14, 2015

Independent Report Finds a Shared Desire to Simplify and Standardize Payment and Tracking of Article Processing Charges Read More »

Finnish Scientists ID Link Between GSK's Swine Flu Vaccine And Narcolepsy

Amirah Al Idrus | Fierce Vaccines | December 17, 2014

Of the more than 30 million people in almost 50 countries who have received GlaxoSmithKline's ($GSK) Pandemrix, close to 800 have developed narcolepsy. And now, for the first time, a team from Finland thinks it knows why...

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Is the Technology Gap the Reason Why Medical Errors are the 3rd Leading Cause of Death in the US?

Hardly a day goes by without some new revelation of an information technology (IT) mess in the United States that seems like an endless round of the old radio show joke contest, “Can You Top This” except that increasingly the joke is on us. From nuclear weapons updated with floppy disks, to critical financial systems in the Department of the Treasury that run on assembler language code (a computer language initially used in the 1950s and typically tied to the hardware for which it was developed), to medical systems that cannot exchange patient records leading to a large number of needless deaths from medical errors.

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On the Lack of Good Medical Evidence for the New $100,000 Hepatitis C Drug Treatments

As we wrote, most recently last week, the hepatitis C screening and treatment bandwagon keeps rolling along.  There is constant public argument whether about the prices of treatment regimens, which approach $100,000 per patient in the US...However, starting in March, 2014, we have posted about the lack of good evidence from clinical research suggesting these drugs are in fact so wondrous...

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Open Publishing Can Improve Access To Knowledge

Rebecca Lawrence | PMLiVE | July 3, 2014

There have been increasing demands for more transparency in the reporting of research findings, which has built up pressure on all those involved in making and testing potential new drugs, biologics and medical devices.

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Study Finds That Up To Half Of Antibiotics Fail Due To 'Superbugs'

Rebecca Smith | Business Insider | September 26, 2014

GPs are increasingly handing out antibiotics that turn out to be useless, as up to half of courses of the drugs 'fail' and result in further treatment, a study has found...

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Study Suggests Medical Errors Now Third Leading Cause of Death in the U.S.

Press Release | Johns Hopkins Medicine | May 3, 2016

Analyzing medical death rate data over an eight-year period, Johns Hopkins patient safety experts have calculated that more than 250,000 deaths per year are due to medical error in the U.S. Their figure, published May 3 in The BMJ, surpasses the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) third leading cause of death — respiratory disease, which kills close to 150,000 people per year. The Johns Hopkins team says the CDC’s way of collecting national health statistics fails to classify medical errors separately on the death certificate. The researchers are advocating for updated criteria for classifying deaths on death certificates.

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Up To Half Of Antibiotics 'Fail Due To Superbugs' Study Finds

Rebecca Smith | The Telegraph | September 26, 2014

GPs are increasingly handing out antibiotics that turn out to be useless, as up to half of courses of the drugs 'fail' and result in further treatment, a study has found.
Groundbreaking research has analysed 11m courses of antibiotics prescribed to British patients over the last 22 years covering the most common diseases areas including tonsilitis, pneumonia and ear infections...

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Young People Who Take High Doses Of Antidepressants Are Twice As Likely To Become Suicidal

Jenny Hope | Mail Online | April 28, 2014

Young adults taking high-dose antidepressants such as Prozac and Seroxat have double the risk of suicidal behaviour, warn researchers.  A U.S. study of almost 162,000 found those aged 24 or younger were twice as likely to deliberately self-harm compared with youngsters taking standard doses of SSRI pills.

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