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| Medical Information and Advice | General Health Issues | University health Centre |
| Understanding medical trials and tests of treatments | ||
| Alternative medicine, Nutritional supplements and Nutritional Therapy This is a separate page with extensive discusssion | ||
| Good Health Advice
These sites provide the best available advice on all aspects of medicine, including alternative or complementary therapies. For extensive discussion on my site of Alternative, Bad, or Complementary medicine Click Here |
| The National Health Service The NHS provides excellent advice, well-organised and written clearly. ***A-Z of medical treatments and conditions*** The First place for help |
| NHS Local Home Your Local NHS site |
| Index of excellent internet sites giving health information and advice |
| Bandolier sites. The Bandolier journal was started as an independent journal about evidence-based healthcare, written by Oxford scientists in February 1994. It has appeared monthly ever since and has become the premier source of evidence based healthcare information in the UK and worldwide for both healthcare professionals and consumers. General medical information. In this section Bandolier collects good quality evidence under a variety of different headings. They search for systematic reviews of treatments, of evidence about diagnosis, epidemiology or health economics, and abstract it. Bandolier guide to healthy living. An excellent site, grouped according to age. Bandolier extra contains Internet essays on specific topics,that can be read on-screen in HTML or are available as printable PDFs. EXAMPLES: Arthritis; Back pain; Diabetes; Mens's health; Statins; Women's health |
| The Cochrane Collaboration The Cochrane Collaboration is an international, not-for-profit independent organization, dedicated to making up-to-date, accurate information about the effects of healthcare readily available worldwide. It consists of 12 centres and over 10,000 health expert volunteers from over 90 countries. It produces systematic reviews of healthcare interventions and promotes the search for evidence in the form of clinical trials and other studies of interventions. The Cochrane Library The major product of the Collaboration is the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews which is published quarterly as part of The Cochrane Library. It is the best single source of reliable evidence about all aspects of health care. Cochrane Reviews These are the basic material for serious discussions of evidence-based medicine. These reviews can be downloaded as pdf files. |
Other General Health Sites |
| TOP of good health advice |
| Understanding medical trials and tests of treatments Not all available medicines and treatments have been properly evaluated. This is partly because of the difficulty of devising and arranging trials. These may be done by drug companies who do not necessarily publish all results, or the trials were misconceived or inappropriate statistics applied. I have listed books and websites that discuss this and which provide useful links to trials. |
| Books |
| Bad Science by Ben Goldacre [2009]. This is a classic introductory text for understanding the use and abuse of statistics, of 'medical' charlatans, placebos, health scares. It is written clearly and is a joy to read. The contents are summarised at length in the Bad Science section of this website. His website is a source of useful material and includes links to videos of lectures. |
| Bad Pharma; how drug companies mislead doctors and harm patients by Ben Goldacre (2012). This is not a trivial book. Its subject is evident from the title. Contents: Missing data; Where do new drugs come from; Bad regulators; Bad trials; Bigger simpler trials; Marketing. |
| Testing treatments: better research for better health care by
Imogen Evans, Hazel Thornton and Iain Chalmers [2011].
This book can be downloaded free from the James Lind Library. This provides an outstanding clearly-written discussion of how medical treatments are evaluated and the many problems associated with this. Particularly useful are the many brief summaries of how the lack of good trials has led to poor practices - thalidomide, laying babies on their fronts to sleep [causing about 10,000 cot deaths], cancer scanning leading to unnecessary deaths etc. The contents are summarised at length in the Bad Science section of this website. |
| Trick or treatment? alternative medicine on trial by Simon singh and Edzard Ernst [2008]. This is the definitive book on alternative medicine, discussing what does work, what does not work, what cannot work. The contents are summarised at length in the Bad Science section of this website. |
| WEBSITES for knowing more about trials, including results of the trials I have taken these resources from the book Testing treatments (above) |
| For general information about testing treatments |
| Testing treatments interactive. A magnificent site by the authors of Testing treatments (above). It is for patients, health professionals and anyone else who is interested in these questions. It will help you to understand the importance of having fair tests of the effects of treatments. |
| James Lind Library. Explaining and illustrating the develpment of fair tests of treatments in health care |
| Cochrane Collaboration. It produces systematic reviews of healthcare interventions and promotes the search for evidence in the form of clinical trials and other studies of interventions. For more information, see above |
| NHS Choices enter 'research' in the search window |
| UK Clinical Research Collaboration |
| Healthtalkonline Site for chatting with particular health problems |
| US National Cancer Institute Educational material about clinical trials |
| Information about what is known about the effects of treatments |
| Cochrane Library The best single source of reliable evidence about all aspects of health care. Produced by the Cochrane Collaboration. Go here to look up any treatment you are concerned about. |
| NHS Evidence. Excellent site. |
| Informed Health Online I have found this very clear and helpful |
| Pubmed Starting point for original publications |
| Information about what is not known about effects of treatments |
| UK database |
| For more information on current research addressing uncertainties, or to become involved in trials, or training in research assessment, or shared decision making, or systematic reviews of animal research you should consult the Resources pages of Testing Treatments which can be downloaded from the Testing Treatments website |
