Talk Evidence
Talk Evidence is a podcast from The BMJ that delves into evidence-based medicine. It debates and demystifies research, guidance, and practice in the medical field. The show aims to make complex medical evidence accessible to healthcare professionals and interested listeners.
Episodes
The power and the pitfalls of early diagnosis
There is a growing market of new diagnostic tests being targeted directly to consumers, often before high-quality evidence about their effectiveness is available. This is causing issues in clinical practice as patients arrive at the NHS’s front door with results that have alarmed them.
The accuracy of these tests is unknown, developed in idealised populations then released to the general public,
Gabapentinoid pain meds linked to self-harm, and getting to the Core of GRADE
Helen MacDonald and Juan Franco are back to examine the newest in evidence based medicine.
In this episode: gabapentinoids are medications routinely prescribed for treating epilepsy and nerve pain. But, they come with side effects; among them - dizziness, cognitive impairment, and a dent to motor coordination - as well as an increase in suicidal ideation for the patient. Seena Fazel is professor
The evidence on physician associates, and the evidence against back pain injections
Helen MacDonald and Juan Franco are back, magnifying glasses in hand, to take a closer look at what’s happening in evidence based medicine.
In this episode: the NHS increasingly relies on physician associates to plug some of its leaks. But, what do academic studies show about the effectiveness of these newest healthcare team members? Trish Greenhalgh is professor of primary healthcare at the Uni
Anti-HIV injections vs. oral medication, and best uses for AI in healthcare
Helen Macdonald and Juan Franco are back, delving into some new evidence.
Studies showing that bi-annual injection that could prevent HIV transmission sound incredible, but will the implementation research find that the tried and tested pill regime is better? Jen Manne-Goehler, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, explains all about Lenicaprovir .
And while silico
UTI dipstick tests, and the effects of staff turnover on patients
In this first episode of 2025, hosts Helen MacDonald and Juan Franco focus on hospitals - asking how useful UTI dipstick tests really are for acutely ill patients, and what are the effects of staff turnover on patient care in NHS hospitals?
01:11 The use of dipsticks for acutely ill UTI patients
07:48 Interview with UTI paper author
17:26 Turnover of doctors and nurses and the effects on patient c
Talking Christmas evidence 2024
In this special festive episode, Helen MacDonald, Juan Franco, and guest Tim Feeney discuss three intriguing themes from BMJ's 2024 Christmas edition: cognitive dysfunction in careers that require spatial cognition, and in large language models; the effectiveness of heated mittens on osteoarthritis hand symptoms; and a trial exploring just-in-time training for doctors.
00:40 Cognitive dysfunc
Starting to measure sustainability, and changes in breast cancer screening
Measuring the carbon impact of healthcare interventions is essential if we're going to make the sector sustainable, however tracing all of the emmission from even a simple treatment can be tricky. Romi Haas, a research fellow at Monash Department of Clinical Epidemiology joins us to explain how it works, and how research could be more efficient.
New U.S. guideline on breast cancer screening have
The evidence on deprescribing
It's a therapeutics evidence feast this month.
We start with deprescribing in older adults - Anna Hung, assistant professor at the Duke University School of Medicine has written a summary of the evidence, and we discuss why there are so few trials on an important topic.
Metformin is typically first line for type II diabetes, but what should be next? A new cohort study emulating a comparative effec
Will semaglutide buck the trend of other weight loss drugs?
Helen Macdonald, BMJ's publication ethics and content integrity editor, and Juan Franco, editor of BMJ EBM are back with another episode of Talk Evidence.
This month, we'll be focussing on semaglutide, for managing obesity. Interviews with James Cave, editor-in-chief of Drug and Therapeutic Bulletin, and Lene Bull Christiansen, who has personal and professional experience with obesity, are feature
Insulin without refrigeration and the complexities of consent
The December edition of the Talk Evidence podcast discusses the complexities of seeking consent from patients who are part of large data sets, and some new research to help patients living with diabetes in places without certain power supplies.
First patient consent and data - in the UK, two stories that have made the public worry about the use of their health data. Firstly the news that UK bioba
Low carb and cancer screening
Each episode of Talk Evidence we take a dive into an issue or paper which is in the news, with a little help from some knowledgeable guests to help us to understand what it all means for clinical care, policy, or research.
In this episode:
Helen Macdonald take a deep dive into cancer screening tests, prompted by a paper in JAMA which showed most have no effect on all cause mortality, and news t
Talking overdiagnosis
In this month's Talk Evidence, Helen and Juan are reporting from Preventing Overdiagnosis - the conference that raises issues of diagnostic accuracy, and asks if starting the process of medicalisation is always the right thing to do for patients.
In this episode, they talk about home testing, sustainability and screening. They're also joined by two guests to talk about the overdiagnosis of obesi
Ensuring the integrity of research, and the future of AI as authors
In this month's Talk Evidence, we're getting a little meta - how do we keep an eye on research to make sure it's done with integrity. Helen Macdonald is BMJ's Publication ethics and content integrity editor - and we quiz her about what that actually means on a day to day basis.
Ensuring the integrity of research could be made both easier, and harder, by the ascendance of large language models, Ian
Talk Evidence - post pandemic pruning, breast cancer screening, and orphan drugs
In this episode of Talk Evidence, Helen Macdonald, Joe Ross, and Juan Franco are back to update us on what's happening in the world of medical evidence.
Firstly, the news about the end of the covid-19 pandemic was trumpeted, but the changes to research funding have been more quite - and the team discuss what this means for ongoing work to understand the effects of covid, but also in terms of prep
Talk Evidence - post pandemic pruning, breast cancer screening, and orphan drugs
In this episode of Talk Evidence, Helen Macdonald, Joe Ross, and Juan Franco are back to update us on what's happening in the world of medical evidence.
Firstly, the news about the end of the covid-19 pandemic was trumpeted, but the changes to research funding have been more quite - and the team discuss what this means for ongoing work to understand the effects of covid, but also in terms of prep
Talk Evidence - cloning, reporting, and disseminating
Helen Macdonald, Juan Franco, and Joe Ross are back with our monthly update on the world of evidence based medicine.
This episode delves into new methodologies which can use observational data to emulate trial data. We discuss a new systematic review and meta-analysis of RCTs for surgical treatment of sciatica. There is elaboration and explanation of the CONSORT Harms 2022 statement - and we'll
Talk Evidence - automatic approval, evidence apps, and pay for performance data
In this month’s Talk Evidence, Helen Macdonald, Juan Franco and Joseph Ross are back to talk us through some of the latest research,
They’ll talk about pay-for-perfomance schemes, and whether the data they routinely collect is measuring outcomes or tickboxes. They’ll also talk about a new analysis published on bmj.com which suggests ways in which that data could be better.
We’re also by Husey
Talk Evidence - masks, chronic pain, and baby milk formulae claims
In this episode of Talk Evidence, Helen Macdonald is joined by Juan Franco and Joe Ross, to bring you the newest evidence in The BMJ.
First, chronic pain. As prescribers move away from opioids, Juan finds an overview of systematic reviews asking whether anti-depressants might help.
Joe finds new research on the link between six healthy lifestyle markers and cognitive decline.
Helen looks at a
Talk Evidence - excess deaths, the ONS, and the healthcare crisis
In this week's episode, we're focusing on covid and the ongoing crisis in the NHS.
Helen Macdonald, Juan Franco and Joseph Ross cast their evidence seeking eyes over research into outcomes as well as the workload of doctors.
Firstly, Joe tells us about a new big data study into longer term outcomes after mild covid-19, how those ongoing symptoms relate to long covid, and how often they resolve t
Talking evidence at Christmas
It's almost time for the Christmas edition of the BMJ to hit your doormats, and in this festive edition of Talk Evidence we're going to be talking Christmas research.
Joining Helen and Juan, we have Tim Feeney, BMJ research editor and researcher into Surgical outcomes at Boston University.
In this episode we'll be hearing about the health of footballers, and if a career in the sport predisposes
Talk Evidence - endometriosis, falling, and better EBM
In this month's episode, Helen Juan and Joe delve into the clinical - with a new review of endometriosis, and why the difficulty in diagnosis has lead to a dearth of evidence and attention on the condition.
Joe tells us about a risk prediction tool that could be useful in helping to mitigate some of the problems of antihypertensive treatments.
We're also having a geek out about a group of papers
Talk Evidence - Diabetes data, colonoscopies, and researchers behaving badly
In this month's Talk Evidence, Helen Macdonald, The BMJ's research integrity editor, is joined again by Juan Franco, editor in chief of BMJ EBM, and Joe Ross, US research editor.
They're straying beyond the pages of The BMJ, and discussing an NEJM paper about colonoscopy for colorectal cancer screening.
We have a listener request, asking about evidence for England's " NHS Diabetes Prevention P
Talk Evidence - Inquiring about covid, burnout, and marginal data
It's October's Talk Evidence, and that means the autumn is upon us including those autumnal viruses. Here in the UK covid is on the rise, and Joe Ross is looking at some research on how good those elusive lateral flows are at detecting infection among people with symptoms of covid.
Juan will give us an update on the covid inquiry, the collection of analysis articles The BMJ is publishing looking
Talk Evidence - a new way of understanding antidepressant effectiveness
In this week's episode, Joe Ross, professor of medicine at Yale, and The BMJ's US research editor, and Juan Franco, researcher at Heinrich-Heine-Universität and editor in chief of BMJ EBM are in the hot-seat.
They will discuss new research on the effectiveness of antidepressants - based on all the individual patient data submitted to the FDA between 1979 and now.
We'll take a look at a study of
Talk Evidence - shoulders, knees, and woes
In this episode, Juan Franco, editor in chief of BMJ EBM, and Helen Macdonald, The BMJ's research integrity editor, sit down to discuss what's new in the world of evidence.
Firstly, last week they went to the first EBM Live conference for two years - and report back on what happened when the evidence community got back together.
We have two research papers looking at knees and shoulders, and fin
Talk Evidence - political persuasion and mortality, too much medicine
In this week's episode, Helen Macdonald is joined by Joseph Ross, US research editor for The BMJ, and Juan Franco, editor of BMJ EBM.
They begin by discussing a review of obesity interventions in primary care, and Joe wonders if GPs are really the best people to tackle the issue.
https://www.bmj.com/content/377/bmj-2021-069719
Cervical screening in the UK now includes HPV testing, and they look
Talk Evidence - evidence in Roe vs Wade, MI treatment variation, and tribal methodologies
Helen Macdonald, The BMJ's research integrity editor is back with another episode, and this week is joined by Joe Ross, professor of medicine and public health at Yale, and US research editor for The BMJ, and Juan Franco, editor in chief of BMJ EBM, and Professor at the Instituto Universitario Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires
In this episode they discuss;
The US supreme court looks set to over
Covid vaccine safety, Methenamine hippurate, and intersectionality
In this episode of Talk Evidence, Helen Macdonald, the BMJ’s research integrity editor is joined by Joe Ross, US research editor, and Juan Franco, editor in chief of BMJEBM, to talk about all things evidence.
Joe gives us an update about covid, including new research on safety of the vaccine Association between covid-19 vaccination, SARS-CoV-2 infection, and risk of immune mediated neurological
Talk Evidence - isolation periods, openness, and environmental impacts
In the first Talk Evidence of 2022, we'll be asking about the evidence for isolation - now that isolation periods are being reduced, or even stopped in the event of a negative lateral flow test, we'll find out what data that's based on, and if it's appropriate.
Vaccinations and treatments for covid-19 have been the one major success story of the pandemic, but that doesn't mean we should abandon
Talking Christmas Evidence 2021
The BMJ has special criteria for considering Christmas research: first it should make you laugh, and then it should make you think.
In this festive episode of the Talk Evidence podcast, our regular panel of Helen Macdonald and Joe Ross are again joined by Juan Franco,
editor in chief of BMJ Evidence Based Medicine.
They’ll give you a peek into what makes for good Christmas research, and why wh
Talk Evidence - Bones, nutrition, pain relief, and overdiagnosis.
In this month’s Talk evidence, we’re going back to our roots and avoiding covid - so sit back and listen to Helen Macdonald and Joe Ross discuss a new nutrition study to prevent fractures in older adults by eating dairy, and a meta-analysis which helps you choose pain relief medications for management of osteoarthritis.
We’ll hear from Steven Woloshin about the virtual Overdiagnosis conference, a
Talk Evidence - testing for respiratory tract infections, cannabis for pain, & covid outcomes
This week our regular panelists, Helen Macdonald and Joe Ross, are joined by Juan Franco, editor in chief of BMJ Evidence Based Medicine - to take a primary care focussed look at what's been happening in the world of evidence.
On this week’s episode.
As kids go back to school, winter bugs surge and pressure mounts on health services we look at two trials which aimed to use reduce antibiotic pres
Talk Evidence - real world vaccine data, GP records and CVD
In this month's Talk Evidence, Helen Macdonald and Joe Ross are back with a wry look at the world of Evidence Based Medicine.
They give us a round up of real world data emerging to address various uncertainties about vaccinations against covid
Helen has an update on NHS Digital’s project to extract GP coding for planning of healthcare and research, and talks to Natalie Banner from Understanding
Talk Evidence - Freedom Day
The 19th of July in the UK saw the relaxation of covid rules that have been in place for 18 months - social distancing requirements in venues, mask wearing in public will no longer be legally mandated.
There are a lot of questions about what this will mean for the pandemic, and in this episode of Talk Evidence Helen MacDonald, Joe Ross and Duncan Jarvies are joined by Iain Buchan, professor of pu
Talk Evidence - GP data, excess mortality and FDA approval
In this Talk Evidence, Helen Macdonald, Joe Ross and Duncan Jarvies discuss what's going on in the world of EBM.
Firstly, a while ago on the podcast, we concluded that excess mortality would be the best way to measure the impact of the pandemic - and now a new paper looks at different country's excess mortalitites over the past year. We're joined by author Nazrul Islam Physician-Epidemiologist at
Talk Evidence covid-19 update - Research on vaccine safety, treatment for dementia
In this week's Talk Evidence, Joe Ross, BMJ editor and professor at Yale again joins Helen Macdonald to talk about emerging evidence on Covid-19.
They also welcome to the podcast Juan Franco, family physician in Buenos Aires, and professor at the Instituto Universitario Hospital Italiano, and new editor-in-chief of BMJ Evidence Based Medicine.
This week, the team bring you updates on;
Post-covi
Talk Evidence - children and covid, varients of concern, ivormectin update
The evidence geekery continues, and this week Helen Macdonald and Duncan Jarvies are joined again by Joe Ross, The BMJ's US research editor, and professor of medicine and public health at Yale.
This week we update you on treatment - the WHO's guidelines for covid and ivermectin, and why they're not ready to recommend it's use in treatment, and prophylactic anticoagulation treatment.
We hear abou
Talk Evidence - Inside the JCVI, and the key to grading evidence
In a slightly different talk evidence, Helen Macdonald and Duncan Jarvies are bringing you a couple, of in depth interviews,
Firstly, Anthony Harnden, GP, academic and member of the UK's Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation takes us inside their decision making, and explains what evidence they look at, how they assess it, and what the next year of vaccination may look like.
Also in th
Talk Evidence - re-hospitalistion for covid-19, remote hypertension intervention
The evidence geekery continues, and this week Helen Macdonald and Duncan Jarvies are joined by Joe Ross, The BMJ's US research editor, and professor of medicine and public health at Yale.
This week we pick up on a preprint in medRxiv, which has been attracting attention on social media - it tries to look at the longer term effects of covid hospitalisation.
Joe explains why he thinks propensity m
Talk Evidence - Lateral flow tests update, not the best public health approach
In this episode of Talk Evidence, Jon Deeks, professor of biostatistics at the University of Birmingham, returns to the pod with an update on lateral flow tests - and why the government plan for using them in asymptomatic screening for covid-19 doesn't follow the science.
We're also joined by Allyson Pollock, clinical professor of public health at Newcastle University, and author of a recent edit
A (non-systematic) evidence review of 2020
As 2021 hoves into view, we look back at a year of extraordinary evidence.
Helen Macdonald is joined by Joe Ross, one of The BMJ's research editors, as well as a researcher at Yale.
They discuss the way in which clinical pre-prints have become an important part of the research ecosystem, especially during the pandemic, and pick up on some of the non-coronavirus things you might have missed in th
Talking Christmas evidence - how Christmas research is chosen
If you've had time to digest this year's Christmas edition of The BMJ, you might have wondered how those papers get into The BMJ.
Well in this Talk Evidence podcast, Helen Macdonald, UK research editor at The BMJ talks to two of her research team colleagues, John Fletcher and Tim Feeney, as they talk through why they chose their favourite papers.
Toxicological analysis of George’s marvellous med
Talk evidence covid-19 update - poor public messaging, and vaccine approval data
The vaccines are being rolled out - but approval is still on an emergency basis, and the evidence underpinning those decisions is only just becoming available for scrutiny.
In this podcast we talk to Baruch Fischhoff, professor at Carnegie Mellon University and expert on public health communication about how that messaging should be done.
Peter Doshi, associate editor at The BMJ, and vaccine reg
Talk evidence covid-19 update - uncertainty in treatment, uncertainty in prevention
Uncertainty abounds - even as we get better data on treatments, with the big RCTs beginning to report, and new trials on masks, the evidence remains uncertain, in both the statistical realm (confidence intervals crossing 0) and in what to do in the face of that continuing lack of clear effect.
As always Helen Macdonald and Duncan Jarvies are looking at the evidence, and this week are joined by Jo
Talk evidence covid-19 update - talking risk, remdesivir, and relevant research
In this talk evidence covid-19 update, we’re taking on risk - how do you figure out your individual risk of dying from the disease? Try QCovid, but remember that it’s figuring out your risk back in April.
When it comes to talking about risk, very few people actually engage with the number, so Alex Freeman from the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication at the University of Cambridge jo
Talk Evidence covid-19 update - antigen testing and developing non drug evidence
In this Talk Evidence covid-19 update, Jon Deeks, professor of biostatistics at the University of Birmingham gives us an update on testing technology. Will the point of care tests make a different to big live events, and how research and regulation need to change to tame the testing wild west.
Paul Glasziou, professor of evidence based practice at at Bond University has set up a new collaboration
Talk evidence covid-19 update - covid in kids, and the winter cold season
This episode was recorded on 18 September - just before the news came out about the new lockdown measures. We’ll hear Carl and Helen’s thoughts, but we also want to hear a broad range of views - so get in touch at bmj.com/podcasts.
(1.15) The kids are back in school, and people are worried about the infection spreading. Helen takes us through the ISCARIC data on children's symptoms and outcomes
Talk Evidence Covid-19 Update - Lockdown, a spoonful of honey, and weight loss
There are have been local lockdowns in the UK, in places such as Oldham, Birmingham, Manchester – but what is the criteria for making that decision?
In the non-Covid world: does honey alleviate symptoms in upper-respiratory tract infections? When does unexpected weight-loss warrant further investigation for cancer in primary care?
Plus, in the light of findings from the Cumberlege review of safe
Talk evidence covid-19 update - Living meta-analysis and covid uncertainty
1.00) Carl has been looking at PCR testing, and explains why it picks up both viable SARS-cov-2, but also fragments of it’s RNA - leading to potential over diagnosis.
(8.50 ) What did the Living systematic review and accompanying guidelines say about treatment options for covid-19
(14.35) Helen talks to Reed Siemieniuk, general internist from McMaster University, about creating a living netwo
Talk Evidence covid-19 update - How well have physical distancing measures worked?
Fresh outbreaks of covid in Europe and a wave of infections in the United States have been in the news this week, highlighting the renewed need for social distancing – but to what extent?
In this edition, we explore the real-world evidence for physical distancing measures as well as the research into whether or not facemasks make us behave more recklessly.
We also discuss the non-covid themes of
Talk Evidence covid-19 update - How will we know if a vaccine works?
Vaccines have been in the news this week - but when you dig into the stories, it turns out that the hype is about phase 1 trials. We're a long way from being sure any of the 150 possible vaccines being developed actually work.
In this talk evidence we're talking to a researcher, a regulator, and a manufacturer about the way in covid-19 is upending normal vaccine development, which hurdles they'l
Talk Evidence covid-19 update - drop in excess deaths, HIV drugs, academic promotion
In this week's Talk Evidence we're hearing about how the death rate has dropped below average, disappointment about HIV drugs for covid-19 treatment, a trial to reduce polypharmacy, and why academic promotions matter to everyone else.
1.35 - Carl gives us one of his death updates
3.30 - Helen asks if it’s finally time to be able to do the international comparisons we’ve been waiting for?
16.10
Talk Evidence covid-19 update - dexamethosone, testing, rehabilitation after covid.
This week we're looking beyond the press release for dexamethasone, the long awaited review of antibody testing, and how well people are recovering after surviving acute covid-19.
(2.36) The preprint for dexamethasone is finally out - considerably after the press release. Carl digs into it to find out how good the news actually is.
(8.49) There are a couple of newly published systematic reviews
Talk Evidence covid-19 update - surgisphere data, and protests in a pandemic
This week, we’re asking questions about surgisphere data, and how it might have got into such high impact journals, we’re also talking about the protests around the world about structural racism - and how they intersect with the covid pandemic.
(1.39) Helen and Carl talk about the data underlying the newly retracted papers on hydroxychloroquine and ace-inhibitors or ARBs and covid.
(7.45) Fiona
Talk evidence covid-19 update - second wave and care home failings
In this episode of Talk Evidence, we'll be finding out if second waves are inevitable (or even a thing), how the UK's failure to protect it's care homes is symbolic of a neglected part of public life, and why those papers on hydroxychloroquine were retracted.
This is Talk Evidence - the podcast for evidence based medicine, where research, guidance and practice are debated and demystified.
Helen
Talk evidence covid-19 update - remdesivir redux, the overwhelming volume of research
That remdesivir study has finally been published - what does it say and is it as independant as claimed. Also, as the world's focus turned to covid, so have researchers - and they've produced over 15000 papers. How can we sift through the flood of research and know what's any good?
(2.30) Helen Macdonald talks to Elizabeth Loder about the volume of research we're seeing, and why journals and peer
Talk Evidence covid-19 update - strategies to end lockdown, more testing
This week we're focussing on what kind of information we need to be able to collect and use as the country transitions out of lockdown - and why local lockdowns may be here for some time.
We also hear about the new antibody tests which are available in the UK - are they actually a game changer?
(2.00) Helen explains what some new evidence says about hydroxychloroquine (spoiler; don’t take it fo
Talk evidence covid-19 update - answering questions with big data
Big data is being crunched to help us tackle some of the enormous amount of uncertainty about covid-19, what the symptoms are, fatality rate, treatment options, things we shouldn't be doing.
In these podcasts, we're going to try to get away from the headlines and talk about what we need to know - to hopefully give you some insight into these issues.
This week.
(3.10) Calum Semple, professor of
Talk evidence covid-19 update - natural history of covid, include patients in guidelines
For the next few months Talk Evidence is going to focus on the new corona virus pandemic. There is an enormous amount of uncertainty about the disease, what the symptoms are, fatality rate, treatment options, things we shouldn't be doing.
We're going to try to get away from the headlines and talk about what we need to know - to hopefully give you some insight into these issues.
This week:
(1.20
Talk Evidence covid-19 update - lack of testing transparency, how to give good debate
For the next few months Talk Evidence is going to focus on the new corona virus pandemic. There is an enormous amount of uncertainty about the disease, what the symptoms are, fatality rate, treatment options, things we shouldn't be doing.
We're going to try to get away from the headlines and talk about what we need to know - to hopefully give you some insight into these issues.
This week:
(1.10)
Talk Evidence covid-19 update - covid ethics, waste and a minimum RCT size
For the next few months Talk Evidence is going to focus on the new corona virus pandemic.
There is an enormous amount of uncertainty about the disease, what the symptoms are, fatality rate, treatment options, things we shouldn't be doing.
We're going to try to get away from the headlines and talk about what we need to know - to hopefully give you some insight into these issues.
This week:
(1.0
Talk Evidence covid-19 update - Remdesivir, care homes, and death data
For the next few months Talk Evidence is going to focus on the new corona virus pandemic.
There is an enormous amount of uncertainty about the disease, what the symptoms are, fatality rate, treatment options, things we shouldn't be doing.
We're going to try to get away from the headlines and talk about what we need to know - to hopefully give you some insight into these issues.
This week:
(3.1
Talk Evidence covid-19 update - hydroxy/chloroquinine, prognostic models and facemaskss
For the next few months Talk Evidence is going to focus on the new corona virus pandemic.
There is an enormous amount of uncertainty about the disease, what the symptoms are, fatality rate, treatment options, things we shouldn't be doing.
We're going to try to get away from the headlines and talk about what we need to know - to hopefully give you some insight into these issues.
This week:
(2
Talk Evidence covid-19 update - pneumonia, guidelines, preprints and testing
For the next few months Talk Evidence is going to focus on the new corona virus pandemic.
There is an enormous amount of uncertainty about the disease, what the symptoms are, fatality rate, treatment options, things we shouldn't be doing.
We're going to try to get away from the headlines and talk about what we need to know - to hopefully give you some insight into these issues.
This week
5.00
Talk Evidence covid-19 update - Confused symptoms, fatality rate uncertainty, Iceland’s testing
For the next few months Talk Evidence is going to focus on the new corona virus pandemic.
There is an enormous amount of uncertainty about the disease, what the symptoms are, fatality rate, treatment options, things we shouldn't be doing.
We're going to try to get away from the headlines and talk about what we need to know - to hopefully give you some insight into these issues.
This week
3.
Talk Evidence - testing under the microscope and opioid prescription
This edition of talk evidence was recorded before the big increase in covid-19 infections in the UK, and then delayed by some self isolation. We'll be back with more evidence on the pandemic very soon.
As always Duncan Jarvies is joined by Helen Macdonald (resting GP and editor at The BMJ) and Carl Heneghan (active GP, director of Oxford University’s CEBM and editor of BMJ Evidence).
in this epi
Talk Evidence - Building an evidence base for covid-19
We're taking a break from the usual Talk Evidence to focus on the new corona virus that has emerged in China.
With a brand new disease, we have to build our evidence base from scratch - basic virology, epidemiology, pathogenicity, transmissibility, and ultimately treatment are all unknowns.
In this episode of Talk Evidence, we're trying to get away from the headlines and talk about what we need
Talk Evidence - Sepsis, talc and blindsided by blinding
Welcome to the festive talk evidence, giving you a little EBM to take you into the new year. As always Duncan Jarvies is joined by Helen Macdonald (resting GP and editor at The BMJ) and Carl Heneghan (active GP, director of Oxford University’s CEBM and editor of BMJ Evidence)*
This month:
(1.20) Carl tells us about new research on treating sepsis with steroids that might inform practice.
(4.58)
Talk Xmas Evidence
Welcome to the festive talk evidence, giving you a little EBM to take you into the new year. As always Duncan Jarvies is joined by Helen Macdonald (resting GP and editor at The BMJ) and Carl Heneghan (active GP, director of Oxford University’s CEBM and editor of BMJ Evidence)
This month:
(2.00) Helen look back at a Christmas article, which investigates a very common superstition in hospitals.
Talk Evidence - aggravating acronyms, a time to prescribe, and screening (again)
Talk Evidence is back, with your monthly take on the world of EBM with Duncan Jarvies and GPs Carl Heneghan (also director for the Centre of Evidence Based Medicine at the University of Oxford) and Helen Macdonald (also The BMJ's UK research Editor).
This month Helen talks about the messy business of colon cancer screening - which modality is best, and in what population is it actually effective (
Talk Evidence - eating less, drinking less, drug approval data
Talk Evidence is back, with your monthly take on the world of EBM with Duncan Jarvies and GPs Carl Heneghan (also director for the Centre of Evidence Based Medicine at the University of Oxford) and Helen Macdonald (also The BMJ's UK research Editor).
This month Carl talks about evidence that restricting your diet might improve health at a population level (1.50)
Helen talks about the data on a d
Talk Evidence - Recurrent VTE, CRP testing for COPD, CMO report, and a consultation
Helen talks about new research on prevention of recurrent VTE - and Carl things the evidence goes further, and we can extend prophylaxis for a year.
13.00 - CRP testing for antibiotic prescription in COPD exacerbations, should we start doing it in primary care settings - and what will that mean. We also hear from Chris Butler, one of the trialists, who explains why being very clear about what yo
Talk Evidence - Tramadol, medical harm, and alexa
Welcome back to Talk Evidence - where Helen Macdonald and Carl Heneghan take you through what's happening in the world of Evidence.
This month we'll be discussing tramadol being prescripted postoperatively, and a new EBM verdict says that should change(1.36). How much preventable harm does healthcare causes (11.20. A canadian project to help policy makers get the evidence they need (16.55)
On
Talk Evidence - smoking, gloves and transparency
This month we have some more feedback from our listeners (2.20)
Carl says it's time to start smoking cessation (or stop the reduction in funding for smoking reduction) (11.40) and marvels at how pretty Richard Doll's seminal smoking paper is.
It's gloves off for infection control (22.20)
Andrew George, a non-executive director of the Health Research Authority joins us to talk about their consu
Talk Evidence - Z drugs, subclinical hypothyroidism and Drazen’s dozen
This week on the podcast, (2.02) a listener asks, when we suggest something to stop, should we suggest an alternative instead?
(8.24) Helen tells us to stop putting people on treatment for subclinical hypothyroidism, but what does that mean for people who are already receiving thyroxine?
(20.55) Carl has a black box warning about z drugs, and wonders what the alternative for sleep are.
(30.11)
Talk Evidence - cancer causing food, prostate cancer and disease definitions
Helen Macdonald and Carl Heneghan are back again talking about what's happened in the world of evidence this month.
(1.05) Carl rants about bacon causing cancer
(7.10) Helen talks about prostate cancer, and we hear from the author of the research paper which won Research Paper Of The Year at the BMJ awards.
We also cover disease definition and a call to have GPs more involved in that process,
Talk Evidence - health checks, abx courses and p-values
Helen Macdonald and Carl Heneghan are back again talking about what's happened in the world of evidence this month.
(1.20) Carl grinds his gears over general health checks, with an update in the Cochrane Library.
(9.15) Helen is surprised by new research which looks at over prescription of antibiotics - but this time because the courses prescribed are far longer than guidelines suggest.
(22.30)
Talk Evidence - Shoulders, statins and doctors messes
Helen Macdonald and Carl Heneghan are back again talking about what's happened in the world of evidence this month.
They start by talking about shoulders - what does the evidence say about treating subacromial pain, and why the potential for a subgroup effect shouldn't change our views about stop surgery (for now, more research needed).
(16.00) Statins - more uncertainty about statins, this is n
Talk Evidence - Radiation, fertility, and pneumonia
Helen Macdonald and Carl Heneghan are back again talking about what's happened in the world of evidence this month.
They start by talking about how difficult a task it is to find evidence that's definitely practice changing, what GPs can learn from Malawian children with nonsevere fast-breathing pneumonia, how radiation dosage varies substantially - and consultant radiologist Amy Davies what that
Talk Evidence - Devices and facebook vaccines
In the second of our EBM round-ups, Carl Heneghan, Helen Macdonald and Duncan Jarvies are joined by Deborah Cohen, investigative journalist and scourge of device manufacturers.
We're giving our verdict on the sensitivity and specificity of ketone testing for hyperemesis, and the advice to drinking more water to prevent recurrent UTIs in women.
Deb joins us to talk about the massive, internatio
