Atherosclerosis, or clogging up arteries, causes more deaths and more suffering than any other cause worldwide, most commonly in the form of heart attacks and strokes. Blocking of coronary arteries in the heart causes a spectrum of disease from angina to heart attacks, while blockages in cerebral arteries in the brain cause mini-strokes (transient ischaemic attacks or TIAs) and strokes. How best to prevent further strokes and heart attacks (secondary prevention) has occupied medical research for 40 years.

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The 1968 version of Oliver Twist in my mind is a classic. Anyone who has seen the film will remember that classic seen where Oliver asks for more:

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“Vaccine” is a medical term that is part of the vernacular. They are our childhood immunizations and the backbone of public health programmes at national and international level, in both rich and poor countries. They are the holy grail of research against the biggest infectious disease killers of our time, from malaria and HIV/AIDS to influenza, and, more recently swine flu. They are multi-billion dollar business to drug companies.

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When I started in evidence-based medicine, it was a big shock that probably the most under-researched area of health is how health practitioners should diagnose illness; i.e. “diagnostic strategies”. Individual studies and systematic reviews have focused on drugs and interventions, but it is now recognised that such reviews are also necessary to evaluate diagnostic tests. In children, clinical signs (e.g.

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The advantage of living and working in Oxford is you don’t have to travel far to meet interesting people, particularly in the field of epidemiology. Last week, I met with Mike Clarke, Director of the UK Cochrane Centre, and our wide ranging discussion turned to the recent release of the Cochrane Evidence Aid: resources for Haiti earthquake.

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If you search PubMed for articles relating to body-mass index, obesity, and mortality you will see an explosion in the number of articles in the last 5 years, as scientists try to characterise and explain the long-term effects of obesity.

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The horrors of the recent earthquake in Haiti have dominated the news media worldwide, making the UN label it as the “worst disaster it has ever faced”. Obama has enlisted the help of his two immediate Presidential predecessors (Bush and Clinton) to tackle this tragedy.

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Understanding bias in clinical studies can help identify some of the reasons why we reach the wrong conclusions about the effects of interventions. Some of the biases we will be looking out for in 2010 include:

1. Publication bias: Positive findings are more likely to be published in medical journals than negative findings (Tamiflu). Media coverage of health issues often tends to be biased towards publication of stories which will grab headlines (swine flu).

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After Christmas and in the run-up to Lent, people are often thinking about New Year’s resolutions and what to give up. One of the most common excesses that people want to address is food. This is the most common time of year to start new diets, exercise regimes and gym memberships, and yet obesity, particularly in childhood, is on the rise. The direct cost of overweight and obesity to the NHS has been estimated at over £3 billion.

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Around Christmas, we are often more aware of the scale of poverty than at other times of the year.

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