The problems with body mass index (BMI)

New Alzheimer's blood tests are accurate, available, and increasingly advertised — but for healthy people, a positive result is rarely useful. 

Standard medical practice isn't the same as proven medical practice — and the difference can be deadly. 

It’s the same medicine. So why does the convenient version cost so much more? 

Just because you can measure something doesn't mean it's the most important thing. 

<p>Medicine has evolved from a calling into an industry, adept at dispensing procedures and pills (and gigantic bills), but less good at actual health. Most reformers call for big, bold action. What happens if, instead, you think small? </p><br/> <p>Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWi ... Show More

We are inclined to gauge progress by tangible measures and quantitative figures. However when practicing mindfulness, the gauge of progress can be a little cloudy because it is an internal measure that we set for ourselves. Want more Andy? Try Headspace today. Learn more about yo ... Show More

Healthcare workload has emerged as an important metric associated with poor outcomes. To measure workload, studies have used bed occupancy as a surrogate. However, few studies have examined frontline clinician workload and outcomes. 

Much of medicine doesn’t do what it is supposed to do: improve health. That is the view of orthopaedic surgeon, Ian Harris. Ian believes too many drugs are being prescribed, too much surgery is being performed, and there are too many unhelpful tests, scans, and overdiagnosis. The ... Show More

<p>If you’ve been in a high street pharmacy or supermarket recently, chances are you’ll have seen home test kits for all sorts of indications; blood sugar level, vitamin deficiencies, thyroid function, and even some forms of cancer. </p> <p>A new series of article in The BMJ reve ... Show More

<p>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.</p> <p> </p> <p>In this episod ... Show More

Modern medicine has given us incredible tools to peer inside the body and spot disease earlier than ever before. But with that power comes a problem: the more we look, the more we find — and not everything we find needs fixing.My guest today, neurologist Dr. Suzanne O'Sullivan, a ... Show More

<p>Last December, The BMJ published an investigation into the 2009 PLATO trial - exposing serious problems with that study’s data analysis and reporting.  Our follow up investigation has shown that those data problems extend to other key supporting evidence in AstraZeneca’s initi ... Show More