The podcast for evidence based medicine - where research, guidance and practice are debated and demystified

Talk Evidence

This is a second recording made in 2020 of the fallow deer 'lek'. This happens around in the second half of October in the UK. The males tend to congregate in in small groups or mating territories where they exhibit lekking behaviours such as sticking to particular 'stands' where they will repeating grunt and bellow.

This recording was made with a Sony M10 and a spaced pair of clippy EM172s. The mics were placed where I had observed a large group of rutting males the night before.

PS DEER MALEGRUNTS MULTIPLE VERYCLOSE MOVEMENTACROSSSTEREOFIELD M10

Triết+Học+A - Tỳ - Đàm+của+Phật+Giáo+Truyền+Thống+ - +Chương+1

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 the University of Oxford (and a research editor for The BMJ) to talk about why comparisons may still not be sensible.

Read the full research here - https://www.bmj.com/content/373/bmj.n1137

The Delta variant is dominating headlines, and infections in the UK now - but until recently the Alpha one was ascendent, and new research has helped characterise how the mortality rate of that variant differed from previous viruses.  We discuss how that research was done.

Read the full research - https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n579

GP data in the UK - the planned cut-off for granting access to your GP data for researchers has been extended, but there are still a lot of questions remaining. Helen has tried to find out some basic answers, and is still confused.

Finally, the FDA has approved a new drug for treatment of dementia - and researchers (and the FDA's own panel of experts) are up in arms. Joe Ross tells us why he thinks the decision was the wrong one, and why patients may be harmed because of it. 

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/06/17/opinions/biogen-alzheimers-drug-opinion-ramachandra-ross/index.html

Talk Evidence - GP data, excess mortality and FDA approval

เรียนภาษาอังกฤษได้ที่ http://www.dailyenglish.in.th

Lookout Mountain Conversation

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 Swedish players to substance use disorders. We'll hear about the performance of BMJ’s editors, when it comes to assessing the impact of a paper. We'll find out if AI algorithms can pass UK radiology exams, misinformation and a belief that everything causes cancer, and finally, some tips from BMJ’s statisticians to set the world right

Talking evidence at Christmas

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 themselves.

Juan looks back to his homeland to see what Argentina which was very early to offer children vaccinations against covid-19. He tells us how a new study design can help understand how effective different combinations of vaccines were.

Joe has a Danish registry paper, which links people's employment status after a MI, explains how that gives us an insight into morbidity following that event.

Helen looks at a new analysis which outlines the concept of "time needed to treat" - a measure of how much time it would take a clinician to actually carry out a guideline - and you'd be surprised how much GP time would be swallowed by a "brief" intervention to reduce inactivity in their patients.

Finally, the data on excess mortality in the UK has been up for debate recently - our health minister calling into question the Office of National Statistic's data. We hear from Nazrul Islam, Associate professor of medical statistics, advisor to the ONS and BMJ research editor, who has some bad news for him.

Reading list:
Long covid outcomes at one year after mild SARS-CoV-2 infection
https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj-2022-072529

Effectiveness of mRNA-1273, BNT162b2, and BBIBP-CorV vaccines against infection and mortality in children in Argentina, during predominance of delta and omicron covid-19 variants
https://www.bmj.com/content/379/bmj-2022-073070


Guidelines should consider clinicians’ time needed to treat
https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj-2022-072953

Expanding the measurement of overdiagnosis in the context of disease precursors and risk factors
https://ebm.bmj.com/content/early/2023/01/10/bmjebm-2022-112117

Excess deaths associated with covid-19 pandemic in 2020
https://www.bmj.com/content/373/bmj.n1137.abstract

Talk Evidence - excess deaths, the ONS, and the healthcare crisis

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 trial to reduce prescribing among older people with suspected urinary tract infection or UTI.

Juan has a nuanced take on the updated evidence on masks to reduce the spread of respiratory viruses. 

Finally, an international group of researchers traced the health claims made about infant formula milk back to the evidence or lack of it 

Reading list:
Efficacy, safety, and tolerability of antidepressants for pain in adults
https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj-2022-072415

Association between healthy lifestyle and memory decline in older adults
https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj-2022-072691

Effect of a multifaceted antibiotic stewardship intervention to improve antibiotic prescribing for suspected urinary tract infections in frail older adults 
https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj-2022-072319

Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses
https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD006207.pub6/full

Health and nutrition claims for infant formula
https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj-2022-071075

Talk Evidence - masks, chronic pain, and baby milk formulae claims

Klickt hier, um zum Manuskript zu gelangen: 

https://bit.ly/Deutschlernen_Langsam-Gesprochene-Nachrichten_27022023

Die Langsam gesprochenen Nachrichten der Deutschen Welle bieten von Montag bis Samstag aktuelle Tagesnachrichten aus aller Welt. Das langsam und verständlich gesprochene Audio trainiert das Hörverstehen. Zusätzlich gibt es den vollständigen Text zum Mitlesen. Die Audio-Datei kann auch heruntergeladen werden.

Hier geht's zur Übersichtsseite: dw.com/langsamenachrichten

Deutsch lernen (B2/C1) | Langsam Gesprochene Nachrichten vom 27.02.2023

Cambridge IELTS Book 16 Listening Test 2

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 Huseyin Naci, associate professor of health policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science, who will tell us about proposed changes to drug regulation in the UK - and we discuss research which has linked speedier regulatory approval to more adverse advents in post marketing studies.

Finally, we talk about point of care apps. The availability of medical information in the clinic has changed practice, but how good is that information? We hear about research which has evaluated those point of care apps (including BMJ’s Best Practice app) and rates them against different criteria.


Reading list

Estimated impact from the withdrawal of primary care financial incentives on selected indicators of quality of care in Scotland 
https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj-2022-072098
How can we improve the quality of data collected in general practice?
https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj-2022-071950#


UK to give “near automatic sign off” for treatments approved by “trusted” regulators
https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj.p633


Smartphone apps for point-of-care information summaries
https://ebm.bmj.com/content/early/2023/03/14/bmjebm-2022-112146

Talk Evidence - automatic approval, evidence apps, and pay for performance data

In this episode of the IJGC podcast, Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Pedro Ramirez, is joined by Dr. David Cibula to discuss the 2023 ESGO-ESTRO-ESP Guidelines for Cervical Cancer. Dr. Cibula is the Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the General Faculty Hospital in Prague, Professor at the First Medical Faculty of the Charles University, Chair of the Central and Eastern European Gynaecologic Oncology Group (CEEGOG), member of the Strategic group of the ENGOT (European Network for Gynaecological Oncological Trial Groups) as well as a Former ESGO president.

 Highlights:

- Multidisciplinary clinical practice guidelines developed jointly by ESGO/ESTRO/ESP in the field of gynaecological oncology, radiation oncology and pathology.

- Guidelines cover the management of all stages of cervical cancer, including separate sections dedicated to pathology reporting and management in pregnancy.

- The guidelines include recommendations, algorithms, and summaries of recent evidence published as supplements.

ESGO-ESTRO-ESP Guidelines for Cervical Cancer 2023 with David Cibula

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 be asking if it goes far enough. Finally, the old chestnut of surrogate endpoints in cancer treatment trials - are benefits communicated to patients accurately?

Reading list;
Nirmatrelvir and risk of hospital admission or death in adults with covid-19: emulation of a randomized target trial using electronic health records - https://www.bmj.com/content/381/bmj-2022-073312

Surgical versus non-surgical treatment for sciatica
https://www.bmj.com/content/381/bmj-2022-070730


CONSORT Harms 2022 statement, explanation, and elaboration
https://www.bmj.com/content/381/bmj-2022-073725

Funders crack down on unpublished clinical trials—but is it enough?
https://www.bmj.com/content/381/bmj.p840

Communication of anticancer drug benefits and related uncertainties to patients and clinicians
https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj-2022-073711

Talk Evidence - cloning, reporting, and disseminating

Check your current level for IELTS listening with IELTS Listening Practice Test 14 by ieltsmaterial.com

Talk Evidence - GP data, excess mortality and FDA approval

BMJ talk medicine

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