On bmj.com today two experts debate whether the conflict of interest is unacceptable when drug companies carry out clinical trials on their own medicines.
Their views come as new guidance on the standards required for communicating company sponsored medical research is published.
A new scientific organisation is needed to monitor the commitments that will be made by developing countries at Copenhagen to cut their deforestation rates, according to research at the University of Leeds.
Existing government agencies and research groups have failed to make full use of the thousands of satellite images of the Earth's surface collected each week to monitor tropical forests.
The first-ever Australian benchmark of climate change impacts on marine ecosystems and options for adaptation is being released in Brisbane today.
The Marine Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Report Card for Australia, and an accompanying website, will provide a biennial guide for scientists, government and the community on observed and projected impacts of climate change on marine ecosystems.
Patients often complain that getting a good night's sleep or a bit of peace and quiet in hospital can be difficult. But a study published in the December issue of the Journal of Clinical Nursing has shown that adopting some simple measures can reduce peak noise levels on hospital wards by just under 20 per cent.
UK researchers from Newcastle upon Tyne audited average decibel levels before and after a noise reduction intervention programme on three wards with a total of 92 beds - a surgical ward, medical ward and orthopaedic ward.
CHICAGO – A large proportion of patients who undergo abdominal/pelvic computed tomography (CT) receive unindicated and unnecessary additional image acquisition resulting in excess, avoidable radiation exposure, according to a study presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
CHICAGO – Radiologists can accurately diagnose acute appendicitis from a remote location with the use of a handheld device or mobile phone equipped with special software, according to a study presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
Intervals of regional warmth and cold in the past are linked to the El Niño phenomenon and the so-called "North Atlantic Oscillation" in the Northern hemisphere's jet stream, according to a team of climate scientists. These linkages may be important in assessing the regional effects of future climate change.
"Studying the past can potentially inform our understanding of what the future may hold," said Michael Mann, Professor of meteorology, Penn State.
For the first time guidelines are to be published on how broadcasters around the world can encourage audiences to produce better quality user-generated content and to improve media and information literacy.
The new guidelines will also enable the public to become more media and information literate.
Medical students are commonly stuck by needles — putting them at risk of contracting potentially dangerous blood-borne diseases — and many of them fail to report the injuries to hospital authorities, according to a Johns Hopkins study published in the December issue of the journal Academic Medicine.
St. Louis, Nov. 24, 2009 — Research into Alzheimer's disease seems an unlikely approach to yield a better way to fight urinary tract infections (UTIs), but that's what scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and elsewhere recently reported.
Providing physicians with a computerized order entry/decision support system that provides immediate feedback regarding imaging appropriateness at the time of ordering may be an effective solution to managing imaging utilization, according to an article in the December issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology, (JACR, www.jacr.org).
Older adults who reported chronic musculoskeletal pain in two or more locations, higher levels of severe pain, or pain that interfered with daily activities were more likely to experience a fall than adults who did not reports these types of pain, according to a study in the November 25 issue of JAMA.
BOSTON – Chronic pain is experienced by as many as two out of three older adults. Now, a new study finds that pain may be more hazardous than previously thought, contributing to an increased risk of falls in adults over age 70. The findings appear in the November 25 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
The American College of Physicians (ACP), representing 129,000 internal medicine physicians and medical student members, believes that it is essential that research on the effectiveness and comparative effectiveness of different medical treatments not be influenced by political considerations.
Popular thinking about how to improve food systems for the better often misses the point, according to the results of a three-year global study of salmon production systems. Rather than pushing for organic or land-based production, or worrying about simple metrics such as "food miles," the study finds that the world can achieve greater environmental benefits by focusing on improvements to key aspects of production and distribution.