Iain Chalmers - Radio4's Life Scientifc

"Jim Al-Khalili talks to the pioneering health services researcher, Iain Chalmers, who was one of the founders of the Cochrane Collaboration.
Once described by one writer as 'The Maverick Master of Medical Evidence'. Iain Chalmers trained as a doctor, eventually specialising in obstetrics. But early in his career, he started to question the basis of everything he was trained to do and this set him on a very different path: to champion treatments based on the best available evidence, first in his own field and then across healthcare. It's a journey that has at times challenged the foundations of medical practice.
In 1992, he was appointed Director of the Cochrane Centre, which led to the foundation of the Cochrane Collaboration, dedicated to ensuring that patients, doctors and researchers have access to unbiased information about the effectiveness of healthcare interventions, across the world."

Listen again - to Radio 4's Life Scientific

• Cochrane Collaboration (www.cochrane.org)
• James Lind Alliance (www.lindalliance.org)

 

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What's it like to be a patient in a clinical trial?

Clinical trials are the gold standard method of testing the effectiveness of an intervention. When done well (ie randomised, crossed over, blinded, with sufficient power, and appropriate outcome measures) they can provide a very solid basis for evidence based practice.

But what's it like to be a patient in a trial?
- not knowing whether you're taking the drug or the sugar pill?
- what questions should a patient ask a trial co-ordinator before they consent?
- what if you're consenting for your child to take part?

HealthTalkOnline.org (www.healthtalkonline.org/) provides an insight. It "lets you share in other people's experiences of health and illness. This information is based on qualitative research into patient experiences led by experts at the University of Oxford"

Read about or listen to patients experience of biobanking and participating in clinical trials.
What about the patient perspective of share decision making?
Learn about the patient perspective and experience on a range of other conditions.

Follow them on twitter, or learn more about HealthTalkOnline: