Health Policy InsightHealthcare management online analysis and intelligence
Health Policy InsightDr Mary Gibbs says there are a number of problems with AI, particularly its tendency to misunderstand, as Debbie Cameron can attest
I am an out-of-hours GP, and I am glad to see a news report on this issue, which has been causing me increasing concern at work (Doctors’ AI scribes get names of drugs and diagnoses wrong, NHS watchdog warns, 31 August). There are a number of problems with AI, particularly its tendency to misunderstand and contradict itself, which can lead to dangers for the patient, but I will concentrate on the supposed “time-saving” aspect.
Many of the patients I see will have been assessed by someone else first on the phone, and I am used to reading through a triage assessment before I call in the patient. My heart sinks when I see that AI has been used – the consultation is invariably long, with duplications, and sometimes contradictions. Often, any history I take turns out to be significantly different from what is listed. So I can never trust that it is correct – I can state with certainty that I find meaningful errors far more often in AI consultations than in those typed out by colleagues.
Continue reading...James Frith says patients may be less willing to share data as new figures show a rise in opt-outs
Concern is being raised about Palantir’s work with the NHS as new figures showed tens of thousands of patients have withdrawn their data from use in research projects.
James Frith, the health innovation minister, said he was worried about “mistrust” of the US defence and health tech company and “the impact it could have on people’s willingness to share data with the NHS”.
Continue reading...HHS releases report linking ‘gender ideology’ to political violence – a study scientists say was poorly conducted
The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently released a report linking “gender ideology” to leftwing authoritarianism and political violence – a study scientists say was poorly conducted and “nakedly political”, likely leading to greater politicization of science and health.
It follows attempts by the administration to limit access to gender-affirming care – including, on Friday, an agreement reached between the Department of Justice and a New York hospital to no longer offer pediatric gender-affirming care. Dozens of hospitals stopped offering gender-affirming care after the Trump administration began investigating them for offering the standard of care.
Continue reading...Newscaster says rare but treatable condition polycythaemia vera left her feeling like she ‘had her batteries taken out’
The BBC News presenter Maryam Moshiri has been diagnosed with a rare form of incurable blood cancer, she has revealed.
Doctors told the broadcaster last November she had polycythaemia vera (PV), which cannot be cured but is treatable. The condition, which affects about 8,000 people in the UK, is associated with an increased risk of the blood clots that can cause a stroke, heart attack or deep vein thrombosis.
Continue reading...US-owned dating app allegedly allowed ad firms access to private information in breach of UK law
Grindr will pay £26m to settle a lawsuit brought by thousands of users in the UK who allege that the US dating app shared highly sensitive personal information, including in some cases their HIV status, with advertising companies.
The settlement brings to an end a two-year legal battle, after the UK law firm Austen Hays filed a claim at the high court of England and Wales in April 2024 on behalf of Grindr users alleging violations of UK privacy laws during a period up to early 2020.
Continue reading...Elise Burns and Keith Williams appeared in campaign filmed by Rankin this year – both were denied their wishes, but their relatives are picking up the baton
The feeling, said Sarah Burns of her sister’s last days, is one of overwhelming guilt.
“You feel really guilty, and helpless,” she says. “Because we knew what she wanted. We really did know. But we couldn’t do anything.”
Continue reading...Review led by Donna Ockenden launches after campaign by families and media investigation into deaths at NHS trust
Susan Cacciacarro was almost 37 weeks pregnant with her daughter Chiara when she woke up one morning in 2021, unable to feel her baby kicking.
“My belly just didn’t feel right,” she said. “I didn’t feel any movements.”
Continue reading...Survey finds long waiting times and overcrowding have made abuse ‘routine’ part of working on hospital frontline
Nearly three-quarters of A&E staff experience violence or aggression daily or weekly, according to a survey highlighting the “appalling” abuse of NHS workers.
The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) said understaffed and overcrowded emergency departments were contributing to increased targeting of medics.
Continue reading...With thousands dead across Europe this summer, it’s time to recognise heatwaves as the major natural disasters they are
The numbers are now trickling in: nearly 2,900 dead in the UK, at least 35,000 dead across Europe. That’s how many people are believed to have lost their lives in this year’s early-summer heatwaves – the death tolls for the August heatwaves have yet to be counted. In a sense, these people died in a series of natural disasters, similar to the hundreds who died last month after flooding in Nepal, or during the 2024 floods in Valencia, Spain. And yet we do not process these events the same way. Increasingly deadly heatwaves are the most direct and damaging effect of the climate crisis felt in Europe, but they are rarely framed as such.
There are some obvious reasons for this. Heatwaves by definition unfold over longer periods than other disasters, they are less dramatic, the majority of those who die are elderly or otherwise vulnerable, and their deaths often take weeks or months to be catalogued and reported, all of which make heatwaves seem less immediate and visible. But while heatwaves will probably never provoke the same visceral shock as earthquakes or tornadoes, it should still be possible to shift the way the public thinks about them, which could save lives and lessen their damage.
Continue reading...We can’t control what happens to us – only how we react to it. And when we help others we are reminded that we are more than our suffering
Making sense of it is a column about spirituality and how it can be used to navigate everyday life
My dad, Max, is in his early 60s. More than 15 years ago he was diagnosed with early onset Parkinson’s disease. Since then his illness has progressed, affecting his mobility and making ordinary tasks, like walking, increasingly difficult.
My dad is softly spoken and endlessly kind but beneath his gentle exterior is a steely determination. Perhaps this comes from being the son of a sole survivor of the Holocaust. Growing up he was taught that people don’t get to choose the hardships life places before us but we can choose how we react to these challenges.
Nomi Kaltmann is an Australian lawyer and journalist. She is a proud member of Melbourne’s Jewish community
Continue reading...In his new book The Brain Cliff, Dr Norman Swan outlines the science of brain ageing and strategies for staving off cognitive decline
You write that instead of fearing cognitive decline, “changing the way you think about the brain cliff can literally change the way you think and remember”. How?
Dr Norman Swan: There are three things you need to know which are not widely known.
Continue reading...Our US friends may pity Europeans for our low salaries, high taxes and dependence on public transport – but they’re forgetting the really important stuff …
I’m sorry to break this to you, but you may be “Europoor”. This is, apparently, what proud American patriots (the kind who describe themselves in those terms on their flag-forward X profiles anyway) are calling us Europeans, mocking us for our low salaries, high taxes and dependence on public transport.
GB news presenter Tom Harwood declared this dig “entirely accurate”, but is it? Well, sort of. US post-pandemic GDP growth is more than double that of the eurozone (15.6% compared with 7.2%; the UK is even worse on 6.3%). As for wages, once you adjust for national differences in the cost of essentials such as housing, food and services, the US average is $86,977 compared with the UK’s $66,299, Germany’s $76,286 and France’s $60,483, according to the OECD. A Sunday Telegraph investigation of the “Europoor” question highlighted astronomically powerful growth of the US tech sector supercharged by AI, making it easy to raise and make big money unencumbered by “old world” regulation and taxation. “We don’t want to be like what Europe has become,” said the Republican pollster Brent Buchanan.
Continue reading...Sector has avoided issue because of stigma fears, expert warns ahead of closure of Nottingham attacks inquiry
Mental health organisations have “failed to acknowledge” the risk of violence from a minority of people with severe mental illnesses, the chief executive of Mind has said ahead of the closure of the inquiry into the Nottingham attacks.
Dr Sarah Hughes, who has led mental health charity Mind for four years and has worked in the sector for almost four decades, said charities had shied away from addressing the risk of violence due to the fact it had increased the stigma and harassment around people with mental health conditions.
Continue reading...Healthy middle-aged people deemed to be at higher risk of developing condition among those eligible to participate
People without memory loss will be offered an experimental Alzheimer’s drug that could stop the development of the condition before dementia symptoms emerge.
Healthy middle-aged people deemed to have a higher risk of developing the condition will be eligible to participate in the trial, which is being run by an NHS trust as part of an international clinical trial aiming to prevent dementia.
Continue reading...Activists are calling on the state attorney general to take action against hospitals that have ended gender-affirming care programs after Trump retook office
A group of trans activists from across Massachusetts brought their needles, hormone gels, pills and sharps containers to Boston on Wednesday to send a message to state attorney general Andrea Campbell.
Organizers with the youth-led group Protect Trans Futures (PTF) took their hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in the lobby of her office building, then occupied the space, refusing to leave without a commitment to protect civil rights for trans kids.
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