Exclusive interview with Sir Muir Gray, Chief Knowledge Officer for the NHS

'Knowledge is as important as antibiotics' claims Sir Muir Gray, Chief Knowledge Officer for the NHS. He tells us why in an exclusive interview for the UoS Librarians' Blog.






Just before Christmas Vic had the privilege to interview Sir Muir Gray, Chief Knowledge Officer for the NHS. Sir Muir trained initially as a surgeon before working in public health and more recently in R&D. He is a passionate advocate of patient empowerment and has written extensively on this topic. Currently Director of the National Knowledge Service and responsible for the National Library for Health, Sir Muir was knighted for his services to the NHS in 2005.

Vic: Congratulations on your knighthood. Would you like to see a return to the days when all doctors were addressed as Sir?

SM: Even the female ones?! What’s more important is how doctors address patients. The evidence suggests that patients like to be greeted by their clinician and like to be addressed by name. So not dear or love or what do you say in Sheffield?

Vic: Duck or Mi Love!

SM: Well down with 'Ducks' and 'Mi Loves', patients like to be called by name.

Vic: A new edition of Evidence Based Healthcare is to arrive in our bookshops imminently. What’s new for the new edition?

SM: There will be more about public health and also a focus on how evidence based healthcare should be taught. I’ll send you a signed copy for the University of Sheffield Library. (Vic lands a freebie again!)

Vic: Evidence based medicine is sometimes defined as doing the right thing right. How often in healthcare do you think we don’t do the right things right?

Ten of the best: 4 Behind the headlines

 

Ten of the best: 4 Behind the headlines

Last week I had an unplanned trip to the GP due to the experiment my nine year old had decided to do with a 20 pence piece (yes it does fit down the oesophagus). Given that he wasn't blue or anything, I figured he was probably ok and so took the opportunity to do a bit of people watching.

Sitting across from me were two middle aged women and a similarly aged chap, who was, for some inexplicable reason, and much to the envy of the nine year old, drinking one of those intriguingly coloured slush drinks (purple). He didn't contribute much to the conversation beyond 'aye, you can't be too careful.' The women, on the other hand, were intently studying a copy of the Daily Mail and discussing, in hushed tones (not all that hushed), the adverse effects of HRT. It transpired that one of the women was planning to question her treatment with the GP, in response to what they were reading in the paper.

I suspect that, for GPs up and down the country, this is a familiar situation and one that I'm sure you, as student doctors, will face sooner or later. Are you equipped with the skills to respond?

One resource that you may find useful is the 'Behind the headlines' service. The brainchild of Sir Muir Gray, Chief Knowledge Officer of the NHS, Behind the headlines provides an unbiased and evidence-based analysis of health stories that make the news.

This is how is works:

• Each day the NHS Choices team selects health stories that are making headlines.


• These, along with the scientific articles behind the stories, are sent to Bazian, a leading provider of evidence-based healthcare information.


• Bazian's clinicians and scientists analyse the research and produce impartial evidence-based assessments, which are edited and published by NHS Choices.

Behind the headlines can be found on the National Library for Health:

www.library.nhs.uk

or connect directly at:

http://www.nhs.uk/News/Pages/NewsArticles.aspx

If you want to use the service to keep up with health stories in the news you can set up an RSS feed or use the auto-alert function.

and remember ... just because it's in the Daily Mail, doesn't automatically mean it's wrong ;-)

Vic

Are citrus fruits the answer?

Today in Helsinki, medical librarians from all over Europe had the opportunity to consider how we might deal with uncertainties.

Why, for example, did it take 40 years to acknowledge that the issue of lemon juice on ships would be beneficial in the treatment of scurvy?

Uncertanties? Are we all certain about what is uncertain? You know, it is ok to say that we are uncertain about what the effects of a treatment might be. In fact, if there is no systematic review of the evidence on a topic or if the only systematic reviews are inconclusive then we have no choice but to say “we are uncertain”. DUETs (the Database of Uncertainties about the Effects of Treatments) has recently been introduced under the aegis of the James Lind Alliance.

So, if you have a clinical question for which you cannot find an answer from the evidence base, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you are searching incorrectly or that you are asking the wrong question. It may be that your question constitutes an uncertainty and that further research is necessary. Find out about registering your question with DUETS by visiting the website at http://www.duets.nhs.uk .

This may help to get your question onto the research agenda and to ensure that research reflects the questions that appear at the cutting edge of medicine. Influence how research grants are allocated by registering gaps in the evidence base. In doing so you may make a real contribution to improving patient care.

Alison and Vic

Partying and conferencing in Helsinki. Don't tell our Director about the former ;-)

 

Evidence based medicine: a soft option?

Evidence based medicine: a soft option?

On Saturday I went along to Weston Park Museum to visit the Medical Students’ Teddy Bear Hospital.



Green Teddy visits Radiology!

As a medical librarian I was keen to find out if clinical decisions in the teddy bear hospital were being made according to the best evidence!

Take Green Teddy for example, brought in by my 6 year old daughter Annabel who was concerned that his obstinate refusal to go in the washing machine set him at high risk for contracting an infection. Fortunately a thorough consultation was undertaken by Dr Hannah who quickly spotted that poor old Green Ted was also suffering from what appeared to be the early signs of alopecia. She was rightly concerned that washing Green Ted might aggravate his alopecia and that this was perhaps a contraindication in his care.

I spoke to Teddy Hospital organisers, final year medical students, Abi Jones and Emily Lees to find out how their decision making was influenced and if they would use the research available from the Health Sciences Library to influence their decisions!

As Abi quickly pointed out, the evidence base for treating soft toys is very limited and is largely based on the judgement and experience of the teddy bear doctors!
However I was assured that clinical guidelines, systematic reviews and randomized controlled trials would be used to influence their decision making, whenever they were available.

The library might not always be able to help with soft toy medicine but it is here to support evidence based practice in the clinical setting. We can guide you through the hierarchy of evidence to support your clinical practice. Here are some resources that you might use …

The National Library of Guidelines is the index to retrieve all clinical guidelines
www.library.nhs.uk/guidelinesfinder/

The Cochrane Library indexes all systematic reviews
www.thecochranelibrary.co.uk

Ovid Medline is the key resource for searching for randomized controlled trials (retrieving just rcts from Medline can be done using the publication type limit)
Connect via MUSE-Library-Databases

Thank you Abi, Emily and all involved, for organising the Teddy Bear Hospital. My children and their friends had a fantastic time. As for Green Teddy … we have settled on a gentle hand wash :-)


Dr Abi and Dr Emily with a 'patient'