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