I Think You'll Find It's a Bit More Complicated Than That (49 page)

foolishly restrictive
:
http://pdcconsult.ernestmarples.com/

everyday government data
:
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/government-data

forbidden to repurpose it
:
http://hadleybeeman.net/2011/01/26/uses-for-open-data/

TheyWorkForYou.com
:
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/

all our postcode information
:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postcodes_in_the_United_Kingdom

the house-number boundaries
:
http://ernestmarples.com/blog/2010/01/postcode-petition-response-our-reply/

make the government
:
http://pdcconsult.ernestmarples.com/

Care.data Can Save Lives: But Not If We Bungle It

greatest need in the NHS
http://www.theguardian.com/society/nhs

at risk by the bungled
:
http://www.nature.com/news/power-to-the-people-1.14505?WT.ec_id=NATURE-20140116

implementation of the care.data
:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-26187980

on hold for six months
:
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/feb/18/nhs-delays-sharing-medical-records-care-data

by and large, the public
:
http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/About-us/Publications/Reports/Public-engagement/WTP053206.htm

results of clinical trials
:
http://www.badscience.net/category/publication-bias/

Tim Kelsey
:
http://www.theguardian.com/healthcare-network/2013/aug/21/tim-kelsey-nhs-big-data

Dr Foster Intelligence
http://drfosterintelligence.co.uk/solutions/nhs-hospitals/

announcing boldly
:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-2 6030479

identifiable patient data
:
http://www.out-law.com/en/articles/2014/february/pseudonymised-health-data-will-not-be-able-to-be-traced-back-to-individuals-under-caredata-scheme-says-official-/

medical research database
:
http://www.theguardian.com/science/medical-research

keen to point out
:
http://www.ehi.co.uk/news/ehi/9207/re-identifying-care.data-illegal

Steve Tennison
:
http://ico.org.uk/news/latest_news/2013/gp-surgery-manager-prosecuted-for-illegally-accessing-patients-medical-records-02122013

Care.data Has Been Bungled

millions of patients
:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/nhs/10659147/Patient-records-should-not-have-been-sold-NHS-admits.html

information governance assessment
:
http://www.hscic.gov.uk/media/12866/caredata-addendum---Information-Governance-Assessment/pdf/care.data_addendum_-_IG_assessment_-_September_2013_(NIC-178106-MLSWX.A0913).pdf

SURVEYS

The Huff

The Huff
:
http://www.badscience.net/2008/01/the-huff/

remains in print
: How to Lie:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Lie-Statistics-Penguin-Business/dp/0140136290/tag=bs0b-21

Doctors say no to abortions
:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/12/29/nabort129.xml

I hope that DNUK
:
http://www.doctors.net.uk/

A New and Interesting Form of Wrong

A New and Interesting
:
http://www.badscience.net/2010/11/1864/

reported in the
Guardian
:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/15/gay-people-coming-out-younger-age

its press release
:
http://www.stonewall.org.uk/media/current_releases/4867.asp

an interesting problem
:
http://bengoldacre.posterous.com/an-interesting-survival-analysis-problem-via

‘Hello Madam, Would You Like Your Children to Be Unemployed?’

Hello Madam
:
http://www.badscience.net/2010/11/hello-madam-would-you-like-your-children-to-be-unemployed/

secret nuclear bunker
:
http://www.secretnuclearbunker.com/

Project Redsand
:
http://www.project-redsand.com/

travelled to Dungeness
:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeness_%28 headland%29

toytown narrow-gauge railway
:
http://www.rhdr.org.uk/

Derek Jarman’s house
:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/allotment/2008/feb/27/dereksretreat

terrifying nuclear power station
:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeness_Nuclear_Power_Station

BBC dutifully reported
:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-11521839

the original polling questions
:
http://www.climatesock.com/2010/11/don%E2%80%99t-just-believe-what-you%E2%80%99re-told-about-polls/

EPIDEMIOLOGY

Beau Funnel

The BBC has found a story
: UK bowel cancer rates:
http://www.theguardian.com/media/bbc

variation in UK bowel cancer rates
:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-14854019

average death rate
:
http://www.theguardian.com/society/bowel-cancer

Paul Barden
:
http://pb204.blogspot.com/

decided to download the data
:
http://pb204.blogspot.com/2011/09/three-fold-variation-in-uk-bowel-cancer.html

come from a press release
:
http://www.beatingbowelcancer.org/news/sep2011/charity-warns-wide-variations-bowel-cancer-death-rates-must-not-be-ignored

Beating Bowel Cancer
:
http://www.theguardian.com/society/cancer

built a map
:
http://www.bowelcancermap.org/

the Poisson distribution
:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisson_distribution

bell-shaped curve
:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/48582479/standard-normal-distribution-plushie

series of simulations
:
http://pb204.blogspot.com/2011/09/three-fold-variation-in-uk-bowel-cancer.html

Understanding Uncertainty
:
http://understandinguncertainty.org/

Spiegelhalter suggested that Barden
:
http://pb204.blogspot.com/2011/09/im-grateful-to-david-spiegelhalter-of.html

Comparing Institutional Performance
:
http://medicine.cf.ac.uk/media/filer_/files/06/22/43/f062243/public/2010/10/11/journal_club_-_spiegelhalter_stats_in_med_funnel_plots.pdf

the citation classic
:
http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?cluster=12057401031362296814

The Public Health Observatories
:
http://www.apho.org.uk/

several neat tools
:
http://www.apho.org.uk/default.aspx?QN=HP_INTERACTIVE2011

draw a funnel plot
:
http://tools.erpho.org.uk/poisson.aspx

When Journalists Do Primary Research

When Journalists
:
http://www.badscience.net/2011/04/when-journalists-do-primary-research/

said the
Telegraph
:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/8434106/Recession-linked-to-huge-rise-in-use-of-antidepressants.html

said the
Daily Mail
:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1374284/Depression-Economic-slump-fuels-43-rise-use-anti-depressants.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

being handed antidepressants
:
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/239413/Money-worries-driving-more-to-pills

the
Guardian
joined in
:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/apr/07/dramatic-rise-antidpressant-prescriptions-money-worries

seems to have come from BBC
:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12986314

2009 data
:
http://www.ic.nhs.uk/statistics-and-data-collections/primary-care/prescriptions/prescription-cost-analysis-england--2009

due about now
:
http://www.ic.nhs.uk/statistics-and-data-collections/primary-care/prescriptions

antidepressant prescribing
:
http://www.bmj.com/content/339/bmj.b3999.full

British Journal of General Practice
:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1839016/?tool=pubmed

2.8 million
:
http://2.8.mil/

The
BMJ
paper
:
http://www.bmj.com/content/339/bmj.b3999.full

Confound You!

Unplanned children develop more slowly
:
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/07/27/unplanned-children-develop-more-slowly/

IVF children have bigger vocabulary
:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8663105/IVF-children-have-bigger-vocabulary-than-unplanned-babies.html

Children born after an unwanted pregnancy
:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-07/bmj-cba072511.php

this
BMJ
paper
:
http://www.bmj.com/content/343/bmj.d4473.full

Bicycle Helmets and the Law

Dennis and colleagues
:
http://www.bmj.com/content/346/bmj.f2674

‘seems to have been minimal’
:
http://www.bmj.com/content/346/bmj.f2674?ijkey=f5e18ac0289812fef1140ebb4f839638e47d085c&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha

come to different conclusions
:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18646128?access_num=18646128&link_type=MED&dopt=Abstract

less likely to have a head injury
:
http://summaries.cochrane.org/CD001855/INJ_wearing-a-helmet-dramatically-reduces-the-risk-of-head-and-facial-injuries-for-bicyclists-involved-in-a-crash-even-if-it-involves-a-motor-vehicle

‘documented in many fields
:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1539-6924.2011.01589.x/abstract
and Adams, J.,
Risk
. Taylor & Francis, 2002.

larger clearance to cyclists without
:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17064655?access_num=17064655&link_type=MED&dopt=Abstract

outweigh the risks of crashes
:
http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/disease-prevention/physical-activity/activities/hepa-europe/hepa-europe-projects-and-working-groups/development-of-methods-for-quantification-of-health-benefits-from-walking-and-cycling

such as for children
:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1539-6924.2011.01785.x/abstract

cycling in the second group
:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1369847812000587

Smeed’s Law
:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16389930?access_num=16389930&link_type=MED&dopt=Abstract

speculative assumptions
:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1539-6924.2012.01770.x/abstract

emotional response
:
http://psycnet.apa.org/?&fa=main.doiLanding& doi=10.1037/0278-6133.24.4.S35

Screen Test

Screen Test
:
http://www.badscience.net/2008/01/screen-test/

Screening and repairing
:
http://www.mrw.interscience.wiley.com/cochrane/clsysrev/articles/CD002945/frame.html

mammogram screening for breast cancer
:
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=556337

Researchers have studied
:
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/332/7540/538

repeatedly been shown
:
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/328/7432/148?ijkey=c30d4caac1758e2a62478825d4943f10820ae34c&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha

at least one large survey
:
http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/291/1/71?ijkey=5b96d0b882f4bef1847b1dc3364754c3bbd31b05&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha

How Do You Know?

mobile phones
:
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/mobilephones

cause brain cancer
:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/may/31/mobile-phone-radiation-cancer-risk

part of the WHO
:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Agency_for_Research_on_Cancer

triggered over 3000 articles
:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Health_Organisation