The 'otherness' of research in clinical practice

“Researchers don’t know what it’s like to deal with patients”. Research is meaningless to me – I know what works”. “Most research is rubbish.” I am concerned by comments about research that suggest it is something that can be separated from clinical practice – something that can be ignored when providing good clinical practice. I know several colleagues who just ‘don’t bother’ with research. This ‘otherness’ of research is a fallacy. It would not be so easy to distance oneself from research if we simply called it what it is: science.

Saying "no" to medical cannabis

A state politician just defected to another party because that party agreed to support his stance on medical marijuana (cannabis). The politician stated that it was a moral decision because he wanted to save kids’ lives. Even if he was supporting it for other reasons, medical cannabis falls way short on effectiveness of just about anything, and it certainly doesn’t save kids’ lives. There is a real need for politicians to be more scientific in their information gathering and appraisal. This will make it less likely for them to make untrue statements, and bad decisions based on those statements. Let’s look at the evidence for the true effectiveness of medical cannabis.