Matharu's Rants and Raves

DC’s Improbable Science provides an update on the so-called “College of Medicine”:

• Don’t be deceived. The new “College of Medicine” is a fraud and delusion
  http://www.dcscience.net/?p=3632

I share DC’s despair; the “College of Medicine” is really nothing more than a reincarnation of the decrepitude and morally bankrupt Prince of Wales’ Foundation for Integrated Health. I originally called the “College of Medicine” the “College of Un-medicine”. DC goes further and believes that "Antiscientific Council" would be a more apt description.

There is an established self-correcting process called the “scientific method” which helps us to determine what is medicine and what is bullshit. Ben Goldacre’s book “Bad Science” cuts through all the nonsense and gets straight to the point; the need for proper scientific trials. And by proper, this means: large scale, randomised, double-blinded, controlled, peer-reviewed and repeatable (using a systematic approach undertaken by the excellent and valuable Cochrane Collaboration).

Those that do not correctly follow the scientific approach and who try to foster us with unproven or demonstrably non-efficacious medical treatments are liable to be called quacks. At best.

Here’s a very short BBC Radio 4 audio of Ben Goldacre explaining the creation of the Cochrane Collaboration:

• Moment of Genius; turning points in the history of science: Ben Goldacre on Clinical Trials 07/01/2010
  http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/moments-of-genius/ben-goldacre/index.shtml

Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2010