This was a comment to the online article, “Viewing Catalyst’s cholesterol programs through the sceptometer“, written by Dr Justin Coleman, published on The Conversation on 4 November 2013. This was an interesting perspective offered by a clinical general practitioner following the rather problematic Catalyst program on cholesterol and statins. Great article Justin! I agree with most …
Category: Letter/Comment
Apr 23 2012
Comment: Testicular self-examination
These were comments to the article “Monday’s medical myth: testicular self-examination is a waste of time” by Mark Frydenberg, published in The Conversation. Thank you for your opinion, Prof Frydenberg, but can this really be considered a “myth”? I appreciate that your affiliated organisation Andrology Australia recommends routine testicular self-examination, but this is not the …
Mar 23 2012
Comment: EBM vs CAM
Comment to the article, “Evidence-based medicine v alternative therapies: moving beyond virulence” by Kerreen Reiger, published in The Conversation: Health claims are empiric claims. They can be tested using empiric methods. Scientific frameworks allow use to gauge the reliability of evidence. For example, the narrative claim from an individual that they were helped by chiropractic is …
Mar 21 2012
Comment: Response to “Tarring complementary medicine is anti-choice”
The following is a comment to an opinion piece, “Tarring complementary medicine is anti-choice” written by Kerryn Phelps in Medical Observer. My comments were published online on 21 March 2012. I concur with some of the statements in the comments and feel I must support my colleagues who are members of the Friends of Science in …
Mar 15 2012
Comment: Homoeopathy, ethics and controversy
Comment to the article “Homeopathy isn’t unethical, it’s just controversial” by Jon Wardle, published in The Conversation. To be frank, it is really quite simple. Homoeopathy isn’t “controversial”. It does not work. There is no good empiric evidence that it does, plenty of empiric evidence that it doesn’t, and entirely lacks scientific plausibility. There is a …
Nov 14 2013
Comment: To statin or not to statin?
The following is a comment to the online article, “To Statin or not to Statin? – That is the question” by Dr Robin Park. This article is a very readable summary of a number of practical questions about statins for GPs. Great summary Rob! A few comments… The evidence for the benefit of LFT and …
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