Learning from experience I wrote an essay in @thelancet.com on two seemingly different but deeply connected books by S Chigudu & S Subramani What elite status & elite-making does to how one reckons with, makes sense of, & learns from experience—lived or vicarious: www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Happy new year! If your eyes glaze over when people start talking philosophy in research, then read this! Proud to have been a co-author on this paper explaining why the assumptions we make about the world matter for our research bjgp.org/content/76/7...

‘You can mix your methods, but you can’t mix your paradigms’: a guide to ontology and epistemology for the confused researcher

Research is an attempt to find out something useful about the world. Whether we like it or not, how we choose our methods, conduct data analysis, and draw conclusions flow from our underpinning assump...

bjgp.org

Reclaiming FND for Rehabilitation Medicine – new open access editorial Neurorehab colleague Phil Milburn-McNulty and I set out why Rehab Medicine is so well-suited to treating FND, why they historically haven’t and what can be done to change things. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

This is so true, so simple. Why are more people not saying this?

Rachel Coldicutt@rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social · 9mo ago

If people in your team or organisation are using AI notetakers as a way of coping with too many meetings and a culture of presenteeism, there's not a technological fix for this. The answer is to have fewer, better organised meetings www.careful.industries/blog/2025-11...

The risks of relying on AI note takers and summarisation tools are non-trivial. No one wants to be in the uncanny valley of meetings with 6 notetakers for absent attendees, with unverified, potentially incorrect, notes circulating but it's happening more & more www.careful.industries/blog/2025-11...

Nine risks caused by AI notetakers — Careful Industries

AI transcription tools are not currently mature or reliable enough to be regarded as an always on, single-source of truth for meeting notes. Nine common risks, and six possible mitigations.

careful.industries

Everyone interested in AI- that means you- really needs to look at this trail. Amazing.

Tautology@tautology.uk · 9mo ago

My usual experiment to find out how bad LLMs are at technical instructions (wiring a UK plug) as applied to grok. It's just as bad as any other LLM out there:

Achieving technological and economic growth sustainably is seen by many as key if we are to meet the needs of a growing global population. Professor Shadreck Chirikure explores whether the cosmologies of past advanced civilisations can help us address present challenges. https://bit.ly/43rMb40

This week on BBC Radio’s Healthcheck, I shared thoughts on new research showing that oral healthcare before surgery can cut hospital stay & lower pneumonia risk. Should oral healthcare be part of standard pre-op care? 🎧 www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Health Check - Have we found a better alternative to aspirin? - BBC Sounds

An alternative blood thinner is showing improvements in warding off heart attack

bbc.co.uk

Canadian Journal of Pain special issue: "Social and health inequities in chronic pain across the lifespan." Members of our partnership, including @fionawebster1.bsky.social, are co-editors. Check out the collection, including their insightful editorial, here: www.tandfonline.com/toc/ucjp20/8/2

A friend feels the same about people as I do about sitting. She gets easily "peopled out", and needa a solitary break. So whether it is spoons, sits, or people, life comes with a cost for many of us. We can do it, but we have limits, which are more pressing than most people's [5/5].

For far too long, racialised communities and people seeking safety from torture and war have been scapegoated by politicians who have failed to deal with the social and economic hardships that we are all living through. What we saw this weekend is the result of this.

Springboard awardee, Dr Sam Hughes, has found that exposure to virtual reality nature scenes can help relieve symptoms for those living with chronic pain. 👇 Read more via @exeter.ac.uk: ow.ly/EnAh50WwEqz 👉 Learn more about our Springboard funding: ow.ly/BQqN50WwEhF

VR nature scenes reduce sensitivity to pain – especially for those who feel present during the experience

Immersing in virtual reality (VR) nature scenes helped relieve symptoms that are often seen in people living with long-term pain, with those who felt more present experiencing the strongest effects. A...

ow.ly

I spent a little time on the underlying data and playing with the interface. This is what data viz can do when it is guided by theory — in this case a clear position on “authoritarianism”, not just a “snapshot” that leaves the sense making to the reader. www.trumpactiontracker.info?

Professor Fiona Webster @fionawebster1.bsky.social is PEPR's Director and Principal Investigator. PEPR was founded in 2022 as a result of receiving a $2.4 million SSHRC Partnership grant, entitled Toward Democratization of Health: A Sociological Exploration of #PatientEngagement in #PainResearch.

WeTransfer just changed their TOS giving themselves permission to train AI on any content you transfer and produce derivative works based on content you transfer that they are allowed to monetize and you are not allowed payment for. Stop using WeTransfer.

New article in Social Theory & Health, co-authored with @judegreen.bsky.social, open access. In a nutshell we argue that that lived-experience research is not the same as qualitative sociology in health research. The difference exists and matters. Read here: rdcu.be/evZ7F

Scoping review highlighting lack of #rehabilitation research in POEMS syndrome, Led by NHNN physio Lucy Johnson, published in @clinicalrehab.bsky.social journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... @uclh.bsky.social @gitaramdharry.bsky.social @jackiewalumbe.bsky.social

A scoping review: POEMS syndrome (Polyneuropathy, Organomegaly, Endocrinopathy, Monoclonal plasma cell disorder and Skin Changes), physical recovery, and rehabilitation - Lucy Johnson, Shirley D’Sa, G...

Objective POEMS syndrome is a rare and treatable plasma cell disorder. Although medical advances have improved survival, polyneuropathy – which impairs both sen...

journals.sagepub.com

Behaviour change is often overrated as the ultimate solution to improve health because without social, economic & structural environments that facilitate rather than obstruct healthy choices, behaviour change remains a privilege reserved for those who have the resources to remove the obstructions.

Much needed commentary on how macro issues like social security affect people living with long term pain. Extremely topical with the rising gap between life expectancy and healthy life years. From a pain care and rehab perspective, this is foundational.

Cass Macgregor@cassmacg.bsky.social · last yr.

'People living with long-term pain and illness need social security' - blog for Pain Concern from my perspectives as a physiotherapist & researcher (also contains a link to the ScotGov consultation on social security): painconcern.org.uk/social-secur...

'People living with long-term pain and illness need social security' - blog for Pain Concern from my perspectives as a physiotherapist & researcher (also contains a link to the ScotGov consultation on social security): painconcern.org.uk/social-secur...

Pain ConcernPeople living with long-term pain and illness need social security - Pain Concern

People with chronic pain need fairer, more supportive social security to live well, work if possible, and avoid worsening health inequality.

painconcern.org.uk

Such ace discussions #CampDigital about digital accessibility, a reminder to consider poverty as a form of digital exclusion, latest report here: www.goodthingsfoundation.org/policy-and-r... lots for folks who design digital tools and services to consider!

Tackling Data Poverty: Innovation and collaboration | Good Things Foundation

This report, is the latest from the Data Poverty Lab and explores the role of innovation - both technological and systemic - in tackling data poverty. By Dr Sarah Knowles with Dr Emma Stone.

goodthingsfoundation.org

“There is something very social about pain.” In the penultimate episode of Season 8 of the We Society podcast, @tomshakespeare.bsky.social of @lshtm.bsky.social joins Will Hutton to discuss his research into the link between social science and disability. ➡️ podfollow.com/the-we-society

In a post-truth world, can we always trust the facts presented to us in statistics and research? In this 10-Minute Talk, Alex Edmans FBA explores how we can combat misinformation based on his book ‘May Contain Lies. Watch the full video here: buff.ly/MeR5nJZ

⏰ New BMJ Editorial ⏰ from me, Drs Lucinda Hiam & Eleanor Barry bmj.com/cgi/content/... Ahead of the NHS 10-yr plan, we ask what a digital first strategy means for the NHS's commitment to "being for everyone," highlighting: 1. Digital Exclusion 2. Entrenched bias 3. Austerity & the SDoH

Can a digital NHS be equitable?

Infrastructure and inclusion are key to the rollout of AI Crisis aversion for the NHS lies in the greater use of technology, according to the UK government. This includes greater use of AI, to shift ...

bmj.com

A singular focus on single curative pathways denies the reality of many individuals who often have multiple coincident health needs. Change the mindset and we improve outcomes.

Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine@lstmnews.bsky.social · last yr.

A new study conducted in Malawi and Tanzania has found that almost half of patients admitted to hospital had multiple long-term health conditions, which was associated with significantly increased risk of death and disability. Read more: lstm.ac/3TFwxN4.

New paper www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Iatrogenic injustice: an institutional ethnography of Fitness to Practise hearings

The public has an important role to play in the regulation of health and social care, including raising concerns about harms caused by health and soci…

sciencedirect.com

Took my kid to urgent care this morning and was asked for permission to use an “AI scribe.” I’ve declined multiple times for myself because, as a data scientist (and, like, a person observing the political economy of AI), I have grave concerns. Today I relented, and not for lack of concern 🧵 1/

I wrote this essay to show that the types of biological racism and neoliberal apologia that Slobodian finds among explicit advocates for neoliberalism are prevalent among evolutionary biologists: olrsupplement.com/2025/05/19/g... (Thread)

Shout out to all the immigrants out there taking knocks on the reg

a woman is laying in a hammock with a donkey behind her

ALT: a woman is laying in a hammock with a donkey behind her

media.tenor.com

Anyone who has written about physical pain (me) knows how hard it is to capture. Maggie Nelson does it brilliantly in Pathemata: Or, The Story of My Mouth, which is never singular, and takes in love, mortality, parenting, the pandemic. My @theguardian.com review: www.theguardian.com/books/2025/m...

Pathemata by Maggie Nelson review – a writer’s attempt to describe chronic pain

Woolf said language ‘runs dry’ when it comes to convey the reality of illness. Here is an impressive effort to do just that

theguardian.com