Monthly Archives: June 2008

Are the BBC drug pushers ?

Posted on 22 June 2008 by James Carroll

The BMJ “Editors Choice” headline this week was “Key opinion leaders, your time is up”. The editor Fiona Godlee asked “Why is it considered normal for medical leaders to accept personal payment for promoting a company’s drug or device?” She was referring to the BMJ article “Drug Marketing” which interviews former pharma sales representative Kimberly Elliott about  Key Opinion Leaders. “These people are paid a lot of money to say what they say,” she said. “I’m not saying the key opinion leaders are bad, but they are salespeople just like the sales representatives are.” “Influential doctors can earn up to $400 an hour”.

(more…)

Posted in Rants | on Are the BBC drug pushers ?

Elbow room for improvement

Posted on 7 June 2008 by James Carroll

Here is another systematic review of from the Norwegian, Brazilian, British and Greek stable.

A systematic review with procedural assessments and meta-analysis of Low Level Laser Therapy in lateral elbow tendinopathy (tennis elbow) 

As  usual it finds that less power density is more effective (less power density, but more time) for reducing inflammation and improving tissue repair. It is a recurring theme on this blog and I hope you are making a note of it.

Posted in PBM/LLLT | on Elbow room for improvement

A pain in the …. Annals

Posted on 7 June 2008 by James Carroll

The Annals of Internal Medicine published a review of the evidence of medications for acute and chronic low back pain. These are the clinical practice guidelines for the American Pain Society and American College of Physicians (available here via Pubmed). Laser did not get a recommendation because “no suitable reviews of LLLT were identified”.  It’s worth reading a letter to the editor that strongly criticizes the overview methodology and makes a case for LLLT. click here for the letter to the editor

Posted in PBM/LLLT | on A pain in the …. Annals