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@maherjane

@maherjane.bsky.social
1.3K followers 1.3K following 116 posts

Retired Oncologist, previously NHS leadership stuff, CMO Macmillan cancer support, NED at NHS Hospital . Holding on to hope for NHS (by a thread) #notmycat #lateonsetrockchick #cancerSurvivorship

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@maherjane @maherjane.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
Haven’t posted here for a long time but such a relief after The Other Place .
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@maherjane @maherjane.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
If hospital to community & virtual wards & stuff going to work you have to have enough “decision makers” ( and non medical prescribers) and you need experienced embedded people to hold the ring, while joining up the various patient record and IT systems takes place - which can be painfully slow
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Colin Angus @victimofmaths.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
I was looking at some Scottish cause of death data yesterday and the extent to which transport accident deaths in young men have all but disappeared is pretty remarkable. Nice to find a good news story in this data for a change.
A lexis diagram - essentially a heatmap showing rates of death from transport accidents by age and over time from 2001-2024 in Scotland. For men in the 2000s there was a clear peak in deaths at ages 15-35 (plus a smaller one in the oldest age groups). But around 2010 this basically disappeared, and now all age groups have similarly, much lower, rates of transport accident deaths. For women the pattern is similar, albeit at a much lower level, except that in the early 2000s there were more deaths in older, rather than younger adults.
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Trish Greenhalgh @trishgreenhalgh.bsky.social · 03/09/2025
Your periodic reminder that mRNA vaccines are a scientific and public health game-changer. Those that have been approved have passed stringent efficacy and safety checks. They protect you and your child against potentially fatal diseases. You may, however, get a sore arm.
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Dr Rachel Clarke @drrachelclarke.com · 13/07/2025
Please know that NHS doctors & nurses like me would never urge you to do something that could endanger your child. Really reliable NHS info on vaccines can be found here. Please read, it’s excellent. (2/3) nhs.uk/vaccinations/
nhs.uk
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Nuffield Trust @nuffieldtrust.org.uk · 06/07/2025
There's a lot that England's social care sector can learn from Covid-19, both from the experience here and from that of other countries. Read the blog from @natashacurry.bsky.social for the four key building blocks of a resilient social care system, based on our research findings. buff.ly/5H8bmXp
nuffieldtrust.org.uk
Looking back to move forward: what can other countries’ Covid experiences tell us about building a resilient care system?
As the Hallett Inquiry turns its focus to social care this week, this blog draws on a set of international case studies being published by Nuffield Trust and LSE's Care Policy and Evaluation Centre…
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Trish Greenhalgh @trishgreenhalgh.bsky.social · 22/06/2025
Plenty studies showing that your postcode is a better predictor of your health outcomes than your genome.
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Trish Greenhalgh @trishgreenhalgh.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
Welcome to my world. #academicsky
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Stephen Frost @sfrost.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
More of this please. Co-designing play spaces with children and young people near their homes led to “what researchers say is the highest increase in children’s physical activity ever recorded by an intervention of its kind”
theguardian.com
Bradford project produces ‘outstanding’ rise in children’s physical activity
JU:MP programme included co-design of play spaces, exercise in faith settings and interventions in schools
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Trish Greenhalgh @trishgreenhalgh.bsky.social · 18/05/2025
Loving this live webcam of puffins from the Farne Islands @nationaltrust.org.uk Via @oohgpwales.bsky.social www.nationaltrust.org.uk/discover/vir...
nationaltrust.org.uk
Watch puffins live | Farne Islands webcam
Watch rare live footage of puffins and other clifftop birds with our Farne Islands wildlife webcam; livestreaming for the breeding season.
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@maherjane @maherjane.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
If hospital to community & virtual wards & stuff going to work you have to have enough “decision makers” ( and non medical prescribers) and you need experienced embedded people to hold the ring, while joining up the various patient record and IT systems takes place - which can be painfully slow
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Dan Of Chorlton @danofchorlton.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
Totally agree
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STITCHES Medicine - the Best of Medical Research @medicine.stitches.today · 14/05/2025
EORTC effectively captures tyrosine kinase inhibitor side effects, outperforming other patient-reported outcome libraries in non-small-cell lung cancer assessments. by Paton EL, Cetnar JP (...) King-Kallimanis BL et 2 al. in J Natl Cancer Inst #MedSky 👉 get more here 📖 read the article:
academic.oup.com
Landscape assessment of patient-reported outcome item coverage of tyrosine kinase inhibitor-associated AEs
AbstractBackground. Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) are critical for assessing symptomatic adverse events (AEs) in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) clin
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@maherjane @maherjane.bsky.social · 13/04/2025
Unplanned acute illness and cancer should often be the trigger for new conversations - #seeitsayitshareit
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@maherjane @maherjane.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
As palliative &EOL care becomes increasingly community based is it time to reconsider a route into the specialty palliative medicine via general practice? Community based palliative medicine training without such a long acute medicine commitment ? @johnlauner.bsky.social @danmunday.bsky.social
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Nada Khan @nadakhan.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
As #generalpractice takes an increasingly 'digital first' approach, it's important to know how practices are facilitating access to these services - I talk to Helen Atherton here on the @bjgp.bsky.social podcast about the impact on practices and patients bjgplife.com/episode-198-...
bjgplife.com
Episode 198: The increasing digitalisation of general practice systems – how it’s impacting patients and what we can do about it
In this episode, we talk to Professor Helen Atherton about the increasing push for a digital-first approach in general practice.
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Helen Buckingham @hbuckingham.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
Now, this is a really important session. Continuing Healthcare is relatively unknown, complex, and yet has a massive impact on individuals. Juliet Bouverie, Chair of the Richmond Group warns us that we're going to get cross. #NTSummit
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Lesley Smith @lesleysmith.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
“Advancements in cancer treatment have led to a growing population of cancer survivors worldwide, who often experience premature onset of age-related conditions” #LivingWithAndBeyondCancer
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Trisha Elliott @trishaelliott.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
Yes, I was asking this question a few days ago, hoping that he’s getting relevant support from a geriatrician or similar physician, not just people tasked with keeping him alive at all costs. (Good palliative care can as we know actually prolong life rather than shorten it…)
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Dr Kathryn Mannix @drkathrynmannix.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
Here's what #PopeFrancis has said about palliative care. international.la-croix.com/ethics/palli...
international.la-croix.com
Palliative care sign of compassion, hope for the dying, pope says
In a messageto an international interfaith symposium on palliative care, Pope Francis highlights how true compassion involves accompanying the suffering, not ending lives, and stressed the need for pa...
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Ben Goldacre @bengoldacre.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
Great piece in The BMJ @bmj.com about our OpenSAFELY platform granting unprecedented secure, transparent, efficient access to whole population GP data for analysts in collaboration with NHS England @england.nhs.uk www.bmj.com/content/388/...
News
Researchers could soon access GP patient data—how will it work?
BMJ 2025; 388 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.r375 (Published 21 February 2025)
Cite this as: BMJ 2025;388:r375
Article
Related content
Metrics
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Elisabeth Mahase
Author affiliations
Nearly 18 months after NHS England announced its intention to allow scientists to analyse general practice data for research, the scheme finally looks set to go ahead. Elisabeth Mahase examines how it will work and whether privacy concerns have been met

What has been announced?
NHS England has said that it is actively working with GPs’ leaders to prepare for sharing of GP patient data, through the OpenSAFELY system, with select researchers. This could potentially happen within months.

Do researchers currently have access to GP data?
Deidentified patient data from general practices in Scotland and Wales are available for research, but this is largely not the case in England. However, an exception has been made in recent years in relation to covid-19. Early in the pandemic the government issued a “control of patient information” (COPI) notice, which gave researchers access to deidentified patient data, but only for covid-19 research.1

What is OpenSAFELY?
OpenSAFELY is a software platform that enables researchers to analyse electronic health record data in England, including GP patient records for the whole population of 58 million—but currently only for covid related work. Developed in the early months of the pandemic,2 it is a collaboration between the University of Oxford’s Bennett Institute for Applied Data Science, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, NHS England, and GP system suppliers such as EMIS Health and TPP.

Speaking at a media briefing on 19 February, Ben Goldacre, director of the Bennett Institute, said, “OpenSAFELY began during the pandemic, motivated by the need for enormous population level data that we had to have flowing at unprecedented scale but also unprecedented speed.” …
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@maherjane @maherjane.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
RIP Roberta Flack - songs of youth #killingmesoftly
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@maherjane @maherjane.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
Does anyone know if the pope has a palliative care physician overseeing supportive care in addition to the specialist doctors continuing to give acute illness care ? #popefrancis #palliative
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@maherjane @maherjane.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
84% turn out in German elections. There is hope for democracy. #germanelection
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David Oliver @mancunianmedic.bsky.social · 22/02/2025
www.thetimes.com/life-style/f...
thetimes.com
Six easy chocolate cake recipes by Rahul Mandal
The Bake Off winner’s delicious creations, from a white chocolate cake with fresh cherries to brownies and cheesecake — some don’t even require baking
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CarolineJMolloy @carolinejmolloy.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
Being pro migrant, pro public sector, willing to borrow to spend, prioritising looking after people, and basically being socialist, has helped Spain’s economy soar. Why don’t we hear more about it? www.theguardian.com/world/2025/f...
theguardian.com
How Spain’s radically different approach to migration helped its economy soar
As immigration has increased, GDP has surged and unemployment has fallen to lowest level since 2008
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@maherjane @maherjane.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
RFK jr confirmed
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@maherjane @maherjane.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
Golly - great work as always @mariecurie @jameslindalliance but that’s a lot of priorities …
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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
Boom! We’ve revealed the next season theme for our events programme over April/May will be Folklore Reimagined. Features lore of the land, history of the witch, and a rare performance by Simon Armitage www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/seasons/folk...
thebritishacademy.ac.uk
Folklore Reimagined
How have global folklore traditions, stories, and customs shaped our identities? And what does contemporary folklore look like? Delve into fascinating topics like the lore of our landscapes, the impor...
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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 09/02/2025
Am trying to stay sane through the untrammelled techno optimism so far experienced at the Paris AI Summit by reading Colette
I had not yet become inured to the mixture of affected cynicism and literary paradox by which, around 1900, intelligent, bitter, frustrated men maintained their self-esteem.
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@maherjane @maherjane.bsky.social · 08/02/2025
www.radchat.co.uk a really brilliant resource about everything you need to know about radiation therapy but didn’t ask
radchat.co.uk
Rad Chat
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David Oliver @mancunianmedic.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
This
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Helen Buckingham @hbuckingham.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
Oh this is very good. I'd just add that 'other hospital departments' includes functions such as pathology and pharmacy, which are critical to effective flow, not just wards. But it's still very good.
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Sarah K @dr-know.bsky.social · 28/01/2025
Oh absolutely! But that labour, time and skill in cleaning up and knowing what you can and can’t say from the analysis seems to get missed out in narratives where you can just plug and play with it for instant reward.
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Richard M. Carpiano, PhD, MPH @rmcarpiano.medsky.social · 30/12/2024
Nice resource here... 🛟 medsky 😷 sociology idsky 🧭 🧪 science communication health policy
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Ruairidh Milne @ruairidhm.bsky.social · 24/01/2025
Thought-provoking piece on Cochrane's cancelled update of #ME/CFS review. Sad, troubling, powerful - from @hildabast.bsky.social
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Mary Curnock Cook @marycurnockcook.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
Depressing reading from US in terms of demand for higher education - our demographic dip in the UK is due in a few years' time.... n.pr/409W3Nt
n.pr
A looming 'demographic cliff': Fewer college students and ultimately fewer graduates
The long-predicted downturn in the number of 18-year-olds is almost here. And it isn't just a problem for higher education. It's a looming crisis for the economy.
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The Lancet @thelancet.com · 17/01/2025
The spread of health misinformation and disinformation poses a serious threat to public health. How can we respond to the danger and combat the tide of misinformation and disinformation to protect public health? Find out more in our latest Editorial: tinyurl.com/mtf95p25
Cover of The Lancet's Jan 18th, 2025 issue. Quote reads: "Disinformation has become a deliberate instrument to attack and discredit scientists and health professionals for political gains. The effects are destructive and damaging to public health."
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richard-lehman.bsky.social @richard-lehman.bsky.social · 21/01/2025
Mandatory "prevention" is swallowing up skilled time and imposing an impossible load on those trying to help ill people, i.e. GPs. So thrilled to be on the authorship of this plea for a restoration of balance and due roles: www.bmj.com/content/388/...
bmj.com
Sacrificing patient care for prevention: distortion of the role of general practice
Expansion of preventive clinical recommendations in primary care has had the unintended consequence of destabilising this foundation of the healthcare system, argue Minna Johansson and colleagues Fo...
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Nysuri @nysuri.bsky.social · 18/01/2025
After AI made the diagnosis, did it counsel the pt? Did it ask about the pts thoughts and fears and concerns about the diagnosis? Did AI understand the atavistic worry about the future that pts with a new diagnosis often have? Did AI help stem the pts tears? I’m with the Prof on this
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womensartbluesky.bsky.social @womensartbluesky.bsky.social · 17/01/2025
Old courtyard, 2011 By Anna Zamurueva, painter from Moldova #WomensArt
Painting of two older women dressed in warm coats and headscarves in conversation over a garden fence to the left, in the centre in a large winter tree and a black cat sitting to the right on the ground, the tree is causing a shadow on the pale wall behind it
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@maherjane @maherjane.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
on.soundcloud.com/dw8H6PWXU76b...
on.soundcloud.com
My Clinical Outcomes PROMs Platform
Listen to My Clinical Outcomes PROMs Platform by Tim Williams #np on #SoundCloud
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Helen Buckingham @hbuckingham.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
So we have a lot of barriers to overcome here... a low level of public visibility & understanding, a frame about cost/burden rather than value, a tendency to tinker at the edges, an increasingly unstable system. #HospitalToHome
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Becks Fisher @becksfisher.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
Talking social care reform: - Govts rarely get more powerful over time - Social care reform may burn political capital (costs a lot and ~50% of public think it’s funded already) - But it needs to happen & we know what to do So…waiting=frustrating #HospitaltoHome @nuffieldtrust.bsky.social
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Professor Judith Smith @profjudithsmith.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
Now we are considering how social care reform can (if only!) happen and succeed. @natashacurry.bsky.social shows us the covers of 14 government reviews of social care, and is very clear about why social care is central to any plans for #HospitalToHome, and for much wider care and support.
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@maherjane @maherjane.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
@nuffieldtrust.bsky.social A clear message- if no money and no people , need to think clearly about changing how social care is seen in the U.K and use Casey investigation as a platform to develop political and public consensus using what we already know #hospitaltohomr
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Helen Buckingham @hbuckingham.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
Can we ever get a proper debate about the funding needed, asks @leonoramerry.bsky.social? Does the assisted dying debate open it up? Yes, to an extent, thinks Isabel Hardman. But the government has the most political capital it will have now, should be using it. #HospitalToHome
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Mark Dayan @markgdayan.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
At our #HospitalToHome event, @sjanereed.bsky.social warns that for all its talk the UK's money is going into inpatient services compared to countries which manage to move patients along faster through limited numbers of beds @nuffieldtrust.bsky.social
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