Jennifer Skillen
@cyberbarn.bsky.social
PhD student looking systematically at medicine, neuroscience and the NHS. My personal blog: http://cyberbarn9.wordpress.com 🇨🇦 by birth.
Reposted by Jennifer Skillen
Dear Canada: tomorrow is Election Day. This is Mark Carney. Hint, hint.
April 27, 2025 at 1:29 PM
Dear Canada: tomorrow is Election Day. This is Mark Carney. Hint, hint.
There are many causes of loneliness in the UK. In rural areas 1.8 metre+ fences put up by wealthy people moving into small farming villages is 1 reason. Talk to your neighbours? Can't, they are behind a tall fence. City and rural planners have a key role in combating loneliness. #peoplecentreddesign
Hampstead Theatre has launched a community programme to tackle isolation in London’s “loneliest borough” 👇
Hampstead Theatre to combat loneliness with scheme offering social events and show tickets
Hampstead Theatre has launched a community programme to tackle isolation in London’s “loneliest borough”
www.thestage.co.uk
April 16, 2025 at 8:02 AM
There are many causes of loneliness in the UK. In rural areas 1.8 metre+ fences put up by wealthy people moving into small farming villages is 1 reason. Talk to your neighbours? Can't, they are behind a tall fence. City and rural planners have a key role in combating loneliness. #peoplecentreddesign
Reposted by Jennifer Skillen
I like pebbly faces katedaviesdesigns.com/2025/04/08/p...
Pareidolia
pebbly faces
katedaviesdesigns.com
April 8, 2025 at 1:27 PM
I like pebbly faces katedaviesdesigns.com/2025/04/08/p...
In a recent paper I submitted reviewer 2 was mostly done by AI. 10 days is easy if you use AI. In fact why don't we just get rid of the middle people, the authors, by getting AI to write our papers and then getting AI to review them. 🤦 😠
April 9, 2025 at 8:20 AM
In a recent paper I submitted reviewer 2 was mostly done by AI. 10 days is easy if you use AI. In fact why don't we just get rid of the middle people, the authors, by getting AI to write our papers and then getting AI to review them. 🤦 😠
Please Radio4, bring back A Point of View. It was a sermon for atheists and I always made sure to listen. Not because I agreed with all of them, but because they made me think.
April 6, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Please Radio4, bring back A Point of View. It was a sermon for atheists and I always made sure to listen. Not because I agreed with all of them, but because they made me think.
Sue is really good at creating a clear pathway through government documents, unlike the government themselves. Well worth a read.
Just read the Green Paper 'Pathways to Work' about #disability and work. What's missing is important. Blogged about it here logicalincrementalism.wordpress.com/2025/03/25/n...
No pathway, only signposts
I’ve just read the Green Paper Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefit and Support to Get Britain Working. Over recent weeks there’s been much speculation about what would be in the paper. What’s…
logicalincrementalism.wordpress.com
March 25, 2025 at 11:47 AM
Sue is really good at creating a clear pathway through government documents, unlike the government themselves. Well worth a read.
Is anyone else having trouble accessing @bmj.com contact through their institution? I keep getting 'Safari can't open this page' messages and similar problems in Chrome.
March 17, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Is anyone else having trouble accessing @bmj.com contact through their institution? I keep getting 'Safari can't open this page' messages and similar problems in Chrome.
Reposted by Jennifer Skillen
Crowded A&E are the biggest problem in the NHS, and kill many patients. But you have to know the cause of the problem to fix it and the cause isn't demand:
www.linkedin.com/pulse/queues...
www.linkedin.com/pulse/queues...
Queues, not demand are the biggest problem in NHS A&E departments
A&Es are crowded. But not because too many people are attending them.
www.linkedin.com
February 25, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Crowded A&E are the biggest problem in the NHS, and kill many patients. But you have to know the cause of the problem to fix it and the cause isn't demand:
www.linkedin.com/pulse/queues...
www.linkedin.com/pulse/queues...
Reposted by Jennifer Skillen
Realist reviewers, here's a banger of a new paper by a South African group whose work I've only just become aware of. Good bit of philosophy to chew on if you've time. But also seeking to make RR more practical. Enjoy! #healthpolicy
academic.oup.com/heapol/artic...
academic.oup.com/heapol/artic...
Balancing realist review outputs with the needs of policymakers and practitioners
Abstract. A realist review is a theory-driven approach to synthesizing evidence based on the realist philosophy of science. Realist reviews are conducted t
academic.oup.com
February 20, 2025 at 9:35 AM
Realist reviewers, here's a banger of a new paper by a South African group whose work I've only just become aware of. Good bit of philosophy to chew on if you've time. But also seeking to make RR more practical. Enjoy! #healthpolicy
academic.oup.com/heapol/artic...
academic.oup.com/heapol/artic...
Reposted by Jennifer Skillen
Tom’s Light Waves @ootlier.bsky.social katedaviesdesigns.com/2025/02/19/l...
Light Waves
Tom introduces his own approach to making light in winter
katedaviesdesigns.com
February 19, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Tom’s Light Waves @ootlier.bsky.social katedaviesdesigns.com/2025/02/19/l...
Reposted by Jennifer Skillen
www.theguardian.com/society/2025... If only NHS had paid attention to our @thekingsfund.bsky.social publication on information disorganisation at the frontline in 2017. www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/n3et3... @JKMVidimo @wesstreeting
Most NHS users in England affected by dysfunctional admin, report finds
About 64% of people had difficulties with health service last year relating to communication about care
www.theguardian.com
February 17, 2025 at 10:58 AM
www.theguardian.com/society/2025... If only NHS had paid attention to our @thekingsfund.bsky.social publication on information disorganisation at the frontline in 2017. www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/n3et3... @JKMVidimo @wesstreeting
Exactly what patients have been saying for years. Shame no one listened to us.
February 17, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Exactly what patients have been saying for years. Shame no one listened to us.
Reposted by Jennifer Skillen
A new approach to academic publishing: just pour right-wing money into your own vanity journal. “Peer reviewers” paid $500 per review but are not allowed to advise against publishing the article. Wonder who’s on the editorial board…
www.importantcontext.news/p/a-new-acad...
www.importantcontext.news/p/a-new-acad...
“A New Academic Publishing Model”: Right-Wing Dark Money Group Launches Fringe Medical Journal
The right-wing RealClear Foundation’s foray into public health has been called “a mockery of scientific process.”
www.importantcontext.news
February 8, 2025 at 6:18 AM
A new approach to academic publishing: just pour right-wing money into your own vanity journal. “Peer reviewers” paid $500 per review but are not allowed to advise against publishing the article. Wonder who’s on the editorial board…
www.importantcontext.news/p/a-new-acad...
www.importantcontext.news/p/a-new-acad...
That was like our case. The community hospital seemed to 'rent' out the equipment to the private company. Waiting time to book directly with the hospital was shorter than to go through the private company!
February 4, 2025 at 7:27 PM
That was like our case. The community hospital seemed to 'rent' out the equipment to the private company. Waiting time to book directly with the hospital was shorter than to go through the private company!
We have had this here a few times. Endoscopies preformed by a national company in local hospital that refused to see my son because he didn't have a mobile phone. I tired to rebook direct with the hospital but GP surgery wouldn't allow it! CQC stepped in to reprimand private co to accept son. 🤷♀️
February 4, 2025 at 2:14 PM
We have had this here a few times. Endoscopies preformed by a national company in local hospital that refused to see my son because he didn't have a mobile phone. I tired to rebook direct with the hospital but GP surgery wouldn't allow it! CQC stepped in to reprimand private co to accept son. 🤷♀️
Reposted by Jennifer Skillen
Perfectly captured.
February 3, 2025 at 2:48 AM
Perfectly captured.
Vive le Canada!
Here's the speech if you haven't heard it. 13 minutes of your time. Share it with your American friends and neighbours, because they won't see it otherwise. Circulate it in Mexico and Denmark, France and the UK, Panama and Germany, Poland and Estonia, and especially -- especially -- Ukraine.
Trudeau: Canada will retaliate with 25% tariffs on $155B of U.S. goods
YouTube video by CBC News
youtu.be
February 2, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Vive le Canada!
Reposted by Jennifer Skillen
American science and medicine has been thrown into chaos and uncertainty over the past week. Here are some stories to get up to speed. 1/12
January 28, 2025 at 3:58 AM
American science and medicine has been thrown into chaos and uncertainty over the past week. Here are some stories to get up to speed. 1/12
Reposted by Jennifer Skillen
Thread on need to fight for evidence-based policy - a response to Trump's cabinet picks.
Based on new @bmj.com article by me, @martinmckee.bsky.social & @kentbuse.bsky.social
TLDR: Now is the time to stand up for science, not appease those in power attacking it
www.bmj.com/content/387/... 1/14
Based on new @bmj.com article by me, @martinmckee.bsky.social & @kentbuse.bsky.social
TLDR: Now is the time to stand up for science, not appease those in power attacking it
www.bmj.com/content/387/... 1/14
November 28, 2024 at 11:58 PM
Thread on need to fight for evidence-based policy - a response to Trump's cabinet picks.
Based on new @bmj.com article by me, @martinmckee.bsky.social & @kentbuse.bsky.social
TLDR: Now is the time to stand up for science, not appease those in power attacking it
www.bmj.com/content/387/... 1/14
Based on new @bmj.com article by me, @martinmckee.bsky.social & @kentbuse.bsky.social
TLDR: Now is the time to stand up for science, not appease those in power attacking it
www.bmj.com/content/387/... 1/14
Instead of exams mine are always being late for class. It used to be late for high school, then I was late for university lectures. I knew I had made it when recently I was late showing up for a lecture I was giving!
November 25, 2024 at 8:59 PM
Instead of exams mine are always being late for class. It used to be late for high school, then I was late for university lectures. I knew I had made it when recently I was late showing up for a lecture I was giving!
It did once lead to a one to one conversation with an undergrad about her survey. I would like to think she took onboard what I said and that it would influence any future surveys she did.
November 25, 2024 at 2:24 PM
It did once lead to a one to one conversation with an undergrad about her survey. I would like to think she took onboard what I said and that it would influence any future surveys she did.
Reposted by Jennifer Skillen
New blogpost:
deevybee.blogspot.com/2024/11/why-...
deevybee.blogspot.com/2024/11/why-...
Why I have resigned from the Royal Society
The Royal Society is a venerable institution founded in 1660, whose original members included such eminent men as Christopher Wren, Robert H...
deevybee.blogspot.com
November 25, 2024 at 7:49 AM
New blogpost:
deevybee.blogspot.com/2024/11/why-...
deevybee.blogspot.com/2024/11/why-...
I always appreciate the 'is there anything else you want to tell us' free text entry so that I can tell people what they got wrong with their survey design. Will the AI listened to that though? Probably not.
Or: AI chatbots mean we’ll all be even more inundated by badly-designed surveys….
AI chatbots could help lower the cost and increase the reach of survey research - interestingly on political questions participants found it easier to express their views as the chatbot is a ‘non judgemental entity’
www.timeshighereducation.com/news/ai-chat...
www.timeshighereducation.com/news/ai-chat...
November 25, 2024 at 1:39 PM
I always appreciate the 'is there anything else you want to tell us' free text entry so that I can tell people what they got wrong with their survey design. Will the AI listened to that though? Probably not.
Reposted by Jennifer Skillen
And the idea this law may expand to non-terminal by courts is vanishingly unlikely. I was in courtroom 10 years ago when Supreme Court declared this a matter for Parliament; Strasbourg agrees. Even if it didn’t, a legal argument to extend from terminal to incurable is almost unimaginable.
Can never understand the logic of "slippery slope" arguments when we have a system where the House of Commons decides nearly everything. It's only a slippery slope if in the future the Commons changes its mind on something- which guess what, it can do at any time.
November 24, 2024 at 12:17 PM
And the idea this law may expand to non-terminal by courts is vanishingly unlikely. I was in courtroom 10 years ago when Supreme Court declared this a matter for Parliament; Strasbourg agrees. Even if it didn’t, a legal argument to extend from terminal to incurable is almost unimaginable.
Everything is about heat pumps but what about the rest like windows? We had to go for a new oil boiler recently as a heat pump was not going to work. One reason was windows but seems there is no help on that, just loft insulation and heat pumps. We have had 3 lots of loft insulation!
November 21, 2024 at 1:58 PM
Everything is about heat pumps but what about the rest like windows? We had to go for a new oil boiler recently as a heat pump was not going to work. One reason was windows but seems there is no help on that, just loft insulation and heat pumps. We have had 3 lots of loft insulation!