What is technology and how is it used in research? How can we, or should we, be using all of the data collected about us for research, and what are the ethical dangers of this? What rules are in place around the handling of our healthcare data? All questions we try and tackle in this episode. We’ll get back to Prejudice, discrimination and healthcare impacts next time!

Remember, you can get in touch with us via clinical.research.intro@gmail.com. Please feel free to send questions, comments and compliments for Elyse to read out on the pod. It’s fun to make Debbie squirm!

Credit to our friend Sam Winnie for their awesome and cute music. Check out their work at https://www.samwinnie.com/

Resources -

https://ourfuturehealth.org.uk/

https://healthdatagateway.org/en

Do we have an equitable or equal society? What even do those words mean? And why do we care - what possible impacts could those things have on people and/ or their healthcare outcomes? The answer - A LOT! We start to tackle this in this episode, part 1, with more to follow in part 2! Also, keep your ears peeled for a very brief outing for our favourite shiny rock!

Remember, you can get in touch with us via clinical.research.intro@gmail.com. Please feel free to send questions, comments and compliments for Elyse to read out on the pod. It’s fun to make Debbie squirm!

Credit to our friend Sam Winnie for their awesome and cute music. Check out their work at https://www.samwinnie.com/

Resources -

https://www.aamc.org/news/how-we-fail-black-patients-pain

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22239747

https://www.hra.nhs.uk/planning-and-improving-research/best-practice/people-centred-clinical-research/people-centred-clinical-research-infographic/

Books -

Invisible Women - Caroline Criado Perez

Inflamed - Rupa Marya and Raj Patel

Doing Harm - Maya Dusenbery

Divided - Annabel Sowemimo

In this episode, we’re back in Elyse’s corner, with the marvellous shiny rocks, which today will go unpolished! Instead, we’re talking about direct to consumer advertising for prescription and over the counter drugs - the history of it, and why does it happen in such a limited number of places worldwide?

Remember, you can get in touch with us via clinical.research.intro@gmail.com. Please feel free to send questions, comments and compliments for Elyse to read out on the pod. It’s fun to make Debbie squirm!

Credit to our friend Sam Winnie for their awesome and cute music. Check out their work at https://www.samwinnie.com/

References -

Direct-To-Consumer Prescription Drug Advertising: Trends, Impact, And Implications

Pharma and healthcare industry advertising in the U.S. - statistics & facts

Ad spending in dietary supplements category

How advertisers are building up their cannabis ad budgets

Manufacturer Spending on Direct-to-Consumer Advertising for Pharmaceutical Products

AMA press release Nov 2015

Advertising and the promotion of medicines in the UK

What is a conflict of interest and why might it be important? In this episode we briefly define what a COI is, and explore some examples around medical research and what the impact may be.

Remember, you can get in touch with us via clinical.research.intro@gmail.com. Please feel free to send questions, comments and compliments for Elyse to read out on the pod. It’s fun to make Debbie squirm!

Credit to our friend Sam Winnie for their awesome and cute music. Check out their work at https://www.samwinnie.com/

GMC Guidance - https://www.gmc-uk.org/-/media/gmc-site/ethical-guidance/mdg-2023/identifying-and-managing-conflicts-of-interest-english.pdf

MHRA Board Members receiving payments from Pharma - https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/apr/17/medical-regulator-faces-questions-over-board-members-links-to-drug-firms

MHRA 2022 COI Report - https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1173562/Annual_Compliaince_Report_2022.pdf

A question that has stood since time immemorial. What DO government regulators do, when it comes to drugs and devices? Hopefully, this episode will give you some answers to that question! Debbie attempts to tell Elyse about Government regulators, but in the process, does forget her own name and how to say thank you successfully.

Remember, you can get in touch with us via clinical.research.intro@gmail.com. Please feel free to send questions, comments and compliments for Elyse to read out on the pod. It’s fun to make Debbie squirm!

Credit to our friend Sam Winnie for their awesome and cute music. Check out their work at https://www.samwinnie.com/

Welcome back from our summer break! Today, a shorter episode looking at the use of Ozempic/ Wegovy (brand names) - type II diabetes semiglutide drugs, because they’re all over the news media at the moment. Living in the most fatphobic bit of the world and discussing it made us feel not great, which is why the episode is shorter today. We also talk about the ban on puberty blockers in the UK, drawing some interesting parallels between that and Ozempic.

Content Warnings - fatphobia & diet culture, weightloss, death by suicide, transphobia.

Remember, you can get in touch with us via clinical.research.intro@gmail.com. Please feel free to send questions, comments and compliments for Elyse to read out on the pod. It’s fun to make Debbie squirm!

Credit to our friend Sam Winnie for their awesome and cute music. Check out their work at https://www.samwinnie.com/

Resources

https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/jun/13/top-doctor-warns-against-using-anti-obesity-drugs-to-get-beach-body-ready

https://www.maintenancephase.com/

https://www.yourfatfriend.com/

Today, Elyse and Debbie are putting their finger on the pulse of THE NEWS around clinical research, drugs, science, health - as much news as you could want! We’re going to take it in turns and share with each other - and you - 2 stories each that we’ve seen in the news recently. And then at the end, we go on a tangent about racism and imperialism and white supremacy, you know what we’re like by now.

Also, just to let you know, Elyse & I will be taking a summer holiday - which means no new episodes for August. See you in September! Feel free to send in questions or suggestions if you miss us too badly!

Resources

Debbie Story 1 - IBD - https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/jun/05/bowel-disease-hope-researchers-find-biological-pathway

Elyse story 1 - Covid vaccines

https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2024/05/22/covids-new-flirt-variants-what-to-know-as-experts-fear-summer-surge/?sh=59372a3dd705

https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2024/06/05/fda-panel-recommends-new-covid-vaccines-for-jn1-lineage-by-fall/

https://www.fda.gov/advisory-committees/advisory-committee-calendar/postponed-vaccines-and-related-biological-products-advisory-committee-may-16-2024-meeting

https://www.who.int/news/item/26-04-2024-statement-on-the-antigen-composition-of-covid-19-vaccines

Debbie Story 2 - lung cancer

https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/may/31/trial-results-for-new-lung-cancer-drug-are-off-the-charts-say-doctors

https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT03052608

Elyse Story 2 - Hair Relaxers

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/16/health/hair-straighteners-black-women-fda.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/13/magazine/hair-relaxers-cancer-risk.html

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36245087/

Today’s topic is not a fun one, but is something many of us have experience with - we’re talking about cancer - what causes it, how it works, and how it’s treated. Once we’ve got the science part out of the way, we’ll look at how complex and interesting cancer research is.

Remember, you can get in touch with us via clinical.research.intro@gmail.com. Please feel free to send questions, comments and compliments for Elyse to read out on the pod. It’s fun to make Debbie squirm!

Credit to our friend Sam Winnie for their awesome and cute music. Check out their work at https://www.samwinnie.com/

References -

Hank Green’s blog on cancer - https://youtu.be/rCo71uX_pCI?si=0Gv2eEg8J5ZL7s0p

Hank Green’s chemo vlog - https://youtu.be/ceF4GxVkOqA?si=fynv30g5hynlKB58