Conference talks: powerpoint slides and papers

Sir Cyril Chantler is Chair of the King's Fund and one of our Foundation fellows.

Here he argues that for the NHS to continue to work, it needs to address chronic ill-health, which takes up 80% of healthcare spending and afflicts 44% of the population.

He advocates a path that encourages people to choose health - through nutrition, exercise, social support, stress management and 'giving up poisons'.  

With a range of regulatory measures from statutory to voluntary, plus a benchmark which includes clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction measures, he believes that the NHS can create an effective integrated paradigm.

Read the blog and leave a comment

Hugh MacPherson is an acupuncturist and a Senior Research Fellow at York University.  He's also one of our Foundation fellows.  Here, he gives a whistlestop tour through the evidence base for some of the more popular forms of complementary therapies. 

MacPherson argues for more RCTs and systematic reviews, but also quotes the Chairman of NICE, Sir Michael Rawlins who argues that 'hierarchies of evidence should be replaced by accepting - indeed embracing - a diversity of approaches... analysing the totality of the evidence base'.

Read the blog and leave a comment

Dr Catherine Zollman is a GP and one of our Foundation fellows.

Here she describes how the results from clinical trials can be at odds with the experience of prescribing for a specific patient - who may not be at all representative of trial groups - and who may have social concerns which are not measurable by RCTs. 

She argues that integrative approaches which encourage lifestyle changes can, for some illnesses, give better results than drugs.

Watch the film

For many years Dame Carol Black didn't think questions about patient work were very important to her speciality, rheumatology. Nor did she spend much time asking her patients about their working lives.

She now realises that such questions are vital: and that the self-esteem, fitness and emotional wellbeing of her patients can be as much affected by their work status as by the great new drugs which she uses to treat their condition.

Here she talks about the 'working for a healthier tomorrow' report and how the link between the health service and employers can be strengthened.

Ruth Tucker is a health trainer working at College Surgery in Cullompton.  Working with patients suffering from obesity, stress and hypertension, she has gradually evolved a pattern of visits that is cost effective for the practice, while keeping patients motivated. 

Many with a history of failed diets have managed to stick to the programme and have greatly improve their health.

Dr Peter Mackereth describes his experience of building a complementary service at the Christie cancer hospital. 

Offered to both staff and patients,  therapies are used as an intervention in smoking cessation, pain, hot flushes and fatigue as well as in relaxation classes and as part of the pre-op clinic.  They've had a huge impact in calming patients and improving emotional wellbeing.

Read the blog and leave a comment

Professor Karol Sikora is an oncologist and one of our Foundation fellows.

We reproduce his conference speech here, in which he argues that the tension between spending on 'complementary therapies' and 'effective drugs' is a spurious one.  He says 'the cost of providing IM support is only a fraction of that used for cancer treatments, many of which are still given in situations where they have little benefit.  Diverting resources to supportive care could provide a new realism for modern healthcare and promote real patient empowerment'.

Professor Ruth Chambers offers tips for clinicians, practices and PCTs.

Care farming uses commercial farms, woodlands and market gardens for promoting mental and physical health through normal farming activity. As Jonathan Dover, a manager for care farms in the West Midlands explains, people in trouble with the law or suffering from a range of chronic conditions can be helped to turn their lives around through the scheme.