Dr Mike Tremblay

To some extent Academic Health Science Centres [AHSCs] are caught between the research push and market pull. If they prioritise technology transfer, they opt for a research push approach that emphasises the availability of technologies or innovations for market-based actors based on potential commercial application. While the university mission within an AHSC will emphasise the […]

How can I be sure the medicine I take is genuine? Counterfeit medicines are a global problem, with trade in the billions of dollars. The World Health Organization estimates 8-10% of all drugs supplied globally are counterfeit. Counterfeits are a clear and present danger to human health. No country is immune from the risk. Fake […]

Healthcare systems are often seen as requiring an economy of scale. This in part is a function of how prevalent diseases are, such that in some small countries they would have one case in 2 years, rather than one case per million of population. Healthcare technologies can be incredibly pricey; for instance, a proton therapy […]

This is a summary of some emerging and salient issues related to the UK departure from the EU. Workforce It is estimated that the UK recruits 7000 nurses and 2000 doctors annually from the EU. The UK is currently unable to meet its workforce requirements for the NHS from its domestic higher education system. To […]

While folks have been quick to jump on the results of the referendum as evidence of democracy at work, (and perhaps that is partly true), a few days later we see the consequences. Economic challenges anew, social discontent in the UK (racism and xenophobia legitimated by the exit vote) and political meltdown in the UK’s […]

Continuing the theme of looking at life sciences, healthcare implications for the UK exiting the EU. The NHS, the UK’s public healthcare system, procures medicines in many cases through the benefits of the single market. While it is not clear what impact an exit will have on pricing itself, failure to ensure access to that […]

The British public in the Referendum on the EU has voted for the UK to relinguish membership in the EU. This, in time, will be seen as a mistake for various reasons and of course it will take some time to come to pass. While I have been from time to time critical of the […]

It is in the interests of the Commission to play countries off against each other in order to demonstrate the inescapable logic of the “European project”. The Commission suffers from the so-called “secretariat problem”: it is not a member state but a “secretariat” for the member states, and in this way pursues its own interests […]

With the release of the latest analysis from the King’s Fund (here), heightened attention is being paid to NHS performance. It may only be a coincidence that an election is looming in which the NHS may be an election puppet. The King’s Fund report includes in the title that it an assessment of the NHS […]

Political manifestos that promise to spend more money are failing to grapple with the powerful underlying forces at work in healthcare. Indeed, they may be ignoring these in order to score (cheap?) political points with voters. There is clear evidence of failure to use good practice, of time-wasting clinical workflow and excessive political and bureaucratic […]

NHS England and other English health organisations have produced a five year ‘forward view’ [here]. The refreshingly short and precise document establishes a new approach to the English health service, something political reform has failed to achieve since perhaps the beginning in 1948, namely the realisation that top-down reform really doesn’t work. This is a […]

Right now, there is the proposed NHS Reinstatement Bill, a lobby document which lays out a way to reverse many NHS reforms. This lobby document, which is what is it, is familiar reading, and brings back various structures that in the past have failed. You can find information on it at this link. What is […]