Who's behind all this then?



Martin Brunet


I am a General Practitioner, GP trainer and Programme Director for the Guildford GP Vocational Training Scheme. Like most people working in the NHS I am passionate about healthcare free at the point of delivery, and believe that the needs of the patient should always take priority over other vested interests. I have taken to writing about health related issues in a blog on my practice website (www.binscombe.net/blog) and in a regular blog for Pulse magazine called Beyond the Headlines.


David Carroll


I am a medical student, and heavily involved in Medsin and PharmAware, and co-lead the Open Access Button Project. Last summer, I worked for the UK Cochrane Centre on the Students 4 Best Evidence network, for whom I still blogs regularly. I am a member of Health Action International, an organisation that advocates for the rational use of medicines.

You can find my  declaration of interests here.


Ben Goldacre


I am a doctor, academic, campaigner and writer whose work focuses on uses and misuses of science and statistics by journalists, politicians, drug companies and alternative therapists. My first book Bad Science reached #1 in the UK non-fiction charts and has sold over half a million copies worldwide. My second book Bad Pharma discusses problems in medicine, focusing on missing trials, badly designed research, and biased dissemination of evidence. I wrote the Bad Science column for a decade in the UK Guardian newspaper, and has written for the Times, the Telegraph, the Mail, the New York Times, the BMJ, and more, alongside presenting documentaries for the BBC.

In policy work, I am co-author of a 2012 UK government Cabinet Office paper on getting more randomised controlled trials on policy questions; conducted an independent external review in 2012 for the Department For Education on how to improve the use of evidence in teaching; and am co-founder of AllTrials, a campaign by doctors, academics, funders, pharmacists, professional bodies, patients and the public, to prevent trial results being withheld. My non-profit company Better Data has built Randomise Me, an open trials platform for the general public, and I have worked on various health IT projects such as prescribinganalytics.com and openprescribing.org. I am currently a Research Fellow in Epidemiology at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. My blog is at www.badscience.net and I am @bengoldacre on twitter.


Peter Gordon


I am a part-time NHS Consultant in psychiatry for older adults. I also have a degree in landscape Architecture and I am a filmmaker. My background in both Arts and Science leads me to be interested in the complexity of human interactions. One aspect of this is the potential for the “objectivity” of science to be distorted by outside interests.

You can find my declaration of interests here.


Jon Mendel


I am a Geography lecturer, currently doing research looking at the internet, data, policing and conflict. As a user of the NHS, I’m interested in how conflicts of interest could be disclosed and handled better.

You can find my declaration of interests here.


Margaret McCartney


I am a half time partner in a GP practice contracted to the NHS. When I was a medical student and a junior doctor, I ate drug company sandwiches. When I saw the light, and regretted it, I wrote about why I wasn’t going to do that anymore.
@mgtmccartney
margaret@margaretmccartney.com


Carl Reynolds


I’m a doctor and a geek. I work for the NHS and for Open Health Care UK. I live on the interwebs in other places linkedintwittergithub, lanyrdscholar. My projects/work includes NHS Hack DayNHSVistAConflict Free Conferences, and Better Data. I give talks and blog occasionally. Do get in touch drcjar@gmail.com.

You can find my declaration of interests here


Susan Bewley


I've been a doctor, and obstetrician, for over 30 years, including 17 years as a consultant at Guy's and St Thomas' and honorary senior lecturer researching severe maternal morbitity. I'm now an honorary professor at Kings College London but earn money as a self-employed academic and expert. I've had many clinical, managerial, academic and advisory roles. I'm passionate about ethics, evidence, and finding out 'what works'.