Reading over this article The Science of Our Optimism Bias and the Life-Cycle of Happiness from Brain Pickings, I was struck by the often repeated idea that we are ‘hardwired’ for optimism, and that this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But as part of my dissertation I was looking at the different ways researchers have tried to affect the way […]
Read more "Noted: The Science of Our Optimism Bias"Lately, I’ve been working on helping our Heart Voices team at the British Heart Foundation develop flowcharts to explain the current state of the NHS, and the changes we’re expecting under the new legislation. We’ve also outlined the health services in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. We want to encourage heart patients all over the UK […]
Read more "Explaining the NHS"The British Heart Foundation runs a yearly campaign to get children and people who look after children to think about and understand what they’re eating and how to make the conscious choice to be healthier. We ran a survey to find out more about how and what children in the UK eat and drink. One of the […]
Read more "Food for thought"Warning: contains politics! What does the word ‘open’ mean to you? To me it’s linked with a few things — it means something that everyone can get hold of and get involved in, that everyone can see how it works, and that is open to people’s feedback, and their criticism. It shows you exactly what you’re going […]
Read more "Exactly how open are Open Public Services?"Brilliant news today that researchers from the University of Leeds have come up with a new set of instructions for prescription medicines, and a great lesson on how language moves on, too. 50 years ago ‘drowsy’ could well have been a common way of saying you feel sleepy, but who uses it now? It also says something about changing attitudes […]
Read more "Plain language prescriptions"The government has put out a paper on what they want the NHS to look like in the future. Here’s a summary of things you might like to know about what they’re claiming will happen, from a patient’s point of view. It will still be free! That’s not going to change. You’ll be able to have any GP you want. But […]
Read more "The new NHS: a patient’s point of view"At the moment, if you don’t live in the UK, and you come here and get treated at an NHS hospital, sometimes you’re supposed to pay for it. You can get registered at a GP surgery, you don’t have to pay for emergency treatment, and for urgent things like giving birth you will be treated without having […]
Read more "Are we getting our money’s worth from health tourism?"This is the first in a new series. Consultations in 200 words or less! This is the options for improving information on the labels of alcoholic drinks to support consumers to make healthier choices in the UK from the Department of Health. Get your ideas, thoughts and evidence in for 9 May 2010, email UKalcohollabelling@dh.gsi.gov.uk. You’re not supposed to […]
Read more "Short shorts: Alcohol labelling"