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The plural of anecdotes is not data

Ben Goldacre

But as we will see, even these things are hard to do on your own, and in reality require wholesale social and political changes.
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Change Own Political Require
The plural of anecdotes is not data
BEN GOLDACRE

Anecdotes Data Plural
There are many differences between medicine and teaching, but they have much in common. Both involve craft and personal expertise, learned through experience; but both can be informed by the experience of others.
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Differences Medicine Teaching
And if, by the end [of this book], you reckon you might still disagree with me, then I offer you this: you’ll still be wrong, but you’ll be wrong with a lot more panache and flair than you could possibly manage right now.
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Book Ends might
I agree, the world would be a better place if doctors were less enthusiastic about adopting very new drugs.
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Adopt Doctors Drugs Enthusiastic
You cannot reason people out of a position that they did not reason themselves into.
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Argument People Reason
Transparency and detail are everything in science.
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Details Everything Transparency
Yes. I’m a doctor, an epidemiologist, and lots of my professional colleagues flip back and forth between industry and medical roles. I know them; they are not bad people. But it is possible for good people in bad systems to do things that inflict enormous harm.
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Doctors People Roles
I write about misuses of evidence in plenty of different spheres: scaremongering journalists, obvious quacks and naturopaths, and flaws in the way that evidence is used in mainstream academia, medicine and in (government) policy.
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Different Interesting Writing
Real science is all about critically appraising the evidence for somebody else’s position.
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Inspiration Motivation Real
You are a placebo responder. Your body plays tricks on your mind. You cannot be trusted.
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Body Mind Play
Children can be disgusting, and often they can develop extraordinary talents, but I’m yet to meet any child who can stimulate his carotid arteries inside his ribcage.
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Children Talent
Doctors and patients need as much data as possible to make an informed decision about what treatment is best.
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Data Decision Doctors
One of the things I always found interesting is the same tricks are used to distort medicine in all of those domains.
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Interesting Medicine Trick
I hope that you will be asked to participate in a trial at some stage in your disease
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Disease Stage Trials
Teaching needs an ecosystem that supports evidence-based practice. It will need better systems to disseminate the results of research more widely, but also a better understanding of research, so that teachers can be critical consumers of evidence.
BEN GOLDACRE

Practice Teacher Teaching

The plural of anecdotes is not data

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The plural of anecdotes is not data

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