Sandy Oliver

Listening is a tool for health equity, not just a soft skill The medical establishment hasn't always listened to patients; nurturing this vital skill can help to tackle health inequalities, says Rageshri Dhairyawan Communication skills such as listening are of...

“Listening is a tool for health equity, not just a soft skill”

Had a wonderful experience writing this piece that was commissioned for The Student BMJ by editor @georgeawebster.bsky.social!

www.bmj.com/content/390/...

‼️HOT OFF THE PRESS‼️

⭐Updated Responsible AI use in Evidence Synthesis (RAISE) 3-paper collection on OSF: osf.io/fwaud/files/... ⭐

Now includes:
1️⃣Recommendations for practice for the main roles in the ecosystem
2️⃣ Guidance on building & evaluating AI tools
3️⃣Guidance on selecting & using AI tools

Navigating research on the performance of generative LLM-based tools in health and social care? The freshly updated Living Map of Generative LLM-Based Tools for Health and Social Care Applications by @eppicentre.bsky.social is your compass.
#AIHealth

Check out this summary of a Campbell evidence and gap map on interventions for improving informal support for victim-survivors of domestic abuse: a small but useful evidence base. Funded by the UK Economic Social Research Council

tinyurl.com/ytf9enb8

@sriucl.bsky.social @eppicentre.bsky.social

Check out this exciting master's degree option offered by our department!

This is such important work - and great fun!

The JLA is looking for independent consultants to train and work as Advisers!

You’ll support partnerships that bring together patients, carers, and clinicians to shape research priorities.

➡️Apply here: buff.ly/B9ba05R
🔁Please share this opportunity with your networks

Illustration shows a pregnant woman cared for by a midwife. Text reads 'Trusted partnerships with midwives promote a healthy labour and birth. When midwives provide care, women are involved and empowered each step of the way. Invest in midwifery care.'

Midwives make a difference! 💙

When women receive care from trusted midwives, they’re more likely to have a positive birth experience—choosing their birth position, moving freely during labour, and having their companion by their side.

NEW guidance: bit.ly/4kShgEQ

‘Godfather’ of AI Yoshua Bengio says latest models lie to users Turing Award winner warns recent models display dangerous characteristics as he launches LawZero non-profit for safer AI

Sigh. LLMs don't lie, because they don't know anything. What all LLMs do, including the latest models, is produce statistically plausible outputs that sometimes resemble the truth and sometimes resemble falsehoods. That's all the tech *can* do www.ft.com/content/2b3c...

I bought a hard copy - and couldn’t put it down. Definitely a ‘must read’. 👇🏻

You can study in London or online, full-time, or part-time over two or more years.

and
3. policy teams and researchers shaping studies together
4. systematic reviews combining different types of studies
5. collaborative approaches to suit different policy tasks and contexts

We discuss
1. tackling policy problems with different forms of knowledge
2. integrating research evidence into policymaking processes

Many of our students already have an established career in research or policy. So there’s learning for teachers as well as for students during our discussions about evidence for decision-making. If this sounds interesting, see our MSc Social Policy (Evidence Synthesis) www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-...

An absolute bargain. This is so worth reading!

Thank you so much for the writing non-fiction workshop. It’s so clear to me what changes I have to make to my writing now!

📚 Can schools help bridge ethnic divides?

This week’s #DEPStudyOfTheWeek from Turkey tested a classroom-based empathy program—and found big social impacts.

Less peer violence, more trust, better integration.

🔗 developmentevidence.3ieimpact.org/search-resul...

Oops, that should be Mikael Klintman.

So sorry to be missing Michael Klintman @hayfestival.bsky.social but I bought his very readable book anyway.

Thread. I have read what resulted, and so should you.

I’m really looking forward to this too! 📑📝💻

Editors to underrepresented researchers: Put your country in the title.

Global North authors: Don't bother.

Everyone else: Cites the US/UK/Australia... study because it *sounds* universal and more generalizable.

Result: Underrepresented voices stay invisible.

#AcademicSky

Peer Support and Community Interventions Targeting Breastfeeding in the UK: Systematic Review of Qualitative Evidence to Identify Inequities in Participants' Experiences Systematic review of qualitative evidence from the UK exploring how peer support and community breastfeeding interventions might lead to inequities. There are differential experiences between populat...

Peer Support and Community Interventions Targeting Breastfeeding in the UK: Systematic Review of Qualitative Evidence to Identify Inequities in Participants' Experiences

Rhiannon Evans, Caitlyn Donaldson, @ruthgarside.bsky.social et al

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Independent SAGE as an example of effective public dialogue on scientific research - Nature Protocols The members of Independent SAGE reflect on their experience in setting up, developing and running a science communication platform and service to the public during the COVID-19 pandemic

Delighted that
@natureportfolio.nature.com (Nature Protocols)
have generously agreed to allow six months free open access to our paper describing the work of
@independentsage.bsky.social
🙏🙏🙏, led by
@trishgreenhalgh.bsky.social

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Our Social Policy (Evidence Synthesis) MSc graduates have taken up exciting careers in academic & policy organisations, within the public, private & non-profit sectors, nationally & internationally. Study on campus or on-line. If this sounds appealing, get in touch. www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-...

This!! ⬇️
Don't tell me "they don't integrate."

It’s a public access to (life and death) scientific evidence issue!

“Parents should be empowered to access information that is independent of the firearm industry … They have the right to be informed that having homes & communities free of firearms is the only effective way to prevent firearm injuries among all children and young people.”

Now more than ever we need to support the use of evidence in everyday life. We hope that #ThePeoplesReview might help this a little.

Thanks to @evidencecomm.bsky.social for their work to date in this area, during the global pandemic and during the current polycrisis.

"WE'VE ARRANGED A society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. And this combustible mixture of ignorance and power, sooner or later, is going to blow up in our faces. Who is running the science and technology in a democracy if the people don't know anything about it?" "Science is more than a body of knowledge, it's a way of thinking. A way of skeptically interrogating the universe with a fine understanding of human fallibility. If we are not able to ask skeptical questions, to interrogate those who tell us that something is true, to be skeptical of those in authority, then we're up for grabs for the next charlatan, political or religious, who comes ambling along."

I think a lot about what Carl Sagan said in one of his final interviews.