Dipesh Gopal

The value of public R&D

Government has published one of those quiet but important documents that might get overlooked as it is not 'newsy'. The headline finding is that £1 of public R&D investment generates £8 in net economic benefits for the UK over the long term
www.gov.uk/government/p...

PACT is recruiting new committee members! — Primary care Academic CollaboraTive (PACT) PACT is continuing to evolve and we are recruiting new committee members for the period 2025-2028! We have several exciting committee positions available and welcome applicants from all primary car...

PACT is continuing to evolve and we are recruiting new committee members for the period 2025-2028! 🙌
For further information, role descriptions and the application form, please see the recent news post on our website:
gppact.org/news/pact-is...

SAPC ASM 2026, St Andrews, 24th - 26th June

For further details : sapc.ac.uk/conference/2...

#SAPC2026 #SAPC_ASM #PrimaryCare #AcademicMedicine #StAndrews

Social media has become less social Change in share of people reporting each reason for using social media (%) Source: GWI FT graphic: John Burn-Murdoch / @jburnmurdoch

‘One of the strongest cases for harm is that time on these platforms is time away from nourishing interactions with other people.’

Great graph from @jburnmurdoch.ft.com showing that social media has become less social
on.ft.com/4gP83eW

How Private Equity Oversees the Ethics of Drug Research

How Private Equity Oversees the Ethics of Drug Research www.nytimes.com/2025/10/04/h...

If @wesstreeting thinks GPs are stuck in 20thC, visit a hospital

We are the science museum!

➡️Electronic records since 1991
➡️Online triage
➡️Ambient scribes
➡️SMS
➡️Online bookings
➡️Electronic prescribing
➡️Online referrals
➡️Video consults DAYS after 1st lockdown….

1/x

Researchers from Queen Mary University of London have developed and validated ‘Ovatools’, a new clinical tool that could help GPs detect ovarian cancer earlier and improve outcomes cost-effectively: https://www.spcr.nihr.ac.uk/news/new-personalised-risk-score-could-improve-ovarian-cancer-detection #SPCR #PrimaryCare #Research @qmulprimarycare.bsky.social

Researchers from Queen Mary University of London have developed and validated ‘Ovatools’, a new clinical tool that could help GPs detect ovarian cancer earlier and improve outcomes cost-effectively: www.spcr.nihr.ac.uk/news/new-per...

#SPCR #PrimaryCare #Research
@qmulprimarycare.bsky.social

📢 Join our free event on the GP Patient Survey (GPPS), Wed, 1 Oct 2025 10:00 - 15:30, featuring research highlights, a keynote from Dan Wellings (The King’s Fund) & Q&A with Ipsos. Register now: https://bit.ly/3JBiBC4 #SPCR #PrimaryCare #Research @fbmh-uom.bsky.social

📢 Join our free event on the GP Patient Survey (GPPS), Wed, 1 Oct 2025 10:00 - 15:30, featuring research highlights, a keynote from Dan Wellings (The King’s Fund) & Q&A with Ipsos. Register now: bit.ly/3JBiBC4

#SPCR #PrimaryCare #Research
@fbmh-uom.bsky.social

Do You Need to Drink Electrolytes?

Save your money. Studies show that tap water works just fine. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/21/w...

New rule. A parent may only propose removing a book from the school library only after reading it in its entirety and delivering a book report to the librarian. Until then no discussion shall be entered into.

A randomized trial of ultraprocessed (UPF) vs unprocessed food: UPF led to impaired cardiometabolic & male reproductive health outcomes, including reduced testosterone, sperm count/motility, increased inflammation, increased BP, worse lipids. Independent of caloric load.
www.cell.com/cell-metabol...

Throughout medical school and as teaching clinicians we are frequently reminded how the word doctor originates from the Latin docere—to teach. Teaching, for doctors, is considered an innate “competency,” genetically part of our DNA. Participation in teaching is a standard inclusion in the job description. Baked into this truism is a further expectation—that because we work as doctors, we can automatically teach others how to work as a doctor. This assumption about teaching is not necessarily endorsed outside medicine. Consider football for example, as an activity where everyone has an opinion on how they are trained. A talented footballer is not automatically considered a skilled coach. We can all think of examples here, both in football and in medicine, of skilled professionals who are not good teachers.

Teaching is an important skill in medicine, yet many of us have come across some outstandingly bad teachers!

Could we learn from the world of football?

In healthcare, I’ve found that there’s a strong overlap between good clinicians & good teachers.

#MedSky

Link:
www.bmj.com/content/389/...

YouTube video by BJGP Qualitative research: key theoretical concepts – preview

Spotlight 30-sec preview on #QualitativeResearch: youtu.be/H4eRJ5Ev2jA
Are you a qualitative researcher? BJGP outlines key theoretical concepts from Prof. @kathcheckland.bsky.social in this 30-min video youtu.be/FxvdAtJdhxk. Read this linked editorial, free till 31 August: bjgp.org/content/75/7...

Denmark to end book tax to encourage people to read Culture Minister Jakob Engel-Schmidt said that the measure was aimed at fixing Denmark's 'reading crisis.' The Scandinavian country's 25% sales tax on books is currently the highest in Europe.

Denmark to end book tax to encourage people to read

Why is the planned care waiting list coming down and what does the data really tell us? The waiting list for planned hospital care has plateaued and then come down over the past two years. In this QualityWatch analysis, Georgia Watson and Liz Fisher look at the factors affecting the…

The NHS waiting list - and whether it's going up or down - is viewed as a key indicator of whether the NHS is delivering for the public.

But our latest analysis from Georgia Watson and Liz Fisher suggests that there is more to the numbers than meets the eye.

#QualityWatch
buff.ly/lFMeEL2

Explaining the risks of illness vs vaccine side effects

@peterhotezmdphd.bsky.social offers this nice example of measles vaccines in @plosglobalpublichealth.org article [Artwork by Fahim Akbar]

journals.plos.org/globalpublic...

It was only a matter of time before the 1st case report of chatGPT-mediated medical harm was published. I have had patients say strange things to me in clinic that further questioning revealed were a result of asking chatGPT, but thankfully nothing harmful

(yes I’ve already texted it to chubbyemu)

Among the range of symptoms experienced by those with long covid, cognitive and mental health concerns are especially common.

This review provides an assessment of the nature, severity, and trajectory of neuropsychiatric long covid sequelae
www.bmj.com/content/390/...

Junk food “avoids advertising regulation” with top level UK sports sponsorship

Junk food “avoids advertising regulation” with top level UK sports sponsorship
www.bmj.com/content/390/...

Private Eye hits the nail on the head

American men are hungry for injectable testosterone A legion of new health clinics are serving it up

"Buff gym-bros and 'biohackers' inject themselves on TikTok while telling their audiences that they should be on 'T' even if their doctor disagrees." More on bro science
www.economist.com/united-state...

Polly Duncan on stage, presenting at SAPC

Final slide from Polly’s presentation, showing Alice, a housebound patient, and ways in which her care could have been better - better continuity, more time, MDT, training, patient-centred

Great presentation by Polly Duncan on primary care for housebound patients. What factors are associated with being housebound / who is most likely to be housebound? How can health care services better support their patients who are housebound? #sapc2025 @capcbristol.bsky.social @sapc.ac.uk

Patients registered at English general practices that arrange chest X-rays more often have improved #LungCancer survival and are diagnosed with earlier stage cancers
doi.org/10.3399/BJGP...

#cancer #PrimaryCare

These are the most-cited research papers of all time Some studies have received hundreds of thousands of citations, Nature’s updated analysis shows.

💡Interesting to read the list of the 10 most cited papers ever 📊 (as reported by @nature.com). Number 9 is the Braun & Clarke paper on using #thematic analysis in #psychology !

@bpsofficial.bsky.social

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Thanks so much! I can't DM you directly. Do you need to follow me?

I hate to say it but very few professionals are held to the standards that doctors are, to the public. This is despite many professionals having more power to do harm and good.

🚨 Signed book giveaway! 🚨

To celebrate the paperback release of The Truth Detective, I’m giving away three signed copies!

Here’s how to enter:
1.Follow me and @souvenirpress.bsky.social
2. retweet this post

Winners will be picked at random by May 7th. Good luck!

PACT Impact Report 2019-2024 launched! — Primary care Academic CollaboraTive (PACT) We are delighted to announce that our first Impact Report , covering the period 2019-2024, has just been published on our website. You can view and download it here . A big thank you to everyone...

🎉Excited to announce the launch of the PACT Impact report. Huge thanks to all the PACT members who have contributed @gppact.bsky.social @dipeshgopal.bsky.social
www.gppact.org/news/pact-im...

"for many diseases we may not have objective evidence. There may not be a diagnostic test, so doctors may have to rely on a patient's testimony, which is by its very nature subjective.”