Hugo Farne

People in poorest areas of England ‘more likely to need emergency care for lung conditions’ Analysis finds those from most deprived backgrounds almost twice as likely to be admitted to hospital for respiratory conditions

“A stark and avoidable injustice in respiratory health” ⚖️

This, in the words of @respdoc.bsky.social, is the situation revealed by a recent analysis of NHS admissions data by @asthmaandlung.org.uk 🫁

Dr Farne was interviewed as part of @theguardian.com coverage: www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Big tobacco (aka nicotine addiction industry) has found new way to ensnare children

Sweet, fruity flavours
Legal loophole

How do their executives sleep at night?

British Museum ends ‘deeply troubling’ sponsorship from Japanese tobacco firm Move welcomed by critics, who have been calling for end to ‘morally unacceptable’ deals since 2016

Good.
www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...

UK set to limit refugees to temporary stays Shabana Mahmood is expected to say the era of permanent protection for refugees is over, in major changes to the UK's asylum and immigration system.

I came to this country as a child refugee. No English, no certainty, no idea what my life could become. Britain gave me refuge.

Not on a timer, not with conditions attached, but with a chance to grow roots.

A thread 🧵 1/8
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Caffeinated Coffee Consumption or Abstinence to Reduce Atrial Fibrillation This clinical trial compares the effect of caffeinated coffee consumption vs abstinence from coffee and caffeine on recurrent atrial fibrillation.

Who would've thunk?
In a multicenter randomized clinical trial including 200 patients with persistent AF undergoing cardioversion, the risk of recurrent AF was SIGNIFICANTLY ⬇️ in the group allocated to coffee consumption (47%) compared to abstinent group (64%).
#ScienceMatters
#DoctorsWhoLoveCoffee

Cigarette Filters - Tobacco Tactics Filtered cigarettes have historically been marketed as safer than unfiltered. Evidence shows that they are not less harmful and have increased health risks. The tobacco industry should bear responsibi...

Cigarette filters - the “deadliest fraud in the history of human civilisation". www.tobaccotactics.org/article/ciga... @ash.org @ashorguk.bsky.social @whofctc.bsky.social #LungSky #RespEd

Shot, chaser

Young men more likely to vote Green than Reform. Young men second most progressive group of any demographic. Combined right-wing vote barely bigger than Green vote alone for young men

Duties of a Doctor (General Medical Council) imply that giving out false or misleading information that could lead to harm might be grounds for removing a doctor from the Medical Register.

@drkevinfong.bsky.social, Tim Cook & I have contributed to the Discussion of ‘Some statistical aspects of the Covid-19 response' by Wood et al url: academic.oup.com/jrsssa/artic...

Superb training session for senior healthcare professionals delivered by the excellent
@simcourtie.bsky.social drawing on years as a professional broadcaster and coach. Really useful practical tips for patient / colleague interactions - can’t wait to try them out! Thanks again 🙏🏼

I always (broad brush) point out that Scotland went to Health Boards in 2004, brought in GPs in 2005, and have largely left them alone since from a top-down perspective.

Is it perfect? No. But it also hasn’t created an industry that just feeds money to management consultants for the next reorg.

Long run cases of vaccine-preventable diseases in the United States Reported cases of diphtheria, measles, mumps, pertussis, polio and rubella.

The effects aren’t subtle

Vaccination simply works
ourworldindata.org/grapher/case...

Impact of quantitative radiological features of interstitial lung disease on immunomodulatory treatment response in three autoimmune interstitial lung disease cohorts Background The defining radiological features of autoimmune interstitial lung disease (ILD) are ground glass opacification (GGO) and fibrosis. The associations between these features and physiological...

Do ground glass opacities really predict inflammation and favorable response to therapy in ILD?
Think again #pulmonaryfibrosis
thorax.bmj.com/content/earl...

Oops! Couldn’t upload pdf so converted to jpg, lost the link…

forms.office.com/pages/respon...

Please share
@respfutures.bsky.social
@kingsresp.bsky.social
@rsmresp.bsky.social
@inspireresp.bsky.social

FREE 2-day course in London in July covering generic topics like motivational interviewing, managing patient and peer engagement, etc. Sounds woolly but expert speakers and good feedback from a friend who did it last year!

For Resp / ID / Micro trainees within 12m of CCT or 2y of consultant post

It’s #ThoracicThursday! We promised we’d be back and here were are! Join in! Share your answer. Explanation at the weekend! #RespEd #pulmsky #lungsky #RespIsBest

Doctor looking for work April-Aug 2025?

Great job in a lovely and excellent Respiratory unit @ImperialNHS

Badged F1 as filling an F1 vacancy but we treat all our F1s/SHOs the same. Plenty of opportunities to upskill in Resp!

Get in touch if any Qs.

www.imperial.nhs.uk/careers/sear...

Winter vaccinations and winter health Find advice on how to stay well in winter, including getting the flu and COVID-19 vaccines and keeping your home warm.

Flu cases remain high in London—it’s not too late to get vaccinated.

If you're eligible, get your winter flu vaccination and help yourself stay well this winter.

www.nhs.uk/live-well/se...

I’m worried sick about patient safety as highly trained clinicians are replaced by 2yr-trained associates. Does this make me a “social media rabble”? Or is the “be kind” movement being cynically weaponised? Those monitoring my posts, put this on the agenda for the meeting you’ve asked me to attend.

New study links hospital privatisation to worse patient care | A new review has concluded that hospitals that are privatised typically deliver worse quality care after converting from public ownership. The study, led by University of Oxford researchers, has been

This is Oxford Uni sharing the Lancet study showing that giving out NHS contracts to private companies is WORSE for patients.

The only motive is profit. Anything else is BS designed to sneak this through.

www.ox.ac.uk/news/2024-02...

Hospital Adverse Events and Patient Outcomes Associated With Private Equity Acquisition This observation study examines changes in hospital-acquired adverse events (or conditions) and hospitalization outcomes associated with private equity acquisition among Medicare beneficiaries treated...

Recall @jama.com 2023:

Changes in Hospital Adverse Events and Patient Outcomes Associated With Private Equity Acquisition

By Sneha Kannan et al

[SPOILER: adverse events went up, and they stopped caring for as sick patients]

jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

And in mixed private-public health systems, I believe private will tend to service less complex, low equity needs with high turnover that are easiest to bill, drawing resources away from the public system while it continues to be burdened by all the hard stuff.

The origin story of rapamycin: systemic bias in biomedical research and cold war politics METEI (Medical Expedition to Easter Island) was a Canadian-led expedition to Easter Island in 1964 that led to the discovery of rapamycin, launching a billion-dollar drug industry and major field of b...

Segue from your thread

The story of sirolimus (= rapamycin) is fascinating - beyond the somewhat ironic reverse mTOR nomenclature

Longish story here pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC... @drugshortage.bsky.social will know much more of course

- Easter Island
- bioethics
- academia-Pharma jump

Have added some more folk to this lung health starter pack: #LungSky
go.bsky.app/UAR96WC
Let me know if I've missed you out.
#COPD #Asthma #Emphysema #Breathless #Cough #Wheeze #FCTC #TobaccoControl #StarterPack

Before you freak reflexively order IV hydralazine for that BP of 180/90, remember that people get BPs up to 480/350 (yes that is in mmHg) while weight lifting and don't "stroke out"

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3980383/

Table. Online Vaping Retailer Shipping Practices Among Purchases Delivered to Adults Residing in San Diego County, California

This study of online e-cigarette vendors found widespread noncompliance with youth access restrictions, including low adherence to age verification, shipping bans, and flavored product prohibitions.

https://ja.ma/49M4Zgl

screenshot of study title. Effects of nintedanib on biomarkers in IPF in ERJ Open.

Now can we use CA-125 as a theragnostic biomarker of treatment response in patients with IPF? Why wouldn't we?

@ipfdoc.bsky.social @kaminskimed.bsky.social
#CurePF #CureIPF @ats-clinicalprobs.bsky.social @tkulkarni.bsky.social @jskim8223.bsky.social

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/pmi...

Also isn’t it time we call Ca-125 - MUC16 and KL-6 - MUC1 and CYFRA 21-1 - Cytokeratin 19.
Enough with meaningless names