Learning from people who inject drugs

by Daryl Ilbury

It’s convenient to dismiss people who inject drugs (pwid) as criminals or, at best, the victims of their own bad decisions. But this approach not only eschews our responsibility to help marginalised and vulnerable people, it also keeps us impervious to broader social issues. Top-down, authoritarian policies steered by legal priorities don’t address these issues, and those based on medical knowledge, even with the best intentions, risk being condescending and unhelpful. The alternative is to listen to the people the policies are supposed to support. That is precisely what two senior public health researchers did. What they discovered was a series of recurring themes that challenge our biases and give clearer direction for co-designed harm-reduction approaches.

You can read the rest of this article, complete with additional feature content, on the Research Features website here. (Opens in a new tab)

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The serious fallout from information compression

by Daryl Ilbury

It’s tempting to think that consumer ratings of the next item you buy online are a healthy guide to finding the best product, but the reality is different. The clustering of items rated 4.5 stars out of five may suggest a constellation of safer choices, but it is a false beacon, and has ramifications in an era when people increasingly make decisions from online information. A team of leading researchers in information systems and marketing has produced a theory about this phenomenon and discovered that, while the fallout of this for shoppers may just be a purchase that doesn’t work, the costs can be much more severe when ratings are applied elsewhere. What they’re proposing challenges some of the fundamental thinking among their peers.

You can read the rest of this article, complete with additional feature content, on the Research Features website  Read More

What’s driving the rise in dietary wheat sensitivity?

by Daryl Ilbury

There are few components of the human lifestyle more susceptible to the vagaries of fashion than diet and nutrition. Popular media tout the latest ‘research’ suggesting what is healthy, and self-styled healthy-eating gurus promote their latest diets, usually at the expense of some or other ‘enemy’ of the human gut. Gluten is a current whipping boy, and the rise in numbers embarking on gluten-free diets is buoyed by claims that modern wheat variants are particularly villainous. Two specialists in cereals science have investigated what could be to blame for the increasing prevalence of dietary sensitivity to wheat.

You can read the rest of this article, complete with additional feature content, on the Research Features website here. (Opens in a new tab)

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Genome Architecture Theory shakes up cancer research

by Daryl Ilbury

It’s an inconvenient truth that after 50 years of concerted research and untold billions of dollars in funding every year, a cure for cancer remains elusive. Perhaps the problem sits with the conventional view of cancer. Henry H. Heng, a professor of molecular medicine at the Wayne State School of Medicine in Detroit, Michigan, suggests we need to see the bigger picture and even rethink our understanding of evolution. His Genome Architecture Theory is telling and provocative, which is why it’s attracting interest from an unlikely collaborator who sees progress in disruption.

It’s probably true that every person who has lost a loved one to cancer has wondered at some point why there isn’t a cure. It’s a fair point, given the tens of thousands of scientists who have spent endless hours and billions of dollars in cancer research every year for over 50 years.

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A simple solution where lives are at stake

by Daryl Ilbury

A hospital’s emergency department triage unit is a high-pressured work environment where situations are often fluid and poor communication can have serious, tragic consequences. But hospitals, like any other extensive work system, demand compliance procedures that can be time-consuming and constraining for triage staff. So how can hospitals balance compliance with the realities of novel and evolving scenarios such as those at an emergency department? Professor Thierry Morineau of the University of Southern Brittany in France believes the answer lies in less compliance.

The image of a typical hospital emergency department (ED) – for those who’ve never worked in one or been lucky enough not to end up in one – is probably framed by popular hospital-themed TV series. An ED is an action-packed, seemingly chaotic environment with endless arrivals of ambulances filled with critically injured people, cared for by hurried staff exchanging calls of

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