Do you know Archie Cochrane's quote from the 1970s “It is surely a great criticism of our profession that we have not organised a critical summary, by speciality or subspeciality, adapted periodically, of all relevant RCTs.” Access original source here 👇 www.jameslindlibrary.org/cochrane-al-...

#CochraneDaily Just published! New article in James Lind Library discusses relationship between the long history of the habit of belief and the placebo effect, showing how this medieval image 👇reveals the power of the invisible @jameslindlibrary.bsky.social www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/the...

Belief, effectiveness and the placebo effect. In the latest James Lind Library article, Racha Kirakosian and colleagues review the role of belief and expectations in the effectiveness of treatments, and trace its roots back to medieval illustration. www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/the...

1 June is World Milk Day worldmilkday.org. A good day to learn about the controlled trials of supplementary milk for school children in Scotland and #Belfast in the 1920s, by readng this article by Jon Pollock www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/two... #WorldMilkDay #Milk #HistoryOfMedicine #MedHist

On World Thyroid Day (www.ese-hormones.org/education-an...), read my article by Stefan Slater about the discovery of thyroid replacement therapy. www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/the... #HistoryOfMedicine #MedHist #WorldThyroidDay #Thyroid @esendocrinology.bsky.social

The first atlas, as a set of maps, was published on 22 May 1570 (archive.org/details/thea...), but Ben Cao Tu Jing's Atlas of Materia Medica was published 500 years earlier. Read about it here 👇 www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/com... #HistoryOfMedicine #MedHist

Today is International Clinical Trials Day, and you can learn more about me and what I achieved in this article by Iain Milne www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/who... #InternationalClinicalTrialsDay #BePartOfResearch #NIHR20 #EBHC #EBM #RCT #ICTD2026

Richard Lehman's death is a great loss to his family, friends, colleagues and the people he inspired and would have inspired in the future. Richard joined the editorial group for the James Lind Library in 2021 and was always helpful, jovial and insightful.

#TrialsTuesday #8 This month’s #TrialsTuesday features STAMPEDE. This trial for men with prostate cancer published its first practice changing results 10 years ago after a presentation to the American Society of Oncology in May 2015 1/8 ascopubs.org/doi/10.1200/... @innovative-ctu.bsky.social #ASCO

Ahoy! I am pleased to announce the addition of a new section to the James Lind Library that will illustrate the impact of patient and public involvement in research through history. Please share and get in touch if you would like to help us develop this www.jameslindlibrary.org/blogs/patien... #PPIE

#TrialsTuesday #7 This month, I’ll take you more than 100 years further back in time than my trial of scurvy. I’ll share with you a proposal for a study that highlighted the need for do a fair test to find out if a common treatment might do more harm than good 1/8 #FairTest #TestingTreatments

As Artemis II heads for the moon, this article 👇 contains a case study of the role of clinical trials in the discovery of artemisinin as an antimalarial. www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/the... #Artemis #Artemisin #Malaria #MedHist #HistoryOfMedicine

Ahoy! I've several articles that illustrate the use of placebos through history, including this one by Scott Podolsky www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/the... @harvard.edu #HistMed #Placebo #MedicalHistory #RCT

On World Tuberculosis Day, this article on clinical trials for the treatment of TB in China illustrates the development of these fair tests of treatments through history www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/his... #WorldTuberculosisDay #TB #HistoryOfMedicine

1/2 On #WorldSleepDay, learn about clinical trials through history with this account of Cushny and Peebles' test of hyoscines, ~120 years ago. 👇They gave people a tablet on alternate evenings, and compared their sleep with the intervening control nights. www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/joh...

If you'd like to learn about the history of evidence-based research, here's the new article from Hans Lund and Karen Robinson www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/his... @ebrnetwork.bsky.social #EBM #EBHC #EvidenceSynthesis

#TrialsTuesday #6 Harry Gold, featured in the last #TrialsTuesday for his work on double blind trials of angina. Another important trial for this condition tested a surgical procedure, internal mammary artery ligation by comparing it to “sham surgery” 1/8

On #WorldObesityDay learn about the history of #placebo surgery in this article, including a trial of intragastric balloon insertion in which operators manipulated the endoscope to create a sensation of resistance in the stomach of those in the control group👇 www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/use...

#TrialsTuesday #5 Gold featured as an ineffective treatment for tuberculosis in last week's Trials Tuesday. This week, I feature a person who shares the name of the element - Harry Gold – to illustrate the history of the "double blind" trial. 1/8 #DoubleBlind #HistoryofMedicine

#TrialsTuesday #4 The last TrialsTuesday was the MRC trial of streptomycin for TB that used random numbers to fill envelopes which, when opened, revealed a patient’s assigned treatment. But, what about using a more familiar method for using chance to choose between options: flipping a coin? 1/8

Whether or not you've read the first two of Robert Matthews' trio of articles on the problematic history of randomised trials, have a look at the third now. It discusses Donald Mainland, Austin Bradford Hill and the future of randomised trials www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/the... #rct #ebhc #ebm

On this day in 1868, Felix Hoffmann, who synthesized aspirin in 1897, was born. Today, you can learn about fair tests of treatments through history by reading Peter Elwood's account of the first randomized trial of the drug for people having a heart attack. 👇 www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/the...

TrialsTuesday #3 Last #TrialsTuesday, I featured the #MRC 1944 trial showing that patulin was not effective for treating the common cold. Today, it’s a more famous MRC trial from the same decade: streptomycin for pulmonary tuberculosis, published in the BMJ on 30 October 1948. 1/8 @bmj.com

Whether or not you looked at the first of Robert Matthews' trio of articles on the problematic history of randomised trials last week, try the second 👇about Austin Bradford Hill’s “pragmatic” view of randomisation and its origins www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/the... #HistoryOfMedicine #RCT

#TrialsTuesday #2 Last week, I reminded you of my trial of oranges and lemons for scurvy. This week, it’s something from a mould that grows on apples, which was tested as a treatment for the common cold nearly 200 years later in the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) 1944 trial of patulin. 1/8

#TrialsTuesday #1 On this first Tuesday of 2026, I’m relaunching Trials Tuesday to illustrate the development of fair tests of treatment through history, featuring important clinical trials. I begin with my study of scurvy on board the Salisbury. 1/8 www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/who...

Start the new year with the first of Robert Matthews' trio of articles on the problematic history of randomised trials, illustrating the challenges of presumption and confusion on the road to randomisation. Read it for free here 👇 www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/the... #RCT #HistoryOfMedicine

In the article she wrote for me about tuberculosis and streptomycin in the UK in 1948, @hildabast.bsky.social describes how #GeorgeOrwell was admitted to Hairmyres Hospital in Scotland on #ChristmasEve 1947, with infectious chronic tuberculosis in his lungs 👇 www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/dow...

Nice to see this recognition of the good friend of the James Lind Library, the late Doug Altman. Learn more about his prescience in recognizing the need to reduce biases before tackling imprecision in systematic reviews, in this article by Iain Chalmers 👇 www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/dou...

Listen in as @richard-lehman.bsky.social and @raj-mehta.bsky.social explore why it took so long for fair tests of treatments to develop, and the transition from anecdotal and authority-based decisions to empirical methodologies in the 18th and 19th centuries. www.jameslindlibrary.org/blogs/the-fi...

#CochraneDaily As we approach the end of 2025, have a read of this landmark 30-year old article providing empirical evidence of how poor allocation concealment was associated with #bias in the results of randomised trials jameslindlibrary.org/wp-data/uplo... @jama.com @jameslindlibrary.bsky.social

Did you know that there's a Christmas Card Day? It's today: www.daysoftheyear.com/days/christm... ? However, sending Christmas cards to trial participants won't help reduce bias by retaining them, as shown in one of my records 👇 www.jameslindlibrary.org/coleman-e-ar... @trialforge.bsky.social

Ahoy! Here's a new article that illustrates the development of risk of bias assessments in systematic reviews, through history.

Ahoy! Learn more about Cochrane and other systematic reviews through history, in one of my articles 👇 www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/his...

Ahoy! If you're interested in citation bias, there's more in this article in the James Lind Library www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/cit...

On World Pneumonia Day (stoppneumonia.org/latest/world...), learn about controlled trials through history by reading Scott Podolsky's article about trials of treatments for pneumonia in the 1920s 👇 www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/jes... #WorldPneumoniaDay #Pneumonia #MedHist

On Halloween, I recommend reading Anthony' Petrosino's appreciation of statistician Fred Mosteller, including how Fred invoked #Halloween in providing comments on one of his draft articles 👇 www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/cha...

On #WorldStrokeDay (www.world-stroke.org/world-stroke...), learn about the disconnect between pre-clinical and clinical research and the role of CAMARADES in this article that Merel Ritskes-Hoitinga and Pandora Pound wrote for me 👇 www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/the... #EBM #EBHC

Remind yourself of the value of the randomised trial on #WorldPolioDay through a history of the Salk #polio vaccine trial, which showed the vaccine's benefits 50 years ago journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... Read more by Harry Marks in my library www.jameslindlibrary.org www.who.int/europe/campa...

Ahoy! If you would like to see some other articles that illustrate the recent history of individual participant data meta-analyses, click on this link www.jameslindlibrary.org?s=individual and scroll down through my records.

On #WorldSightDay learn about the development of fair tests of treatment though history in the late Bill Silverman's reflections on his 1950s randomised trial of using adrenocorticotropic hormone for retinopathy of prematurity 👇 www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/per... #LoveYourEyes #RCT #EBM #EBHC

Ahoy! You can learn more about the history of systematic reviews and meta-analysis in the article that Mike Clarke wrote for me in 2015 www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/his... #EvidenceSynthesis #EBM #EBHC

Marking the sad news of Drummond Rennie's death, a tribute has been added here www.jameslindlibrary.org/flanagin-a-g... Also, Drummond and Iain Chalmers wrote about the dangers of medical reviews and textbooks that ignore scientific principles here www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/exp... @jama.com

If you'd like to learn about the development of randomised trials in education through history, read my new article from Carole Torgerson about the first use of randomisation in educational research www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/whe... #RCT #FairTests #EducationalResearch #History #Randomized

100 years ago today, the British Medical Journal published Moir's study of the narcotic effects of two hyoscines using alternation to form comparable groups. It's at www.jameslindlibrary.org/moir-jc-1925 illustrating the development of fair tests of treatment through history @bmj.com

Ahoy! If you'd like to watch an interview between Cindy and Iain Chalmers recorded about 30 years ago, it starts 1:38 into the video at radar.brookes.ac.uk/radar/items/...

Ahoy! You might also be interested in reading the piece Dave Sackett wrote for me about why he became a clinician trialist. It's available free here: www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/why... #RandomizedTrials #DaveSackett #EBM

Read the new commentary that Christian Gluud and Kristian Thorlund wrote for me about Klim McPherson’s article on sequential analysis of trial data, which was published more than half a century (51 years) ago www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/lon... #TSA #TrialSequentialAnalysis #RCT

On World Mosquito Day (www.worldmosquitoprogram.org/world-mosqui...), what better way to learn about clinical trials through history than reading the article Silvio Garattini wrote for me about early 20th century controlled trials to prevent malaria in Italy www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/ita...