Ben Goldacre

Ben Goldacre (2009)

Ben Goldacre (* 1974 ) is a British medic and journalist . He is best known for his Bad Science column in The Guardian newspaper . Since 2015 he has been working as a researcher in the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at Oxford University . He is also a co-founder of the Actsials Campaign - a campaign that promotes the listing of clinical trials in a registry and the publication of the results as open data . His first book, also entitled Bad Science , was published in September 2008.

Academic career

Goldacre completed a medical degree at the University of Oxford , which he graduated in 1995. Before moving to clinical medicine at University College London , he was visiting researcher in cognitive neuroscience at the University of Milan , where he worked in the field of fMRI . He received a Masters Degree in Philosophy from King's College London . He is a member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and a research fellow at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London.

Bad Science Column

Goldacre wrote a column called Bad Science that appeared every Saturday in The Guardian . More detailed versions of the columns with reader comments appear on his website badscience.net . Scientific inaccuracies, health scare tactics, pseudoscience and quackery are targeted in a satirical tone . The focus is on the mass media, consumer product marketing, problems with the pharmaceutical industry and its relationships with medical journals and alternative and complementary medicine in the UK. Regarding the controversial topic of drinking water fluoridation , he stated that "anyone who makes a convincing statement about fluorine goes far beyond the evidence".

The focus of his criticism is in particular the nutritionist Gillian McKeith , vaccine opponent (especially the supporters of Andrew Wakefield ), Brain Gym (a method for "brain training"), antidepressants , publication bias and the manufacturer of the product Penta Water . While examining McKeith's membership in the American Association of Nutritional Consultants , Goldacre bought the same organization for $ 60 in the name of his late cat. In February 2007, McKeith agreed not to use the title "Doktor" in their advertising in the future after a Bad Science reader complained to the Advertising Standards Authority .

In 2008, the controversial German doctor Matthias Rath sued Goldacre and the Guardian for three articles in which Goldacre criticized Rath's use of vitamin pills to treat AIDS . Rath dropped the lawsuit in September 2008 and had to reimburse the newspaper for costs of over £ 220,000 . The newspaper is demanding full reimbursement of the £ 500,000 cost, and Goldacre has expressed an interest in writing a book on Rath and South Africa because a chapter in his book has not been published while the lawsuit is pending. The chapter was added in a later edition of the book and is also available online.

Book publications

Goldacre's first book Bad Science was published in September 2008. The German translation followed in 2010 under the title The Science Lie: How pseudo-scientists make life difficult for us . It contains expanded and revised versions of many of his columns from the Guardian. Positive reviews appeared in the BMJ and the Daily Telegraph . At Amazon , the English version reached a place in the top 10 bestseller list. One of the central theses of the book, he explained in an interview, is that there are no real differences between the $ 600 billion pharmaceutical industry and the $ 50 billion dietary supplement industry.

His second book, Bad Pharma , was published in September 2012. In 2013, the translation was published, Die Pharma-Lüge: How pharmaceutical companies mislead doctors and harm patients . The English version reached first place on Amazon's Pharmacology bestseller list . Goldacre argues in this book - similar to the 11th chapter of his first book - that doctors and patients need good scientific evidence in order to be able to make well-informed decisions. However, Goldacre explains, companies legally conduct inadequate studies on their own drugs which, if they produce unfavorable results, are not published. He also accuses state regulations, as they withhold vital information by tolerating this practice, which endangers a large number of patients.

Another book, I Think You'll Find It's a Bit More Complicated Than That , was published in October 2014 .

Awards (selection)

• Award of the Association of British Science Writers 2003 for his article "Never mind the facts".
• Award of the Association of British Science Writers 2005 for his article "Don't dumb me down"
• Statistical Excellence In Journalism Award from the Royal Statistical Society for his article "When the facts get in the way of a story"
• HealthWatch Award for "Significant Steps to Improve Public Understanding of Health Issues "
• Knowledge book of the year in the “Igniter” category for Die Pharma-Läge
• Honorary doctorate from Heriot-Watt University (June 2009)
• Honorary Doctorate from Loughborough University (July 2010)
• Member of the Order of the British Empire (New Year's Honors List 2018)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Ben Goldacre . PFD Group . Archived from the original on February 8, 2007. Retrieved December 16, 2010.
2. ^ ^{A b c} Ben Goldacre: Bad Science . Fourth Estate , London September 2008, ISBN 978-0-00-724019-7 , OCLC 259713114 .
3. ↑ http://www.alltrials.net/supporters/ alltrials.net. Retrieved December 20, 2013
4. ↑ Ben Goldacre: About Dr Ben Goldacre . Retrieved August 14, 2008.
5. ↑ Staff list . Institute of Psychiatry . Retrieved August 14, 2008.
6. ↑ Ben Goldacre: badscience.net . Retrieved August 14, 2008.
7. ^ Goldacre B. (2008). A quick fix would stop drug firms bending the truth . The Guardian .
8. ^ Goldacre B. (2008). The danger of drugs ... and data . The Guardian .
9. ↑ ^{a b} Ben Goldacre: Don't dumb me down . The Guardian . September 8, 2005. Retrieved August 14, 2008.
10. ^ Goldacre B. (2008). Fluoride, teeth, and an argument that's full of holes . The Guardian .
11. ↑ Ben Goldacre: Brought to book: the poo lady's PhD . The Guardian. February 7, 2007. Retrieved August 14, 2008.
12. ^ Goldacre, Ben: Bad Science Bingo, with Jeni Barnett . Bad Science . February 3, 2009. Retrieved December 16, 2010.
13. ↑ Ben Goldacre: Exercise the brain without this transparent nonsense . The Guardian. March 25, 2006. Retrieved August 14, 2008.
14. ^ Goldacre B. (2008). Depression - the facts and the fables . The Guardian .
15. ^ Goldacre B. (2008). Missing in action: the trials that did not make the news . The Guardian .
16. ↑ Ben Goldacre: Troubled water . The Guardian. February 10, 2005. Retrieved August 14, 2008.
17. ↑ Ben Goldacre: Dr Gillian McKeith (PhD) continued . The Guardian. September 30, 2004. Retrieved August 14, 2008.
18. ↑ Owen Gibson: TV dietician to stop using title Dr in adverts . The Guardian. February 12, 2007. Accessed August 11, 2020.
19. ↑ No way to treat an AIDS hero. Published January 20, 2007. Accessed September 3, 2008
20. ↑ 'Gambia's president may be weird, but Aids superstitions strike closer to home' The Guardian. Released January 27, 2007. Accessed September 3, 2008.
21. ↑ 'How money is not the only barrier to Aids patients getting hold of drugs' The Guardian. Released February 17, 2007. Accessed September 3, 2008.
22. ↑ ^{a b} Sarah Boseley: Fall of the doctor who Said his vitamins would cure AIDS , The Guardian. September 13, 2008. 
23. ^ Ben Goldacre: Matthias Rath drops his million pound legal case against me and the Guardian . badscience.net. September 12, 2008. Retrieved September 13, 2008.
24. ↑ Ben Goldacre, badscience.net, 9 April 2009, Matthias Rath - steal this chapter
25. ↑ Ben Goldacre: The Science Lie . Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag , Frankfurt a. M. 2010, ISBN 978-3-596-18510-8 .
26. ^ Richard Smith: Becoming Ben . In: British Medical Association (Ed.): BMJ . 337, No. 337, London, October 1, 2008, ISSN  0959-8138 , p. A1856. Retrieved March 27, 2009.
27. ↑ Ed Lake: Review: Bad Science by Ben Goldacre . Daily Telegraph. September 26, 2008. Retrieved March 27, 2009.
28. ↑ Ben Goldacre interviewed on the Australian Broadcasting Company's The Science Show, Part 2 .
29. ↑ Ben Goldacre: Bad Pharma . Fourth Estate , London September 2012, ISBN 978-0-00-735074-2 , OCLC 812698807 .
30. ↑ Ben Goldacre: The Pharma Lie . Kiepenheuer & Witsch , Cologne August 2013, ISBN 978-3462045772 .
31. ↑ ^{a b} amazon.com
32. ↑ Ben Goldacre: I Think You'll Find It's a Bit More Complicated Than That ( English ). Fourth Estate , London October 2014, ISBN 9780007462483 , OCLC 2045962215 .
33. ^ Science Writers Awards - Winners 2003 . Syngenta ABSW Science Writers' Awards. Archived from the original on August 29, 2008. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved August 14, 2008. 
34. ↑ Ben Goldacre: Never mind the facts . The Guardian. December 11, 2003. Retrieved August 14, 2008.
35. ↑ ABSW Science Writers' Awards - Winners 2005 . Syngenta ABSW Science Writers' Awards. Archived from the original on August 29, 2008. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved August 14, 2008. 
36. ↑ 2007 Award for statistical excellence in journalism . Royal Statistical Society. Archived from the original on December 1, 2007. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved August 14, 2008. 
37. ↑ Ben Goldacre: When the facts get in the way of a story . The Guardian. April 1, 2006. Retrieved August 14, 2008.
38. ↑ Highlights from Newsletter no 62, July 2006 . HealthWatch . July 2006. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved August 14, 2008. 

Web links

• Bad Science - Goldacres website