Ben Goldacre

Ben Goldacre (* 1974) is a British physician and journalist. He is known primarily for his Bad Science column in the Guardian newspaper. He works full time for the National Health Service and is a licensed psychiatrist. He is also co-founder of AllTrials campaign - a campaign that promotes the Open Data for the listing of clinical trials in a register and the publication of results. His first book, also titled Bad Science, was released in September 2008.

Academic career

Goldacre studied medicine at the University of Oxford, where he graduated in 1995. Before joining the clinical medicine at University College London, he was a visiting researcher in cognitive neuroscience at the University of Milan, where he worked in the field of fMRI. He received a master's degree in philosophy at King's College London. He is a member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and a Research Fellow at the Institute of Psychiatry, King 's College London.

Bad Science column

Goldacre wrote a column titled Bad Science, published every Saturday in the British newspaper The Guardian. More detailed versions of the columns with reader comments will appear on his website badscience.net. In a satirical sound scientific inaccuracies, health alarmist, pseudo-science and quackery will come on the grain. The focus is on the mass media, the marketing of consumer products, problems with the pharmaceutical industry and its relationship to medical journals, as well as alternative and complementary medicine in the UK. For controversial topic of water fluoridation, he noted that " anyone who makes a confident statement about fluoride, goes far beyond the evidence ."

The focus of his criticism in particular are the nutritionist Gillian McKeith, anti-immunization (especially the followers of Andrew Wakefield ), Brain Gym ( a method of " brain training " ), antidepressants, publication bias and the manufacturer of the product Penta Water. When he took McKeith's membership in the American Association of Nutritional Consultants under the microscope, acquired Goldacre for $ 60 membership in this same organization, registered in the name of his dead cat. In February 2007, McKeith agreed not to use the title "doctor" in the future in their advertising after a bath science readers had complained to the Advertising Standards Authority.

2008, the controversial German doctor Matthias Rath sued Goldacre and the Guardian because of three articles in which Goldacre criticized Rath's commitment to the delivery of vitamin pills for the treatment of AIDS. Rath dropped the lawsuit in September 2008 fall and had to pay the newspaper costs about 220,000 pounds. The newspaper calling for the full reimbursement of the cost of 500,000 pounds, and Goldacre has expressed interest in writing a book about Rath and South Africa, as a chapter of his book could not be published as long as the action was pending. The chapter has been added in a later edition of the book and is also available online.

Book publications

Gold Acres first book Bad Science was published in September 2008, the German translation followed in 2010 under the title The science lie:. How do we pseudo - scientists life difficult. It contains extended and revised versions of many of his columns from the Guardian. Positive reviews have 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, was that there were no real differences between the $ 600 billion pharmaceutical industry and the $ 50 billion dietary supplement industry.

His second book, Bad Pharma appeared in September 2012 In 2013, the translation appeared in The Pharmaceutical lie:. How drug companies Doctors mislead and harm patients. The English version reached the top spot on Amazon bestseller list in Pharmacology. Goldacre argues in this book - as early as the 11th chapter of his first book - that doctors and patients need good scientific evidence in order to make well-informed decisions. However, as results from Goldacre, businesses operate legally on their own medicines deficient studies, which will be when they deliver unfavorable outcomes, not published. He also accuses government regulations, as this vital information held back by the toleration of this practice, which endanger a large number of patients.

Awards

Goldacre received for his work as a journalist several awards including:

• Award from the Association of British Science Writers in 2003 for his article " Never mind the facts".
• Award from the Association of British Science Writers in 2005 for his article "Do not dumb me down"
• Statistical Excellence in Journalism Award of the Royal Statistical Society for his article "When the facts get in the way of a story"
• HealthWatch Award for " significant steps to improve the understanding of health issues in public"