... what makes it really interesting is not so much for its findings but for its size — 17 million subjects — which is possible because of its innovative methods. In Britain, we have an incredible scientific resource: a centrally controlled health system which in theory gives researchers access to data of the entire population.
Is this a good thing or a bad thing?
They will take credit for any positive result and the money it generates for them!!!
While blaming everything else on the patient health, inability to pay, lack of proper insurance, and lack of helpful medications that cure not corrupt the body into a further medical disasters!!!
I loath big pharma and and the US medical mafia. If this story were about research on this side of the pond, I would be terrified about how the information would be manipulated and corrupted for profit.
But its not in the US. It is in the UK - a country with socialized medicine, and the data, open source, managed brilliantly and ethically for the betterment of the whole world. This is science, this is medicine.
For any of y'all corrupt US profittering types who want to pick on my choice of descriptives concerning the filth we in the US call medical care...my choices are deliberate and literal.
Look up the definition of mafia, specifically the concept of the mafia "protection" racket...the main difference between the travesty we call "medical care" in this country and the black market "mafia protection racket"... the mob racket pays more dividends and is less greedy than the slimy demi-gods that run this effing country. Oh, yeah... I forgot the biggest difference..the black market mafia...is much less violent and murders a scant fraction of the people MDs in this country do.
edited to add:
lol, I forgot to mention the unflattering but valid comparison of a mob syndicate to the HMO. lol, same exact model, same exact thing.
@Jetty Thank you for the nod of validation. I have been having a hard time on this site with a few folks insisting on trashing me for my stance on this issue. I am biased against the medical industry in this country. As I approached sixty and was informed that I was terminally ill due to an injury and the malfeasance of a surgeon, I finally woke up...I am both pissed to the core and dedicated to bringing this system tumbling down. The majority of people I have seen die in this country have died due to medical neglect, malfeasance, or corruption. As I was a hospice social worker at the height of the AIDS pandemic, I have seen thousands die. Its time for folks to wake up, its time to bring this hidious and cruel system down.
How is this NOT a GOOD thing ?
. . . you might have mentioned :
"It’s also all completely open-source, so anyone can download, use, or check the code behind the OpenSAFELY system that runs it; and, Goldacre points out to me, it “essentially forces” everyone who wants to use it for their own research to similarly share their code, which is sadly necessary sometimes.
As Goldacre says in this more in-depth examination, it would be completely unthinkable to share the data of 40% of the UK population in the traditional, download-a-dataset-and-run-analyses way. But by breaking it apart like this, doing it in-house, and making the more abstracted versions available, he and his team were able to get access to 17 million people’s data without compromising their privacy."
@Jetty "abstracted versions"
. . . also, there are necessary and beneficial reasons for epidemiologists to access large populations.
You are so lucky to have NHS. Health care in United States is employer based. A lot of people aren't covered. It sucks.
@Jetty Not all 27 million are poor. Many are owners and self employed. Restaurant and retail workers. Most American have employer based health care, Low income get Medicaid. Many of those in between get Obamacare which is subsidized. That kills the Republicans. They hate working class although some of the Trumpers are working class. But they're whites who will vote against their own interest just to stick it to the blacks. So fucked up in this country.