Archives: Seminars

Is scientific evidence underpinning the THR dialogue or is ideological opposition influencing the debate?    

Cochrane is a global non-profit, known for producing unbiased and high-quality reviews of healthcare evidence. The Cochrane review of e-cigarettes for smoking cessation was first published in 2014 and has been updated four times since then. Every update brings more evidence showing that e-cigarettes can help people quit smoking, but disagreements persist on interpretation of… Read more »

Every researcher can be potentially motivated by factors other than an objective search for truth. The clinical research community has addressed some of these factors by requiring declarations of competing interests. These mostly focus on financial links with companies that may stand to gain or lose from findings or views being presented. The rules are… Read more »

Science is a social activity embedded within a complex research ecosystem, and conducted by highly-trained individuals who are nevertheless human. There are therefore external and internal factors – incentives and cognitive biases – that can shape the behaviour of scientists, the questions they ask, the methods they use, the analytical choices they make, and the… Read more »

The  public health tobacco goal is to prevent early death and disease caused by burnt tobacco products, especially cigarettes. The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control  (FCTC), which came into force 15 years ago, is central to this endeavour. A first step is for all countries to ensure the effective and equitable implementation of the… Read more »