Studying community health – 6pm, Wednesday 8th April

How do doctors make a decision on what new treatments reach the patient?What can we learn from studying community health?The press and other media are full of stories proclaiming the next miracle cure or drug for one disease or another. Sometimes you might receive the latest drug from your GP and sometimes not. Have you ever wondered what decisions doctors take when prescribing your medicine?

On Wednesday 8th April, the audience at Sensation learnt how the trial of new drug treatments in different communities is vitally important to gather information, which can be used to treat patients across the whole of the UK.

Dr Pauline Lockhart from the University of Dundee discussed how large scale trials are co-ordinated and gave examples from her latest research, some of which was performed in Dundee. Pauline’s talk and the following discussion focussed on depression and anti-depressant medication.

We were so impressed by Pauline’s talk that we have asked her to present another talk at the beginning of 2010.