New Health Watch chairman
At a recent meeting of the charity Health Watch, consultant orthodontist and long term BOS member Keith Isaacson, was elected as chairman. Keith has been a member of Health Watch virtually since its inception in 1992, however when he joined it was called ‘Quack busters’. The name was changed to a more formal title when it became a charity. Its aim is to ensure that media coverage of evidence-based medical treatment is accurate.
Keith provides a dental input to the committee and he has also written articles for the Health Watch newsletter on such subjects as statins, macular degeneration and malaria. His most recent contribution was in response to articles in the BDJ on the use of homeopathy in dentistry.
Health Watch awards an annual prize to a clinician, research worker or journalist who is considered to have made a significant contribution to the public awareness of untried and unproven treatment, whether mainstream or complementary. Past recipients of the Health Watch prize include journalist John Diamond who was in the advanced stages of cancer when he received the award, journalist Ben Goldacre who writes the ‘Bad science’ column in The Guardian, and cardiologist Peter Wilmhurst who was sued by a US company (he was not prepared to put his name to a research project when some of the unsatisfactory findings of a trial he conducted for them were kept secret). This year’s prize winner was Brian Deer the journalist from the Sunday Times, who uncovered Dr Wakefield’s part in the MMR scandal.
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