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Best-selling author to research transparency and reliability of clinical trials in the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences.

Dr Ben Goldacre, the author, broadcaster, campaigner, medical doctor and academic, known for his best-selling book Bad Science and weekly column in the Guardian, begins a three-year project this month at Oxford University which aims to improve the transparency and reliability of clinical trials in medicine and randomised experiments in social policy.

Based with the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences’ Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, the project is being funded by a grant from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation.

The work includes development of a Trials Transparency Index, designed to rate the commitment to clinical trial transparency, along with projects on retracted papers, and randomised trials in public policy.

Originally trained in medicine in Oxford and London, Ben has recently co-founded the AllTrials campaign with Oxford University’s Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, the BMJ, Cochrane Collaboration, James Lind Alliance, PLOS and Sense about Science. He is also the founder and director of BetterData, a non-profit organisation building fun projects to create and use data more effectively in healthcare and academia. 

Professor Richard Hobbs, Head of Department said:

"We are delighted to welcome Ben Goldacre to the department. His academic work here will link mainly with the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine aimed at providing improved public access to clinical trials and their data.” 

 

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