You can read Ray’s latest BMJ column – inspired by Dave Egger’s classic novel “The Circle” here

The BMJ column explores the critically acclaimed novel’s take on the future of medicine – and our obsession with measuring everything.

From the February BMJ column: “Leaving aside concern about government or corporate misuse of data, our obsession with quantification—unmodified by uncertainty and by clear awareness of limitations—carries its own tyranny. Our faith in medical numbers, sometimes little more than fabricated fictions arbitrarily interpreted, demands a reality check.”

Ray’s latest column in the British Medical Journal celebrates a fantastic song by one of Australia’s great bands, and the potential healing power of music. Here you can read the full text of Times like these you need some One Four Five

In Ray’s latest feature article for the British Medical Journal he explores medicine’s obsession with relying on “proxy” measures of health – things like cholesterol or bone mineral density numbers.

As the article explains, “…the grand assumption that helping a person’s numbers will automatically improve their health, is a delusion as dangerous as it is seductive.”

Yale University Professor Harlan Krumholz says we’re all being far too “cavalier” in our reliance on numbers, and evidence-based medicine architect Professor Gordon Guyatt calls for a new approach that focuses on improving people’s health, not their numbers.

You can read the BMJ feature for free here