Who
Our journal club is mainly delivered by UK Internal Medicine Trainees in order to improve their critical thinking skills when reading ever emerging evidence in medical journals.
Where
Papers are critically appraised with standardised tool and discussion is published on the journal club’s website. Medics then engage in live discussion via Twitter using hashtag #scepticalmedic
When
Posts on the website are published once monthly seven days prior the discussion on Twitter. Live Twitter feed starts every first Thursday in the month.
Recently appraised
- HIV treatment lopinavir-ritonavir in COVID-19In pursue of effective treatment for severe COVID-19 many different antiviral medication have been used. Combined HIV treatment lopinavir-ritonavir showed some inhibitory activity against SARS-CoV-1 and therefore was trialled in new coronavirus causing COVID-19.
- Remdesivir in severe COVID-19While the world awaits an efficient vaccine for coronavirus, many therapeutics are currently being investigated in hope to improve clinical outcomes. One of the most promising one is currently remdesivir. Wang et al. published the first randomised placebo-controlled trial of its use in severe COVID-19.
- Higher and lower LDL target after ischaemic strokeHigh intensity statin for secondary prevention after ischaemic stroke is standard of therapy. What should be the level of LDL and if lower levels have better outcomes is less clear. Treat Stroke to Target trial had looked into outcomes of patients after ischaemic stroke treated to higher and lower LDL target.