Welcome to HealthWatch

Welcome to HealthWatch HealthWatch is the UK charity that has been promoting science and integrity in healthcare since 1991. We promote: The assessment and testing of all medical and nutritional treatments, devices and procedures Consumer protection in regard to all forms of health care The highest standards of evidence-based education for clinical practitioners Improving media and public understanding of the importance of applying evidence from robust clinical trials We are against: Misleading advertising of health products The sale of unproven remedies to the vulnerable and desperate Unethical marketing by pharmaceutical companies Misconduct in clinical trials Media misinformation on health and nutrition Government promotion of health and screening programmes unsupported by evidence Our activities include public debates, awards, a student prize competition, and a quarterly newsletter. For more information see About HealthWatch. Please join us, and follow us on Twitter for news on evidence. Our honorary president is Nick Ross and our Patrons are Robin Ince, Professor Steve Jones FRS, Dr Margaret McCartney, Sir Michael Rawlins, Lord Dick Taverne QC, and Dr Sarah Wollaston. Please note that we are not connected with the NHS organisation "Healthwatch England". Latest news Contact us Join HealthWatch Annual HealthWatch Award Student Prize Newsletters Research Fund About HealthWatch HealthWatch review of the first 30 years' achievements Over 30 years HealthWatch has: RECOGNISED ACHIEVEMENT The HealthWatch annual award, inaugurated 1993, forms a pantheon of 27 names of those who have had a major impact on medical research or improvement in the public understanding health. Recipients include familiar names such as: broadcaster and agony aunt Claire Rayner BMJ editor Fiona Godlee Bad Science author Ben Goldacre the BBC’s Deborah Cohen cardiologist Peter Wilmshurst journalist John Diamond epidemiologist Sir Richard Doll. …and many more. DEBATED, EDUCATED, INFORMED HealthWatch popular public debates, lectures and symposia include: The Direction of Medical Research: Top-Down or Bottom-Up? Lord Saatchi’s Medical Innovation Bill Sugar and Tax Debunking False Health News & Views. Our speakers have included: HRA chair, Sir Michael Rawlins geneticist Steve Jones cardiologist Aseem Malhotra. The comedian Robin Ince has hosted a number of our debates. At the Symposium on Evidence, Healthcare and Medical Devices & Implants, held in 2019, Professor Carl Henegan, of Oxford University’s Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, collaborated with a team of HealthWatch healthcare professionals to devise better regulation of medical devices. HealthWatch committee experts have been interviewed on: BBC TV Newsnight BBC TV Panorama BBC Radio 4 Today Programme BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour. …as well as local radio news programmes and by national press and science media. INFLUENCED HEALTH POLICY Experts from HealthWatch committee and membership have been invited to respond to government consultations including: Professional Standards Authority (2019) UK Universities’ Research Integrity Concordat (2019) European Medicines Agency Draft Regulatory Science strategy to 2025 (2019) MHRA’s Relationship with the public (2019) House of Commons Select Committee “Screening” (2014) — oral evidence was also submitted Homeopathic Products (2006). HealthWatch experts have also appeared as Expert Witnesses for UK Trading Standards in cases involving the marketing of unproven health remedies. HealthWatch collaborated with the Stop the Saatchi Bill campaign in 2015 to prevent the passing of a Bill that could have exposed patients the harm of untested medicines without ethical protections. It has supported and exchanged campaigning principles and causes with sister organizations including: Sense About Science Full Fact Institute for Government Friends of Science in Medicine Students 4 Best Evidence. PUBLISHED Since 1992, HealthWatch has been producing a quarterly newsletter, which is a forum for informed articles, letters and discussion on evidence and integrity in health care. It is fully and freely accessible online. The organisation has published occasional peer-reviewed papers in: the British Medical Journal the Medico-Legal Journal Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies. …and in addition letters on evidence in healthcare from licensing of medical devices through trading standards to mammographic screening have appeared in mainstream media including The Times and The Telegraph. HealthWatch committee members maintain a lively social media presence. CONTESTED HEALTH MISINFORMATION This aim characterises all HealthWatch activities and achievements. It worked with the Charity Commission to challenge registration of organisations promoting hazardous health treatments and with Trading Standards to action the organisation’s extensive research into complaints on misleading medical claims for healthcare products. RESEARCHED HealthWatch has conducted research into the transparency of clinical trial reporting in the UK, and into transparency in the way European health agencies (including the UK’s NICE) assess new drugs. It supported a student-led project investigating the teaching of complementary and alternative medicine as part of medical school curricula. HealthWatch welcomes proposals for funding for further projects. REWARDED STUDENTS HealthWatch has been awarding an annual Student Prize for more than 17 years, handing over a combined total of some £20,000 to winners and runners-up. Since 2002 the objective of the competition is to cultivate evidence-evaluation in future health professionals.