Jeremy Laurance



Profile:
Full name: Jeremy Laurance

Area of interest: Health developments and issues

Journals: The Independent

Email: [mailto:j.laurance@independent.co.uk j.laurance@independent.co.uk]

Personal website:

Website: Independent/Health & Families

Blog: Open House

Representation:

Networks:



Biography:
About:

Education: McMaster University, Ontario, Canada

Career: Health specialist at The Sunday Times, the Sunday Correspondent, The Times: health correspondent, 1991/1997, The Independent: health editor, 1997- Current position/role: Health editor


 * also writes/written for: The New Zealand Herald and has written freelance for most national newspapers and many magazines

Other roles: Through the Commonwealth Press Union and the British Council has run courses in health reporting for local reporters in developing countries around the world

Other activities:

Disclosures:

Viewpoints/Insight:

TV/Radio:

Video:

Controversy/Criticism: Damian Thompson: The people who believe that Satanists might eat your baby - The Daily Telegraph, 22nd March 2002 (mentions Jeremy Laurance retracted an article about ritual abuse based on false evidence)
 * see also: Beatrix Campbell's reporting of an "SRA" case

Awards/Honours:
 * British Medical Association Medical Journalist of the Year award, 1997
 * UK Medical Journalist's Association Health Journalist of the Year, 2004 (in a poll of the 350 members)
 * Guild of Health Writers Writing Award: Consumer Health Feature category, 2006: for A cynical trade measured in suffering - The Independent, 27th May 2005 (an article about the drain of medics from 'developed' to 'developing' countries)

Scoops:

Other:



Books & Debate:

 * Self-knowlege and self-deception (1974) OCLC 15765276
 * Agenda for health, 1988 (1988) OCLC 55155948
 * Pure madness: how fear drives the mental health system (2002) OCLC 50100752 (see: Prisoners in a fearful world, Camden New Journal, 21st August 2003)

Latest work:

Speaking/Appearances:

Current debate: 

The Independent:

 * no regular column

Section:

Role: Health editor

Pen-name:

Email: [mailto:j.laurance@independent.co.uk j.laurance@independent.co.uk]

Website:

Commissioning editor:

Day published:

Regularity:

Column format:

Average length:



Articles:

 * This will fuel fears of creeping privatisation - The Coalition's plan to open up the health care market to "any qualified provider" and to remove the cap on private earnings for foundation trusts are lightning rods for the opposition - 9th September 2011
 * Fiction it may be, but we should all learn how to avoid contagion - It would be funny, wouldn't it, if a Hollywood movie achieved more in the teaching of personal hygiene than 150 years of health education - 5th September 2011
 * The truth about social smoking - Feature: Surely just one or two cigarettes a day can't do us much harm – can they? Jeremy Laurance stubs out some medical myths - 31st August 2011
 * trust must not be betrayed in the wake of the riots'' - 24th August 2011
 * tale of one chimp can teach us a lot about human cruelty'' - Home from a holiday at the weekend to a story of bad parenting. No, nothing to do with the riots. We went to see Project Nim - 16th August 2011
 * dangerous power of healing hands'' - Who are the biggest serial killers in history? Doctors first, nurses second - 26th July 2011
 * is no one blowing the whistle on bad hospitals?'' - When a scandal breaks, one question people want answered is: why did no one raise the alarm? - 12th July 2011
 * compromise may offer the worst of all worlds'' - Lansley's Bill has been emasculated. The effect of the Coalition's "reform of the reforms" will be delay, less competition, more bureaucracy, less power for GPs, more for hospital doctors. It will mean a less efficient, less effective, less innovative NHS - 15th June 2011
 * wants to clean up the drug industry? I wish him luck'' - I usually try to avoid calling drug companies because I so rarely get a helpful response. But I had been encouraged by Andrew Witty, the 46-year-old wunderkind who heads GlaxoSmithKline, after he declared in The Times last week that he wanted to clean up the drug industry's image - 14th June 2011
 * Big Macs a day won't keep the doctor away'' - It's not what's in the burger that matters – though 725kg of fat, equivalent to the weight of a large polar bear, should clog a fair few arteries – but what is not in it - 24th May 2011
 * must speak up about this human rights scandal'' - The Independent received some dramatic stories from Bahrain last week of beatings and harassment endured by doctors and nurses at the hands of the security services - 10th May 2011
 * we really can think our way out of depression'' - Depressives everywhere rejoice! Your illness is recognised and your suffering acknowledged. Good news then - 29th March 2011
 * one wants to hear it – but some health cuts could be good for us'' - Can less ever be more? As we contemplate a frugal future, the question grows ever more relevant - 22nd March 2011
 * scale of the disaster will be revealed in radiation sickness'' - For the local population, the risk is of a long-term increase in cancer and possible genetic damage - 16th March 2011
 * wheelchairs to new breasts – what should the NHS pay for?'' - Medical Life - 8th March 2011
 * miracle recovery? Or just a long, slow road to nearly normal'' - What is sickness? What is health? What is "recovery"? - 1st March 2011
 * service that can't care has sown the seeds of its own destruction'' - The NHS remains an institution overly focused on the interests of the providers – the staff - 15th February 2011
 * swim alone'' - In his autobiography, Chance Witness, the writer and broadcaster Matthew Parris recounts how as a young Tory MP he once leapt into the Thames to rescue a stranger's dog - 8th February 2011
 * great strength is that they shared the ordeal'' - The Chandlers face another lengthy journey as they pick up the threads of the lives they left behind more than a year ago – but this one will be conducted in their heads - 16th November 2010
 * Ivory Coast, malaria is just another fact of daily life'' - Didier Drogba's brush with malaria is worrying for him and his fans, but would barely raise an eyebrow in his native country - 10th November 2010
 * surgery - welcome to choice'' - Performing operations only occasionally is unacceptable practice. Not in cosmetic surgery - 16th September 2010
 * of physical health are determined at birth'' - The worst outcome of today's report from the Medical Research Council would be a sudden increase in bone-crunching handshakes delivered by men – or women – anxious to hold the Grim Reaper at bay - 10th September 2010
 * companies must help the NHS reduce costs'' - How much is a cancer drug worth? That is the question at the heart of the dispute over the Government's planned emergency cancer drugs fund - 6th August 2010
 * the doctor can't tell us just how long we've got left to live'' - The diplomatic row over the release of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber, casts interesting light on how doctors judge the length of our lives - 4th August 2010
 * treatment will revolutionise distribution, reduce costs and dramatically improve safety'' - It is hard to create a new vaccine, but it can be harder still to distribute it. It can be expensive, too - 19th July 2010
 * this biblical plague is becoming possible'' - It looks ingenious. If you can't eradicate malaria in humans, why not do so in mosquitoes? It would accomplish a goal of which scientists hardly dared dream: a malaria-free world - 16th July 2010
 * may not like it, but we still need to be told what's good for us'' - 13th July 2010
 * NHS targets means happy doctors – and neglected patients'' - The bonfire of NHS targets is blazing nicely - 6th July 2010
 * light' system would have helped us'' - People don't like being told what to do. They want to be given the information so they can make choices for themselves. But this terrifies the food industry - 17th June 2010
 * this the start of a backlash against circumcision?'' - No issue divides medical and lay opinion like male circumcision. It may be the oldest and commonest surgical procedure in the world but longevity and frequency are no guarantee of acceptability - 15th June 2010
 * biggest puzzle is the rise in cases in the past 30 years'' - The authors dismissed suggestions that lifestyle changes were behind the 12-fold increase - 10th June 2010
 * Goldacre doesn't make everything better'' - Is Ben Goldacre, the celebrated author of Bad Science and scourge of health journalists everywhere, losing it? - 8th June 2010
 * it time your doctor had a thorough check-up?'' - Do you have confidence in your doctor? Good. Because there isn't much else to rely on - 1st June 2010
 * needs mavericks – but he was just wrong'' - A week after publishing his Lancet paper in 1998 which triggered the scare over the MMR vaccine, Andrew Wakefield said in an interview with The Independent: "If I am wrong I will be a bad person because I will have raised this spectre. But I have to address the questions my patients put to me. My duty is to investigate their stories." - 25th May 2010
 * the cost of living is high? Try the cost of dying'' - 11th May 2010
 * wins, these will be tough times for the NHS'' - I cannot remember a general election in which the NHS figured so little. Perhaps that is not surprising – no issue other than the economic crisis and immigration has had much airtime. As a policy-free election, this one breaks all records - 4th May 2010
 * risk profiling may be harmful if nothing can be done'' - 30th April 2010
 * diagnosis and treatment in one appointment'' - The biggest obstacle to screening for bowel cancer is the "yuck" factor - 28th April 2010
 * tragic timebomb that took Malcolm McLaren's life'' - 27th April 2010
 * for tribe, defeat for science'' - The compensation awarded to the Havasupai Indians is a victory for an isolated ethnic tribe. Its impact on medical research is harder to discern at this early stage but could be devastating - 23rd April 2010
 * will be alarmed – but change is long overdue'' - In an era of austerity, the temptation for the NHS to cut corners will be strong - 13th April 2010
 * it or not, there are worse things than mephedrone'' - One of the best pieces of advice I received as a parent of teenagers was from a friend who worked in a home for kids who had been in trouble with the law. "You can't stop them going at 100 miles an hour," he said. "The best you can hope for is to stop them going at 150 miles an hour" - 30th March 2010
 * health debate outsiders find hard to understand'' - Americans' affection for their deeply flawed health service – with the highest costs and poorest coverage (50 million uninsured) in the industrialised world – can be hard for outsiders to comprehend - 22nd March 2010
 * you advise your daughter to take the Pill?'' - "I will always be grateful to my mum for putting me on the Pill when I was 14." That was Tracey Emin's tribute for Mother's Day in The Independent last week - 16th March 2010
 * it makes you better, it doesn't really matter how it works'' - Everyone knows how believing a medicine can make you better is enough to make it so, even when the "medicine" contains no active ingredient at all - 2nd March 2010
 * doctors ever assist suicide?'' - There's a gap between what doctors collectively state and what individuals privately do - 18th February 2010
 * are down, flu is in retreat. Hurrah for the pandemic!'' - 17th February 2010
 * healthcare costs can only end in bankruptcy'' - It is to save the US from medical fee-induced bankruptcy that President Barack Obama has reaffirmed his intention to press on with healthcare reform - 9th February 2010
 * reforms? Americans should start with their diet'' - 2nd February 2010
 * happiness? Or was Kiki just smiling for the cameras?'' - Did you see the picture of Kiki, the eight-year-old boy pulled from the rubble in Haiti, after seven days entombed, greeting his mother with a wide smile and outstretched arms? - 26th January 2010
 * time, the doctors didn't know best'' - For the last decade the NHS has been involved in a giant management experiment. The new approach, dubbed dismissively "P45 targets", was adopted by Labour after years in which ministers had run the service from their Whitehall HQ using old-fashioned command management to deliver instructions to the front line - 20th January 2010
 * illegible notes will be with us for years'' - For the past 30 years the NHS has been trying to modernise its communications and update its computer systems and each time it has ended in disaster and cost millions - 19th January 2010
 * terrible harm that alternative medicine can do'' - Farewell then, Dr Beetroot. Your name will stand forever as a warning of the great damage alternative medicine can do - 12th January 2010
 * you want to get fit, nothing beats the great outdoors'' - The new cure-all for 2010 is, apparently, to be fresh air. Tear up those gym memberships and take to the hills, the health gurus advise - 5th January 2010
 * to remain optimistic in the face of the worrying facts'' - Optimism is a valuable commodity in medicine and the NHS Breast screening Service is no different from other organisations in putting the best possible spin on its considerable achievements - 29th December 2009
 * of the Year 2009: Swine flu'' - The pandemic that never quite arrived - 23rd December 2009
 * of medicine and ethics'' - The Israeli government deserves congratulation for its courage and innovation in adopting a radical new approach to the problem of organ transplantation - 18th December 2009
 * we must tackle this terrible stigma'' - Gordon Brown worries a lot about other people's mental health. But what about the mental health of Mr Brown's himself? - 15th December 2009
 * flu: the pandemic that ended with a whimper'' - So that's it. The swine flu pandemic of 2009 is over - 8th December 2009
 * alone will not prevent deaths'' - The NHS is going through a torrid time. The death of baby Ebony Rose McCall-Comley means more bad headlines, only days after the shocking report on conditions at Basildon and Thurrock NHS Trust, the sacking of the chairman of Colchester NHS Trust and the sudden resignation of Baroness Young, chair of the NHS regulator, the Care Quality Commission - 7th December 2009
 * this pandemic turn out to be more kitten than tiger?'' - Sir Liam Donaldson, the Government's Chief Medical Officer, let me have it with both barrels at last week's swine flu briefing - 24th November 2009
 * Belle de Jour won't be giving up the day job'' - 17th November 2009
 * we expecting too much from medicalised sex?'' - The launch of Viagra in 1998 was a landmark. Within weeks it became the world's fastest-selling drug, within four years it was being used by 20 million men worldwide, and within a decade it had spawned a dozen rivals - 17th November 2009
 * down by the reality of swine flu'' - We have to explain that science deals in probabilities, not certainties - 16th November 2009
 * can be as irrational about drugs as the rest of us'' - 3rd November 2009
 * niece had world-class emergency care – but now what?'' - 27th October 2009
 * breakthrough – but the real answer lies in exercise and diet'' - The first of a new class of slimming pill is bound to attract attention, especially when it comes with the backing of a leading obesity researcher and is published in an internationally respected medical journal - 23rd October 2009
 * goodbyes that keep our loved ones' memories alive'' - I had never seen human ash until Sunday morning, when my brother-in-law shook a small part of Grandma out of the green plastic urn into the lid and handed it to his sister, my wife - 20th October 2009
 * you should know before you pop a vitamin pill'' - 13th October 2009
 * we should pay to park – and be glad the care is free'' - 6th October 2009
 * swine flu jab is on the way – but do we want to have it?'' - 29th September 2009
 * it be a crime to help someone end their life?'' - Tomorrow Keir Starmer, director of public prosecutions, has promised to clarify when people who assist a relative or friend to end their lives may be liable for prosecution - 22nd September 2009
 * weird and wonderful ways of the human body'' - 15th September 2009
 * this retrograde law against donor anonymity'' - Payment for eggs should reflect the level of risk and commitment - 28th July 2009
 * the NHS run out of beds for critically ill children?'' - paediatric intensive care remains one of the most high-pressure services in the NHS – and the most vulnerable to being overwhelmed by swine flu - 24th July 2009
 * with swine flu? I'd be more worried about the traffic'' - Keep things in perspective," Andy Burnham, the health secretary, urged reporters yesterday while saying that his own family of three was "going about our normal business" during the swine flu epidemic - 21st July 2009
 * libel laws that threaten to stifle scientific debate'' - 14th July 2009
 * decision to end a life is never easy'' - 11th July
 * much information can be bad'' - Being told you have a life-threatening condition is no joke. The disease may be harmful, but so can the knowledge that you have it - 10th July 2009
 * mind the rhetoric – how do I find a good dentist?'' - 23rd June 2009
 * should feel lucky to be so well protected from disease'' - 16th June 2009
 * wanted. No previous experience necessary'' - Now we learn that a gardener was more adept with a scalpel and needle than the world's most famous surgeon - 2nd June 2009
 * services cannot recruit because of the Baby P effect'' - Last week was a grim one in the annals of child protection - 26th May 2009
 * remarkable feat for a man half his age'' - What makes reaching the summit among the toughest physical challenges around is the thinness of the air - 22nd May 2009
 * sick celebrity – and another cancer campaign'' - We citizens of the 21st century are pretty broad-minded about sex, aren't we? After 25 years of discussing the lubricious sexual practices associated with Aids, there is little left to shock us. Then along comes... Farah Fawcett, the 62-year-old American TV soap star and Seventies sex symbol, to remind us how wrong we were - 19th May 2009
 * all boys be circumcised?'' - New evidence suggests removal of the foreskin can protect not just against HIV, but other diseases that kill millions. Now some doctors are reconsidering their views on an ancient and controversial procedure - 19th May 2009
 * your health’s sake, kiss someone with swine flu today'' - Official advice is to avoid anyone with swine flu. But if you want protection against a virus that could return in a much nastier form next winter, the best thing you can do is catch it now - 12th May 2009
 * to live with a new look'' - It is three-and-a-half years since the world's first face transplant was carried out on Isabelle Dinoire, 41, who received the lips and chin of a dead woman - 7th May 2009
 * the first time, patients can vote with their feet'' - Last week a new boundary was crossed with the Government's decision to publish death rates for every hospital on the NHS Choices website - 5th May
 * drugs to those in need is the biggest challenge'' - This time we are better prepared with stocks of antiviral drugs and an emergency plan developed over the past five years - 28th April 2009
 * promise suggests his vision is simplistic'' - There will be no magic bullet that will cure all cancers. The war against the disease in the US and Britain will be extended and difficult. Obama has promised a cure for cancer "in our time". He may need to live to a grand age - 25th April 2009
 * decade of feasting, NHS faces famine again'' - For most of its 60-year history, the NHS has lurched from crisis to crisis - 24th April 2009
 * diseases: Back from the dead'' - Charles Dickens knew more than he would have wished about scarlet fever. His son, Charley, was afflicted by it, causing the family to leave Paris hurriedly and return to London in 1847, and it featured in several of his novels. It was a much-feared disease that caused devastating epidemics through the 19th and early 20th centuries, resulting in thousands of deaths - 21st April 2009
 * brilliant medical career this novelist never had'' - What sort of doctor would J G Ballard have made? The idea of the author of Crash, his novel about the erotic potential of car accidents, providing medical care to the survivors is distinctly surreal - 21st April 2009
 * the Government has really done for the NHS'' - Are you among those who accuse the Labour Government of betraying the NHS's founding principles by promoting privatisation of the service? If so, consider this... - 14th April 2009
 * the nanny state save us from our unhealthy diets?'' - When you next take your nine-year-old to Burger King or Pizza Hut for a treat, be prepared to be challenged on your nutritional principles. "What's a calorie, Dad? And why are you having that Whoppaburger, it's got far too many..." - 7th April 2009
 * the real reason we should eat up our greens'' - 31st March 2009
 * such a simple idea save thousands of lives?'' - Few ideas are simple in medicine but none is simpler than the polypill. A combination of five medicines in a single capsule, taken once a day, would be easy to remember, easy to take and, on the strength of the trial reported in today's Lancet, effective - 31st March 2009
 * in family planning should have halted the rise'' - The number of abortions has doubled since the early 1970s and is now at a record high. Terminations among women of all ages rose by 2.5 per cent in 2007 to 198,499 - 26th March 2009
 * an odd trial where you know the outcome before you start'' - Most medical research is funded by the drug industry; there can be no other source for the vast sums required - 24th March 2009
 * memorial is a rise in cervical cancer screening'' - No one has done more for cervical cancer prevention than Jade Goody - 23rd March 2009
 * failings of the NHS have been exposed'' - You only have to listen to the choice of language to understand the scale of the scandal exposed at Stafford Hospital - 18th March 2009
 * you don’t like the booze price hike, just wait for the fat tax'' - The chief medical officer made Gordon Brown choke on his favourite malt at the weekend with his proposal to slap a minimum price of 50p per unit of alcohol on booze - 17th March 2009
 * who now is the Basil Fawlty of the MMR controversy?'' - 10th March 2009
 * Is this the future of casualty departments?'' - The Royal London Hospital has one of the most advanced and successful trauma units in Britain - 26th February 2009
 * care isn’t just a right – we have a duty to use it wisely'' - 26th February 2009
 * ban smoking is one thing, but to ban smokers is quite another'' - 17th February 2009
 * parent's dream – and nightmare'' - For a whole football team (almost), an army of helpers will be required - 28th January 2009
 * it's the simple things that work best'' - Nothing better illustrates the urgent need for the surgical checklist, now to be implemented across England and Wales, than the terrifying experience of a woman patient admitted to a central London hospital last August for a gynaecology operation - 15th January 2009
 * Good news, but think twice before popping pills - Tuesday 29th July 2008
 * A revolutionary move that puts focus on real objective of NHS: better health - 11th July 2008
 * Bringing effective help to those who most need it - 4th June 2008 (about malaria and drug treatments)
 * The Big Question: Has research on embryos produced any significant medical advances yet? - 20th May 2008
 * The Big Question: What causes a man like John Prescott to suffer bulimia, and is it dangerous? - 22nd April 2008
 * The Big Question: Is changing our diet the key to resolving the global food crisis? - 16th April 2008
 * The Big Question: What are the risks of home births, and are they greater than in hospital? - 2nd April 2008
 * The vested interests that conspire to bury bad news - 26th February 2008
 * The Big Question: Should the media stop reporting the suicides in and around Bridgend? - 22nd February 2008
 * The Big Question: Are we on the brink of a breakthrough in the fight against prostate cancer? - 12th February 2008
 * The Big Question: What is the truth about skunk, and have the dangers been overstated? - 6th February 2008
 * Jeremy Laurance: How the search for free dental care became like pulling teeth - 11th January 2008
 * Shouldn't the RSPCA be advocating vegetarianism? - 3rd January 2008
 * How dangerous is boxing, and are doctors right to want to ban it? - 7th December 2007
 * Why are sexually transmitted infections rising, and what can the Government do? - 28th November 2007
 * This research may bring sanity to the weight debate - 8th November 2007
 * The Big Question: Where do the latest findings leave the debate on breast-feeding? - 7th November 2007
 * The Big Question: What is transcendental meditation, and is it the cure for society's ills? - 24th October 2007
 * The Big Question: What is so wrong with NHS dentistry that people are pulling their own teeth? - 16th October 2007
 * The Big Question: Why can't we keep our hospitals clean and protect patients from infection? - 12th October 2007
 * The Big Question: Why are allergies on the rise - and how can medicine combat them? - 27th September 2007
 * The Big Question: What is bluetongue, and does it spell disaster for Britain's farmers? - 25th September 2007
 * The Big Question: What is to show for the extra £43bn spent on the NHS in the last five years? - 12th September 2007
 * The Big Question: Are GPs really earning more money for less work? - 1st August 2007
 * The Big Question: Should organ donation be automatic or a matter of personal choice? - 18th July 2007
 * The Big Question: How do you deal with sex offenders, and does 'chemical castration' work? - 14th June 2007



Links:

 * The New Zealand Herald: articles