Trial By Error, by David Tuller
-
My Letter to IBS Study’s Corresponding Author
I am slowly getting back to my efforts to highlight Mahana Therapeutics’ continuing misrepresentation of its new web-based cognitive behavior therapy program for irritable bowel syndrome. In January, the start-up company that it had licensed the program from King’s College London, based on a high-profile study published last year in Gut, a BMJ journal. The…
-
Norway’s Proposed Lightning Process Trial
Last year, Archives of Disease in Childhood slapped a 3000-word correction on a University of Bristol study of the Lightning Process. The lead investigator was Bristol’s ethically and methodologically challenged pediatrician, Professor Esther Crawley, who failed to disclose to the journal that the study had violated core scientific principles. As I have previously stated, the…
-
Oxford Health’s Response to My Freedom of Information Request
A few weeks ago, the Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust posted a pamphlet about coronavirus and fatigue that could have been written by the GET/CBT ideological brigades in the 1990s. It was attributed to–or blamed on?–a mysterious entity called the “psychosocial response group.” No information about these psychosocialists was available on the trust’s website, as…
-
A Letter to Mahana’s NHS-Linked Business Adviser
One of Mahana Therapeutics’ business advisers is Dr Harpreet Sood, identified as the National Health Service’s associate chief clinical information officer. (Actually, Mahana seems to have it wrong; it looks like Dr Sood is still be at the NHS but moved on a while ago to another position. I guess accuracy isn’t Mahana’s strong suit.…
-
Another Nudge to Mahana’s Gasteroenterology Advisers
Back in February, I wrote to some science advisers to Mahana Therapeutics to alert them to the company’s unjustified claims about the impact of its web-based program on the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome. Two of them–Dr Peter Lu and Dr Carlo di Lorenzo–are gastroenterology specialists at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, a renowned…
-
More on the Mahana Mess…
If you appreciate this piece and/or my work in general, here’s a link to my current UC Berkeley crowdfunding effort: https://crowdfund.berkeley.edu/project/20159 ********** Today I sent a third letter to Dr Mel Heyman, a prominent gastroenterologist at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr Heyman is one of Mahana Therapeutics’ science advisers. I’ve been trying to understand…
-
My Follow-Up Freedom-of-Information Request to Oxford Health
Given that Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust has removed the coronavirus-and-fatigue pamphlet containing the antidiluvian medical advice, I have sent a freedom-of-information request to follow up on one I sent the other day. ********** Dear FOI office: I am a public health researcher and journalist at the University of California, Berkeley. I recently filed a freedom of…
-
Oxford Health Blinks, Removes Pamphlet on Post-COVID Illness
In this traumatic time, small victories should be savored. Last week, I noticed a tweet from patient and advocate Tom Kindlon about a pamphlet from the Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, the entity that oversees NHS services in the Oxford region. Other patients and advocates also flagged it on social media and sent it to…
-
My FOI Letter about Oxford’s Post-COVID-19 Fatigue Pamphlet
If you appreciate this piece and/or my work in general, here’s a link to my current UC Berkeley crowdfunding effort: https://crowdfund.berkeley.edu/project/20159 ********** As I reported yesterday (oops!–it was Thursday, not yesterday–this is a correction made a few minutes after posting!), the Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, which oversees NHS services in the area, recently published a…
-
A Follow-Up to the Follow-Up Letter to Mahana
On the Mahana Therapeutics website, Robert Paull, the CEO and co-founder, explains in a statement that his personal interest in developing treatments for GI problems arose out of the longtime suffering of a family member. His account is heartfelt and compelling. Unfortunately, Mr Paull and his company have placed their bets on the wrong horse.…
-
Oxford-NHS Recommends GET/CBT for Post-COVID “CFS” Patients
If you appreciate this piece and/or my work in general, here’s a link to my current UC Berkeley crowdfunding effort: https://crowdfund.berkeley.edu/project/20159 ********** Since the coronavirus epidemic hit, people with ME have been concerned about the possibility of a secondary wave of post-COVID-19 cases of prolonged disease–especially given emerging evidence of neurological complications of the illness. Key…
-
Revisiting Mahana and Irritable Bowel Syndrome…
As the world continues to wrestle with the coronavirus epidemic, President Trump is calling on us here in the US to get back to work. So I decided to start seeking answers again from Mahana Therapeutics, which announced in January that it had licensed a web-based cognitive behavior therapy program for irritable bowel syndrome from…