AI cancer screening rollout should be accelerated in the NHS | Letters

The stark mismatch between government rhetoric around the use of artificial intelligence and its implementation in the NHS in England is highlighted in your article (‘Ridiculous’ cuts to AI cancer tech funding in England could cost lives, experts warn, 31 March).At the 2024 Labour party conference, Wes Streeting told his audience that AI “is happening” and made specific mention of its use in the diagnosis of skin cancer. The reality is different. Although AI for the diagnosis of skin lesions has indeed been successfully piloted by NHS England, its rollout has been significantly slowed over the last 12 months because of uncertainty relating to an early value assessment (EVA) by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice). The EVA started in October 2023, with final recommendations only due to be published shortly

Sir Torquil Norman obituary

Torquil Norman, who has died aged 91, was successively a naval pilot, banker and businessman, philanthropist and toymaker. He created several popular toys of the 1980s and 90s, before using his wealth and powers of persuasion to buy the then disused Roundhouse building in north London and raise £30m to restore it to a successful arts and concert venue.In a long and varied career, perhaps somewhat at variance with his establishment background, he opened the swimming pool in the garden of his St John’s Wood home each summer for local children, set up with his wife a charitable trust to support young people, was a supporter of the anti-apartheid and anti-slavery campaigns and argued for social and political reform, national community service and constitutional change.He was the third son of Sir Nigel Norman, a civil engineer whose firm designed London’s first commercial airport at Heston, Middlesex, close to where Heathrow is now, as well as several other prewar airfields, and Patricia (nee Annesley), Torquil’s first name being a nod to her Catholic, northern Irish roots. Nigel was a pioneer aviator and flew Torquil to Switzerland at the age of six to seek treatment for his tuberculosis

Ozempic is hailed as a miracle drug. But how does it affect people with eating disorders?

Doctors worry about GLP-1s being used by people with restrictive eating disorders – but research also shows they could help others struggling with binge eatingGLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic have, in three short years, changed our attitudes to the body. They’ve revived a cultural fervor for thinness that has been blamed for everything from the closure of wine bars to killing off the body positivity movement. What began as a seeming miracle drug posited to help those most in need of losing weight for health reasons has led to a clamor in which one in eight Americans have tried the drugs and telehealth companies have offered cheaper off-brand versions with very little oversight.Ozempic (the brand name for semaglutide) and other GLP-1s mimic a natural hormone in the body, stimulating insulin and slowing the rate of stomach emptying after eating, increasing one’s sense of fullness. But the very qualities that make GLP-1s such powerful tools for weight loss also make them potentially dangerous for those who struggle to adequately feed themselves

Plan to increase access to NHS dentists in England ‘a complete failure’, MPs say

The official plan to increase access to NHS dental services in England has been a “complete failure”, and some of the government’s initiatives have worsened the crisis, a damning report warns.Millions of patients continue to be denied dental care, forcing them to pay for private treatment, build up mountains of credit card debt, or even worse perform dangerous DIY dentistry on their own teeth, the research by MPs found.Without immediate and significant changes to fix the “broken” system, there would be no future for population-wide access to NHS dentistry, the report by the public accounts committee (PAC) said.“This country is now years deep in an avalanche of harrowing stories of the impact of dentistry’s system failure,” said Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the chair of the committee. “It is utterly disgraceful that, in the 21st century, some Britons have been forced to remove their own teeth

David Taylor obituary

My husband, David Taylor, who has died of cancer aged 78, missed out on a planned career in medicine but ended up making almost certainly a greater contribution to public health through research and policy development, latterly as professor of pharmaceutical and public health policy at University College London.David had a rare ability to work with people of different professions and persuasions to achieve consensus without compromising his own values and goals. He was adept at popularising complex pharmaceutical issues and bridging the policy and industry worlds. An inspirational lecturer and mentor to research students, he was a passionate champion of marginalised groups.Born in Kingston upon Thames, south-west London, David was the eldest son of Doris (nee Manser), a hospital pharmacist, and Edwin (Bill) Taylor, a research chemist

‘Generational shift’: UK gyms busier than ever as gen Zers ditch pub for pilates

Record numbers of Britons are going to the gym, as the desire of many gen Zers to socialise while getting fit instead of drinking in the pub drives an unprecedented surge in membership, a report shows.In all, 11.5 million people aged 16 and over– a new high – now belong to a gym in the UK, a rise of 1.6 million from 2022. It means one in six people have taken out a membership