Bandolier On Patient Compliance
Having recently re-read a Bandolier review, Patient Compliance With Statins, I did a quick search and found that Bandolier has several articles referencing adherence and compliance. Consequently, I plan to devote the next few posts to a consideration of Bandolier’s take on the topic.
It seems only fair that today’s post be given over to an acknowledgement of the contribution of Bandolier to the dissemination of medical information, even though most readers will no doubt already be familiar with this publication.
Bandolier is an independent journal written by Oxford scientists with a self-described focus on evidence-based healthcare. First printed in February 1994, the journal has had an internet version since 1995. The printed version is available only by subscription, but copies are available without cost online six months after the initial publication date.
The Bandolier website itself describes their mission:
Each month PubMed and the Cochrane Library are searched for systematic reviews and meta-analyses published in the recent past. Those that look remotely interesting are read, and where they are both interesting and make sense, they appear in Bandolier, first in the paper version and, after six months, on the website.
Using the previously mentioned article, Patient Compliance With Statins, as an example is expeditious, since I have serendipitously read most of the original references.
The Bandolier review is clearer and more clinically useful, by a wide margin, than those originals with which I am familiar. This is, of course, as it should be, given that a review of the literature has the advantages, by definition, of a wider perspective as well as the capacity to assess which hypothesis were supported and which were debunked, which results were reproducible and which were situational quirks.
It must be said that this journal format also offers at least the potential for cherry picking the most advantageous targets for review and the most advantageous time frame for composing and publishing these reviews.
Regardless, Bandolier appears to fall into the “nobody does it better” category.
Bandolier’s straightforward writing style is matched by its online presentation, featuring text, graphs, and charts that are easy to view and to comprehend.
There is much to be gleaned here, by clinicians and by patients, and I’m looking forward to spending some time here over the coming days.
The online Bandolier journal can be accessed at the Bandolier Home Page
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