Behind the Headlines

Are 'turbocharged' immune cells key to cancer cure?

Friday Jan 4 2013

"Immune system 'booster' may hit cancer," BBC News reports. The headlines follow Japanese research where stem cells were used to clone and produce large numbers of a specialised type of white blood cell...

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2012 Quiz of the Year

Monday Dec 31 2012

Have you been paying attention to the health news during 2012? If so, why not try our quiz of the year…

Calls for cosmetic surgery shake-up

Monday Dec 31 2012

Public calls for tighter regulation of the cosmetic surgery sector in the wake of the PIP breast implant scandal have been widely reported in the media.

The year in headlines: 2012

Friday Dec 28 2012

Here are our favourite, most popular, most controversial and most diverting stories that we've delved into over the course of 2012...

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The Behind the Headlines' Top Five of Top Fives

Thursday Dec 27 2012

As we move towards the end of the year, like all news sources, we fall back on that classic space filler – the list story. So without further ado, here is the official Behind the Headlines' Top Five of Top Fives stories of the year...

The 'news in numbers' – a 'statistical snapshot' of a week's news

Monday Dec 24 2012

We love numbers at Behind the Headlines – statistics are our stock-in-trade. So as a fun experiment we decided to take a look at an average week of health news, break it all down, stick in a spreadsheet and see what patterns emerged…

'Little point taking antibiotics for coughs'

Wednesday Dec 19 2012

'Antibiotics 'ineffective for coughs' BBC News reports while the Daily Mail adds that widely used antibiotics such as amoxicillin 'may be harmful'. Both headlines are promoted by an ambitious study in the Lancet comparing amoxicillin to a placebo...

New NHS planning guidance puts patient first

Tuesday Dec 18 2012

Many of the newspapers are reporting on the publication of new planning guidance for the NHS, released by the NHS Commissioning Board, which they say will "drive a revolution for patients…giving them greater control of their health"...

Winterbourne View failures lead to care system review

Tuesday Dec 11 2012

“Fine and ban care home abuse bosses,” the Daily Mirror demands, while the Daily Mail says that “there must be a complete culture change in treatment” for care centres. Both headlines are in response to a Department of Health report...

Not touching face may help cut flu risk

Monday Dec 3 2012

'Want to avoid flu? Stop touching your face!' is the advice in the Daily Mail. It is based on a recent study in Brazil which found that on average, people touched their face 3.6 times per hour, which could make frequent hand washing less effective…