Inaugural lecture by Professor Neil Hawkins

Published: 28 June 2018

On 10 December 2018 IHW's Professor Neil Hawkins delivered his inaugural lecture on the theme of "reasonable" synthesis of evidence

Photo of Professor Neil Hawkins delivering his inaugural lectureProfessor Neil Hawkins' inaugural lecture was held on 10 December 2019 and enjoyed by all those who attended.

The lecture discussed why we increasingly see articles with attention-seeking titles such as “Why most published research findings are false”, “Why all randomised controlled trials produce biased results” and “Why clinical trial outcomes fail to translate into benefits for patients”.

Professor Hawkins drew upon experiences from his career, which has spanned basic pharmacological research, clinical development, and epidemiological research, to suggest three essential principles for the reasonable synthesis and criticism of hard-won scientific evidence and highlighted methodological work currently being undertaken within the HEHTA group to support the “reasonable” synthesis of evidence.


First published: 28 June 2018