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    Copyright trollery. MMSE takedown of open-access equivalent.

    This is silly copyright trolling: the makers of the widely used 30 point MMSE score for cognitive functioning have popped up, started demanding payment wherever it's used, and are now blocking use of a sensible sounding alternative.  I've got the  MMSE stored in my memory: if I write a score in patient notes, mentioning where points were dropped, am I infringing?

    Covered in two places:

    NEJM:
    http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1110652
     
    Mind Hacks:
    http://mindhacks.com/2011/12/29/diagnostic-test-takedown-by-copyright-bullies/

     

    Your job is to guess which of those two outlets said this:

    "Cashing-in on a simple and now, clinically essential, bedside test that you’ve ignored for three decades makes you seem, at best, greedy.

    "Taking down open-access equivalents because they also ask people the location and date and to remember a handful of words and numbers makes you a seem like a cock and a danger to clinical progress."

     

    • 29 December 2011
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    5 months ago wassabeee (Twitter) responded:
    30bb21ec-362c-4f38-86a9-5f3a01372267_normal
    The Folsteins and McHugh are rather late in jumping on the band wagon of copyrighted clinical assessment tools.

    About 12 years ago a research project I was leading was denied access to the numbers from which UK growth charts are produced. I gather from the RCPCH website that they have progressed from copywrong to copyleft. But it looks as if they still tightly control access to numbers and high resolution images that were produced by public funding for public health.

    5 months ago Finn Årup Nielsen liked this post.

  • Ben Goldacre's Space

    I like stats. I'm a doctor. I write about dodgy scientific claims in my spare time.

    This isn't my main blog. Find me here:

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  • About Ben Goldacre

    I like stats. I'm a doctor. I write about dodgy scientific claims in my spare time.

    This isn't my main blog. Find me here:

    Blog:
    www.badscience.net/

    Book:
    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bad-Science-Ben-Goldacre/dp/000728487X/?tag=bs0b-21

    Tweet:
    www.twitter.com/bengoldacre

    TED talk:
    http://www.ted.com/talks/ben_goldacre_battling_bad_science.html

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