John Williams
@johnhuww.bsky.social
160 followers 39 following 3K posts
wine, gardens, churches and Wales will feature. Professionally interested in health and life sciences, mental health, academic clinical careers and science policy in general. I cross boundaries. @wi_john
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johnhuww.bsky.social
Essential listening for anyone interested in the US - “in the new series, we’ll be attempting to put Trump’s foreign policy in a historical context, we’ll be discussing the enduring myth of the frontier, and asking how history will judge Joe Biden.” podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...
The Last Best Hope: Series 14
Podcast Episode · The Last Best Hope? · S14 Trailer · 2m
podcasts.apple.com
johnhuww.bsky.social
They Helped Topple Roe v. Wade. Now Their Sights Are Set on Britain.

“An organization that fought abortion rights in the United States is now an unlikely conduit between MAGA Republicans and Britain’s ascendant Reform U.K. party.”

Deeply troubling…

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/13/w...
They Helped Topple Roe v. Wade. Now Their Sights Are Set on Britain.
www.nytimes.com
johnhuww.bsky.social
Was this in the Life Sciences Sector Plan !
johnhuww.bsky.social
“From 2026-27, the Treasury has said it will introduce 2 permanently lower tax rates for retail, hospitality & leisure properties with rateable values below £500,000… “sustainably” funded by a higher multiplier to all properties above £500,000, which would include larger labs & R&D facilities.”!
johnhuww.bsky.social
“The increase is expected to be particularly acute in facilities in the life sciences sector’s so-called “Golden Triangle” of London, Oxford and Cambridge, where rateable values are higher.”
johnhuww.bsky.social
“More than a hundred lab and R&D facilities could be affected by a new higher tax rate, which coupled with an increase in rental values could raise their total business rates liability to about £165 million from £110 million, according to estimates by the British Property Federation (BPF).”
johnhuww.bsky.social
Business rates reform could pummel life sciences sector: “The UK’s top laboratories & R&D centres could be facing an annual £50 million increase in business rates from next year… the move could hamper one of the country’s key growth sectors.”

www.thetimes.com/article/2919...
Business rates reform could pummel life sciences sector
More than a hundred laboratories and R&D facilities could be hit hard by a new higher tax rate
www.thetimes.com
johnhuww.bsky.social
“The EMBA gave me the ability to not simply copy and paste a policy, but to take a larger, systemic view — and to do transformational work.”
johnhuww.bsky.social
Investing in executive training for health system leaders is important:

“I didn’t embark on the EMBA to get a leadership position — I already had one. It was more about a challenge in the position I already had,& thinking about how to develop & adapt it, modernise my approaches”

on.ft.com/4n7G7EN
How an executive MBA helped in the fight against cancer
Study story: Viviane Joalland signed up for an EMBA to develop her leadership role in the French health sector
on.ft.com
johnhuww.bsky.social
The company is running 2 trials, each with 1,800 patients & lasting 3 years & 4 months, across 30 countries..Hölscher said that in the field of dementia, the scale of the research was “colossal . . . I’ve never seen clinical trials like that before, so this is going to give us the definite answer”!
johnhuww.bsky.social
“Novo has always seen the trials as a “lottery ticket”. It is a high-risk, high-reward bet that has the potential to revive the Danish company’s beaten-down share price.”

on.ft.com/42EtHNk Novo Nordisk’s ‘lottery ticket’: can obesity drugs help treat Alzheimer’s?
Novo Nordisk’s ‘lottery ticket’: can obesity drugs help treat Alzheimer’s?
Results are due soon from two studies using semaglutide to treat thousands of people with the disease
on.ft.com
johnhuww.bsky.social
I have many larger ones literally “hanging” around on the garden… always fun to get caught in their huge webs 😱
johnhuww.bsky.social
It’s certainly has that GoT vibe….
johnhuww.bsky.social
It’s was hanging around on the outside of our living room window… a reminder of how good phone cameras are…
johnhuww.bsky.social
Deep down you know you want to !

“They want to shoot a cool machine gun out of a helicopter,”

“The fact that the target they’re shooting at happens to be a feral pig, which is an overpopulated nuisance species, is a bonus.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/s...
How to Deal With 30 to 50 Feral Hogs
www.nytimes.com
johnhuww.bsky.social
“There are no clear national guidelines for how transplant programs should weigh severe psychiatric disease. A 2017 paper in BMC Medical Ethics noted that while attitudes in the field were changing, there remained significant variability among institutions.”
johnhuww.bsky.social
Who Deserves an Organ? The Dilemma of Severe Mental Illness.

“Whether to list someone for transplant is one of the most fraught decisions in medicine. To identify the best candidates, programs evaluate patients through two lenses: medical and psychosocial.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/12/o...
Opinion | Who Deserves an Organ? The Dilemma of Severe Mental Illness.
www.nytimes.com
johnhuww.bsky.social
“I think you need a regulator that does that but you also need universities themselves to recognise and act to ensure they are protecting the interests of students.”

A fair comment…
johnhuww.bsky.social
“We must eliminate low quality and poor provision in higher education. This isn’t about penalising institutions. It’s about protecting students and raising standards across the sector.”
johnhuww.bsky.social
““So there is a fine balance to be struck here, around how do we ensure we have a stable higher education and further education sector but also how do we ensure it is also driving improvements in quality?”
johnhuww.bsky.social
“Some of these universities are the bedrocks of the local economies. If universities close in some of the northern towns, the impact on the local economy would be profound.”
johnhuww.bsky.social
“You have got to incentivise people to do the right thing, but what are the risks of using money as an incentive? What is the penalty? What is the consequence in a sector that is already very fragile? This would need to be understood and explored.”
johnhuww.bsky.social
Tuition fees set to be lowered at universities with poor teaching

“A Whitehall source said: “We won’t let universities charge maximum tuition fees if they are not providing high quality teaching & meeting the required standards of excellence that students deserve.”

www.thetimes.com/article/f8bb...
Tuition fees set to be lowered at universities with poor teaching
Labour is considering bringing the cap below £9,000 a year on campuses where standards aren’t met
www.thetimes.com