Jeremy Howick

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Jeremy Howick
Born
Jeremy Howick

Montreal
NationalityCanadian and British
CitizenshipCanadian and British
EducationDartmouth College
London School of Economics
University of Oxford
Occupation(s)Philosopher, Epidemiologist
Years active2009–present
Known forDoctor You
The Philosophy of Evidence-Based Medicine
Medical career
ProfessionPhilosopher, clinical epidemiologist, teacher
InstitutionsUniversity of Leicester and University of Oxford
Sub-specialtiesevidence-based medicine, placebo and nocebo effects, empathy in medicine
Websitewww.jeremyhowick.com

Jeremy Howick is a Canadian-born, British residing clinical epidemiologist and philosopher of science.[1]

He is a professor and director of University of Leicester's Stoneygate Centre for Empathic Healthcare.[2]

He researches evidence-based medicine, clinical empathy and the philosophy of medicine, including the use of placebos in clinical practice and clinical trials.[3]

In 2016, he received the Dawkins & Strutt grant from the British Medical Association to study pain treatment.[4] He is a member of the Sigma Xi research honours society.[5]

Early life and education

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Howick, a native of Montreal, Canada, is a graduate of Westmount High School.[6] He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Engineering from the Dartmouth College, and graduate degrees from The London School of Economics and the University of Oxford.[7] His PhD in Philosophy of medicine at the London School of Economics was conducted under the supervision of Nancy Cartwright and John Worrall, with a thesis entitled Philosophical essentials in evidence-based medicine: Evaluating the epistemological role of double blinding and placebo controls, published in 2008.[8] He is the Director of the Oxford Empathy Programme[9] at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Oxford.

As a freshman at Dartmouth College, Howick learned to row. He subsequently competed in internationals for Canada at the 1994 World Championships, and won a silver medal at the 1994 Commonwealth Games.[10] He also competed in The Boat Race 1996 representing Oxford.[11]

Career

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Howick has worked at the University of Oxford, including at the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine since 2007. Together with Muir Gray, he founded the Oxford Empathy Programme,[9] and the Oxford Philosophy and Medicine Network.[12] His main post is at the University of Leicester where he is the director of the Stoneygate Centre for Excellence in Empathic Healthcare.[13]

Howick designed a trial of placebo treatments for back pain for a BBC Horizon documentary.[14]

Howick's research combines Philosophy of medicine with medical research (especially Evidence-based medicine.[15] Howick's book, The Philosophy of Evidence-Based Medicine[16] is a critical defense of the Evidence-based medicine Hierarchy of evidence.

References

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  1. ^ "Medical evidence through a philosophical lens | University of Oxford". www.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 22 August 2025.
  2. ^ Sissons, Rob (11 October 2024). "Leicester: Empathy can be taught, maternity trainer insists". www.bbc.com. Retrieved 22 August 2025.
  3. ^ Fleming, Nic (22 May 2017). "'I knew they were sugar pills but I felt fantastic' – the rise of open-label placebos". the Guardian. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  4. ^ "Funding boost for empathy research". Retrieved 22 August 2025.
  5. ^ "Sigma Xi Member Directory". Retrieved 22 November 2022.
  6. ^ Jeanblanc, Anne (27 February 2020). "Jeremy Howick, le Dr Placebo d'Oxford". Le Point (in French). Retrieved 22 August 2025.
  7. ^ "Jeremy Howick (1994) - Wearers of the Green". Dartmouth College Athletics. Retrieved 22 August 2025.
  8. ^ Howick, Jeremy (2008). Philosophical essentials in evidence-based medicine: Evaluating the epistemological role of double blinding and placebo controls (phd thesis). London School of Economics and Political Science.
  9. ^ a b "Oxford Empathy Programme". Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  10. ^ "World Rowing". World Rowing. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
  11. ^ "Rhythm and Light Blues". The Independent. Archived from the original on 26 January 2025. Retrieved 22 August 2025.
  12. ^ "Oxford Philosophy and Medicine Network". Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  13. ^ "Stoneygate Centre for Excellence in Empathic Healthcare". Retrieved 22 November 2022.
  14. ^ "Placebos and Back Pain". BBC. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  15. ^ Broadbent, Alex (2013). "Jeremy Howick, The Philosophy of Evidence-Based Medicine. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell (2011), 248 pp., $61.95 (paper)". Philosophy of Science. 80 (1): 165–168. doi:10.1086/668882. ISSN 0031-8248.
  16. ^ Jeremy Howick (23 February 2011). The Philosophy of Evidence-based Medicine. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-4443-4266-6.

Further reading

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  • Gavin Francis, "What Do You Expect?" (review of Kathryn T. Hall, Placebos, MIT Press, 2022; 201 pp; and Jeremy Howick, The Power of Placebos: How the Science of Placebos and Nocebose Can Improve Health Care, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2023; 304 pp.), The New York Review of Books, vol. LXXII, no. 11 (26 June 2025), pp. 30–32. "[O]ur culture has become so medicalized and reductionistic that warm and empathetic care, with its immense proven benefits for the way that a patient feels and heals, has been deprioritized to an optional extra rather than a core element of medicine. A rebalancing is in order: doctors need more time with their patients and, yes, more use of honest placebos – because they work." (p. 32.)
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