Lies, Damned Lies and Medical Science
[Dr. John Ioannidis] and his team have shown, again and again, and in many different ways, that much of what biomedical researchers conclude in published studies—conclusions that doctors keep in mind when they prescribe antibiotics or blood-pressure medication, or when they advise us to consume more fiber or less meat, or when they recommend surgery for heart disease or back pain—is misleading, exaggerated, and often flat-out wrong. He charges that as much as 90 percent of the published medical information that doctors rely on is flawed.
This is David H. Freedman, writing in The Atlantic. The whole article is worth reading.
When I took research design for my doctoral program, the professor explained there was rarely — if ever — a smoking gun study. Knowledge gains are incremental. It requires numerous studies with reproducible findings to determine causation.
Physician, heal thyself.
I’m actually not surprised at this.
It’s actually somewhat sobering to consider what is going on here. Certainly we don’t have anything like eveidence-based medicine.