The latest issue of The Atlantic has profiles brave thinkers. One of these brave thinkers is Dr. John Ioannidis, who is profiled in “Lies, Damned Lies, and Medical Science.” Dr. Ioannidis challenges much of the medical establishment by charging that most medical studies are biased, misleading, or flat out incorrect. In the article, author David H. Freedman writes that “He [Dr. Ioannidis] charges that as much as 90 percent of teh published medical information that doctors rely on is flawed.”
Today, I review some excerpts from this very interesting article.
Bias in Physician Treatment
One study showed that “…the appendices removed from patients with Albanian names in Greek hospitals were more than three times as likely to be perfectly healthy as those removed from patients with Greek names.”
Bias in Research studies
In a discussion with colleagues, Ioannidis suggested that it could be possible “drug companies were carefully selecting the topics of their studies–for example, comparing their new drugs against those already known to be inferior to others on the market–so that they were ahead of the game even before the data juggling began?” In addition, “drug studies have the added corruptive force of financial conflict of interest.”
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