Medical Study Findings too Often Fail to Provide Us Useful Knowledge
Posted on July 24, 2013 Comments (1)
There are big problems with medical research, as we have posted about many times in the past. A very significant part of the problem is health care research is very hard. There are all sorts of interactions that make conclusive results much more difficult than other areas.
But failures in our practices also play a big role. Just poor statistical literacy is part of the problem (especially related to things like interactions, variability, correlation that isn’t evidence of causation…). Large incentives that encourage biased research results are a huge problem.
Lies, Damned Lies, and Medical Science
This array suggested a bigger, underlying dysfunction, and Ioannidis thought he knew what it was. “The studies were biased,” he says. “Sometimes they were overtly biased. Sometimes it was difficult to see the bias, but it was there.” Researchers headed into their studies wanting certain results—and, lo and behold, they were getting them. We think of the scientific process as being objective, rigorous, and even ruthless in separating out what is true from what we merely wish to be true, but in fact it’s easy to manipulate results, even unintentionally or unconsciously. “At every step in the process, there is room to distort results, a way to make a stronger claim or to select what is going to be concluded,” says Ioannidis. “There is an intellectual conflict of interest that pressures researchers to find whatever it is that is most likely to get them funded.”
Another problem is that medical research often doesn’t get the normal scientific inquiry check of confirmation research by other scientists.
Related: Statistical Errors in Medical Studies – Medical Study Integrity (or Lack Thereof) – Contradictory Medical Studies (2007) – Does Diet Soda Result in Weight Gain?
Categories: Funding, Health Care, Life Science, Research, Science
Tags: data, experiment, Funding, human health, medical research, scientific inquiry, statistics
One Response to “Medical Study Findings too Often Fail to Provide Us Useful Knowledge”
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July 26th, 2013 @ 10:23 am
Can’t but agree. In my opinion the problem lies in the fact that such studies need thorough researches, enough time and more importantly funding. People who pay for carrying out these researches seldom realize for time consuming they are, so they stop at some point before some actual results appear.