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Posts Tagged ‘fraud in medical research’

Is misinterpreting scientific papers an Academic crime ? No, its not, I do it often !

Posted in bio ethics, Medical ethics, medical quotes, medical satistics, tagged , , , , , , , on June 28, 2016| Leave a Comment »

medical ethics stastistics www.drsvenkatesan.com

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Academic cowardise and medical obfuscation !

Posted in cardiology journals, cardiology-ethics, Cardiology-Land mark studies, tagged , , , , , , , , on December 31, 2012| Leave a Comment »

 

* Obfuscation:  hiding of intended meaning in communication, making communication confusing, wilfully ambiguous, and harder to interpret

This world can not be a perfect place and  it is foolish to expect the same !   What is published in medical literature is at best , an abstract thinking  of an unfinished agenda . Still public think  science is   . . . what doctors say ! They feel doctors can not simply watch a person  dying. They want us  act like  God. This is  how medical men became Demi-Gods  by default.

Here was a big opportunity . Who exploited it ? Obviously the greedy corporates  who embarked  on a dirty journey to en- cash this trust  and fill their coffers .This is the foundation  on which the  basics of medical market economy rides !

It is an un-pardonable on-going deceit among  modern human civilization . It has  spoiled  the trust between the patient and doctor and  probably  irreversibly  contaminated  in recent decades !

There are very few positives  though,  with occasional noble medical  souls (Like  BMJ,Lancet )   trying to keep the sinking ship afloat !

This sounding board article (Now we rarely  get to see )  from NEJM way back  in 1975  exposes a  shocking revelation  politely . Now, 40 years after ,  the importance of such article has grown  many fold . We are witnessing  every day ,  medical scientist break  stories ( Yes  . . . it is story )  in general media  with  absolute academic cowardice !

We expect more such  face bashing articles from NEJM . It would definitely  make   immense  good  for  our profession  which needs it  desperately !

Reference

I’m linking the original NEJM article ; Hope it does not violate copy right !

http://www.bumc.bu.edu/facdev-medicine/files/2011/03/Crichton_M_nejm1975_293_1257_medical-obfuscation_structure-function.pdf

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Double blinded , prospective , multicentre , randomised nonsense !

Posted in bio ethics, Cardiology -Interventional -PCI, cardiology -Therapeutics, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on June 5, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Medical  research can be divided into few  broad  categories

  1. Basic science  research  in animal models
  2. Basic science  research   in Human
  3. Clinical : Bedside-  observational
  4. Clinical:  Epidemiological
  5. Community based long term data analysis
  6. Interventional -Drug /Device/Surgical

*Logically the  top 5  should  constitute  the bulk of research  ,  in reality    last one wins the race with considerable ease . Why ?

The important issues that  confront  today’s medical research  starts  right from the  “Aim” of the research ,  methods , materials statistics,  and  goes on  to   ethical issues , conflicts, futility ,  gimmicks  0f  publication  ,  marketing and ultimately left  for human assimilation .

(Read a related article in this blog   can  Aim of a study be wrong ?)

Data(s)  won’t  lie  . . .humans do  !

Science is nothing but collection of  facts ,  rechecking  the facts , and  finally confirming ,  they are indeed  facts. So medical  data collection becomes vital .  Data,  if  properly collected ,  wont lie.   Bias is always an issue in prospective trials. Further ,  and whenever and wherever  scientifically  motivated  human  beings interact with  data  the later   becomes a vulnerable  target and  get manipulated   for various reasons . (Read the famous article on data torturing  in  NEJM : I will link it soon  ) So blinding  becomes  mandatory   and it should  be total as some studies  tend  to  gain vision half way through !

Image courtesey : Jupeter images

Simplicity of observational studies.

We  give undue importance to RCTs . What we fail to understand is RCTs are required only  in selected situations in medical research (New drugs and interventions ) Meanwhile , we can do wonders with retrospective observational  data. These  data  can not be  manipulated  as the events  have occurred already and those people who collect or record the data  wouldn’t know this data is going to be utilized  for a study (This  , in fact  is  equivalent  to 100 % natural blinding and constitute a  real world study )

Observational  study can involve  patient behavior ,    disease behavior  , community impact, drug action, investigation modality , etc  . . .etc  . Your mind is the limit . Cost of doing a observational study is less but the impact on the society can be great .

Observing skills are the  biggest causality in modern medical times , This was  only scientific weapon of  our ancestors had , which they  used in an exemplary fashion .( Recall how Heberden described angina and Harvey taught us about circulation without even ECG and X RAY chest )

Fraud in medical research

Wherever big money is flowing corruption and fraud is unavoidable . . .at the  least . . .  we  should recognize it

( Many journals  just point out this possibility by simply displaying message of conflicts .They do not bother more than that  . . . just a warning message  )

Now in the modern scientific world  ,   even as the   genuine contributions   from our ancestors  left to  stare  the back of us  , we try to indulge in all sort  of unpleasant things.

In an audit against fraud in medical  research ,  it was found most of the fraudulent research happened with drug and device trials and few in basic science involving genetics and molecular medicine . It  was  rare to identify fraud in research involving purely clinical and  epidemiological  analysis .

Drug trials  need to be prospective . Vested interest can play  havoc in prospective data .There is a  thing called steering committee in all major studies   . . . we do not know what does the  word  steering really   mean .

There has been many  occasions  even well conducted studies turn out be  fraudulent . Now we realise many such studies are struggling to prove its worthiness .

In fact  it is argued every study before getting published   should undergo a  global ,  independent  trial   monitoring  board for genuineness  of the study . (Not the customary  peer review !)

Final message ( Sorry its  a  long one !)

We have a huge problem  here . I am afraid  we  haven’t even  understood ,  what  we  mean by medical  research !

For today’s   youngsters  medical  research means doing sophisticated  tests in nano- labs  , human genome  mapping ,  space age imaging modalities  or  involving a multi- billion dolor drug trials . This is absolute  falsehood.

What we need to do is   “search” , ” search”  ,  search again (That is   why it is called re-search )  for all those elusive  problems  our patients   face .Not only in their body , in their  home , in their community,  etc . Every  patient  teach us  few points,    observing and learning new things  and  publishing is  also an important aspect of  research .One can do  a instant   research in the crowded  OPD of a hospital   , in the wards , (What is the profile  of fever pattern in a winter season in your hospital ? does it reveal a new viral epidemic ?)

An ideal research  should  identify a problem and suggest a practical solution to a given problem .There are millions of such issue waiting for our attention in the bed side.  But what is happening  currently ? Current medical research is largely direction less ,  fueled by vested interest ,  makes  sure it avoids  all genuine problem areas !

Many studies  happen  based on  flimsy scientific   basis  .We are still  wasting our time to increase human HDL levels. ( Not with standing  the famous Torcetrapib fiasco  )   .Hundreds  of thousand of dollars   are pumped into this  research even after realising  only the  endogenous HDLs generated by natural methods like  exercise   are  the really  good HDL !)

While we do million dollar research   with a dubious risk factor called  high sensitive C reactive protein  ,   there is  no takers against number one killer disease of human kind  namely  “The  poverty” (WHO ICD codeZ59.5 )*

Let us prey   God  to instill common sense to all of us  . Patients  suffer with disease and we suffer from irresponsibility  or reduced responsibility ! It  makes us happy at-least few forces  like Lancet  , British medical journal etc are fighting lone war  against this  ailment  medical science is suffering .

*Please note :  http://www.icd10data.com   WHO labeled poverty as disease many years  back without much fanfare ! It is rarely mentioned in  any  graduate student**  medical text  in whom our future lies .  I do not know whether  Wars  and terrorist acts  been included as disease  or not !

**Our students  rattle about  about the  exotic  tick borne  Lyme disease happening once a year in remote hills ,    while  most will stare blank   when asked  how to diagnose and  treat  nutritional  anemia with  which millions suffer  every day !

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