Meta-Research Debunks Medical Study Findings

jenningsthecat writes "From The Atlantic comes the story of John Ioannidis and his team of meta-researchers, who have studied the overall state of medical research and found it dangerously and widely lacking in trustworthiness. Even after filtering out the journalistic frippery and hyperbole, the story is pretty disturbing. Some points made in the article: even the most respected, widely accepted, peer-reviewed medical studies are all-too-often deeply flawed or outright wrong; when an error is brought to light and the conclusions publicly refuted, the erroneous conclusions often persist and are cited as valid for years, or even decades; scientists and researchers themselves regard peer review as providing 'only a minimal assurance of quality'; and these shortcomings apply to medical research across the board, not just to blatantly self-serving pharmaceutical industry studies. The article concludes by saying, 'Science is a noble endeavor, but it's also a low-yield endeavor ... I'm not sure that more than a very small percentage of medical research is ever likely to lead to major improvements in clinical outcomes and quality of life.' I've always been somewhat suspicious of research findings, but before this article I had no idea just how prevalent untrustworthy results were."

Comments

Reality check

[koreaman]

If medical research were really as close-to-useless as The Fine Summary claims, we'd be hardly better off with modern Western medicine than with homeopathy and prayer. Clearly, we are, refuting the idea that medical research doesn't do a huge amount of good. I'm not saying it isn't flawed, but give it some credit.

Re:Reality check

[Anonymous Coward]

Over time I became immune to placebos, I now take Extra-Strength Placebos (liqui-gels). Twice the inert ingredients!

Re:Reality check

[instagib]

I skimmed TFA, and it's important to note that scientific base research (for new pills, procedures, etc.) is not the issue here. This is about studies, i.e. field testing of large numbers of patients, and the (wrong, causation != correlation, etc.) interpretations that are made public afterwards. Funny enough, until recently, criticising the official results of medical studies was seen as conspiracy theory by those in power in medical circles.

Re:Reality check

[zrbyte]

If medical research were really as close-to-useless as The Fine Summary claims, we'd be hardly better off with modern Western medicine than with homeopathy and prayer.

True.

Top notch research is what makes all the medical breakthroughs, but this is only the top few percent of ALL medical research. IMHO one of the main reasons there are so much bogus papers out there is because of the publish or perish attitude in academia, which requires researchers to have a set number of papers published to be eligible for research funding, tenure, other career advancements. I know from experience (although not in medical research, but natural sciences) that sometimes you have to publish a paper even if you know that the results aren't meaningful, or of value to anyone. Then there are people who publish things that were not subjected to rigorous testing, double checking of data, etc. which can easily turn out to be wrong. Lastly there are the cheats. All I'm trying to say is that it's more of a science policy problem than a problem with the integrity of researchers. If the number of publications has to go up, then their quality will surely decrease. Very few research groups (the ones which have good funding) have the luxury of publishing only every now and then. But when they do it's usually a Science or Nature paper. This problem os quality VS quantity is most serious in China. However, not even journals such as Nature are immune to this.

Quack Attack

[Anonymous Coward]

The problem I know because I am (retired) RN. I went to my MD for a severe sinus infection and chest infection some years ago. During the visit I asked for Abuterol Inhailer to assist with clearing my chest. This is standard Respiratory Therapy stuff. They gave me a puffer which I took home, used 10 or 15 puffs out of and threw it in the drawer. Ever after that BCBC has me as Diagonsis Asthma. I am not asthmatic. This will screw up my healthcare for the rest of my life! Makeing all of these errored stupid databases cross link will do far worse than this. My daughter (age 23) was emergency taken to the local hospital with what appeared to be an Epileptic Seizure. Consequences included she couldn't drive for 6 months! I will skip the details, her seizure was a cardiac seizure. It took her actually taking her case to the local Fire Department to get a heart monitor strip to make this undeniable. She is now treated well but forever she will be DX Epileptic even though it is completely wrong. Does any sane person want this sort of a system where you cannot go to another doctor and have him/her look at you rather than some record first? Who wants in that trap? If you are an MD in that trap even if you see that the record is wrong, you can go to jail, lose your job etc all if you go against this insane record that is completely in error. Please wake up people this is a prison without walls! You cannot escape! You will have to leave the country to get away from a bad diagnosis or a stupid keystroke error. Remember the computers have a forever memory and no intelligence.

Re:We've known this for years

[Profane MuthaFucka]

I'd replace item C with regular fucking. Don't see the quacks, just fuck someone. Chiropractors are worthless and evil. Fucking is fucking AWESOME!