http://www.blog.sethroberts.net/2009/09/09/med-school-profs-as-drug-company-lackeys/ Self-Experimentation, Scientific Method, the Shangri-La Diet, etc. Fri, 12 Mar 2010 02:24:33 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.7 http://www.blog.sethroberts.net/2009/09/09/med-school-profs-as-drug-company-lackeys/#comment-342460 Sat, 12 Sep 2009 14:27:22 +0000 http://www.blog.sethroberts.net/2009/09/09/med-school-profs-as-drug-company-lackeys/#comment-342460 [...] It was recently estimated that 46% of treatments have unknown effectiveness.   There are all kinds of ways that treatments might look more effective in research publications than they really.  See here, here and here for a few examples.  This suggests to me that we are probably spending way too much on useless treatments.  Based largely on the RAND experiment, Robin Hanson argued that medical spending could be cut in half.  The RAND experiment found that people randomized to the full health coverage group spent 40% more on health care, but did not have better outcomes.  While variations in health care spending do not seem to explain differences in outcomes, other types of variations do (lifestyle, environment).  Phillip Longman has a very interesting essay on the topic:  A child born today can expect to live a full 30 years longer than one born in 1900. Improvements in medicine, however, played a surprisingly small role in this achievement. Public health experts agree that it contributed no more than five of those 30 years.This may seem counterintuitive given the attention society pays to medical breakthroughs. But the changes in living and working conditions over the last century are the real reason. American cities at the turn of the last century stank of coal dust, manure, and rotting garbage. Most people still used latrines and outhouses. As recently as 1913, industrial accidents killed 23,000 Americans annually. Milk and meat were often spoiled; the water supply untreated. Trichinellosis, a dangerous parasite found in meat, infected 16 percent of the population, while food-borne bacteria such as salmonella, clostridium, and staphylococcus killed millions, especially children, 10 percent of whom died before their first birthday. [...] […] It was recently estimated that 46% of treatments have unknown effectiveness.   There are all kinds of ways that treatments might look more effective in research publications than they really.  See here, here and here for a few examples.  This suggests to me that we are probably spending way too much on useless treatments.  Based largely on the RAND experiment, Robin Hanson argued that medical spending could be cut in half.  The RAND experiment found that people randomized to the full health coverage group spent 40% more on health care, but did not have better outcomes.  While variations in health care spending do not seem to explain differences in outcomes, other types of variations do (lifestyle, environment).  Phillip Longman has a very interesting essay on the topic:  A child born today can expect to live a full 30 years longer than one born in 1900. Improvements in medicine, however, played a surprisingly small role in this achievement. Public health experts agree that it contributed no more than five of those 30 years.This may seem counterintuitive given the attention society pays to medical breakthroughs. But the changes in living and working conditions over the last century are the real reason. American cities at the turn of the last century stank of coal dust, manure, and rotting garbage. Most people still used latrines and outhouses. As recently as 1913, industrial accidents killed 23,000 Americans annually. Milk and meat were often spoiled; the water supply untreated. Trichinellosis, a dangerous parasite found in meat, infected 16 percent of the population, while food-borne bacteria such as salmonella, clostridium, and staphylococcus killed millions, especially children, 10 percent of whom died before their first birthday. […]

]]> http://www.blog.sethroberts.net/2009/09/09/med-school-profs-as-drug-company-lackeys/#comment-342230 Fri, 11 Sep 2009 13:33:32 +0000 http://www.blog.sethroberts.net/2009/09/09/med-school-profs-as-drug-company-lackeys/#comment-342230 [...] New York University professor of obstetrics and gynecology Lila Nachtigall, whom I mentioned recently, said nice things about estrogen replacement therapy to a Newsday reporter. The story fails to say that she gets money and ghostwriting from Wyeth, which makes the pill used in that therapy. [...] […] New York University professor of obstetrics and gynecology Lila Nachtigall, whom I mentioned recently, said nice things about estrogen replacement therapy to a Newsday reporter. The story fails to say that she gets money and ghostwriting from Wyeth, which makes the pill used in that therapy. […]

]]> http://www.blog.sethroberts.net/2009/09/09/med-school-profs-as-drug-company-lackeys/#comment-342111 Thu, 10 Sep 2009 23:25:35 +0000 http://www.blog.sethroberts.net/2009/09/09/med-school-profs-as-drug-company-lackeys/#comment-342111 Aaron, that's a good example. Aaron, that’s a good example.

]]> http://www.blog.sethroberts.net/2009/09/09/med-school-profs-as-drug-company-lackeys/#comment-342015 Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:51:46 +0000 http://www.blog.sethroberts.net/2009/09/09/med-school-profs-as-drug-company-lackeys/#comment-342015 I know one psychopharmacologist at UCLA who stopped taking drug company money to fund his research. He said it was too difficult to maintain his scientific objectivity when they kept pressing him for certain results and progress. If only more medical scientists could do the same, but alas the lure of money is probably too much for many people to overcome. I guess they'd rather give up (or change) their ethics instead. I know one psychopharmacologist at UCLA who stopped taking drug company money to fund his research. He said it was too difficult to maintain his scientific objectivity when they kept pressing him for certain results and progress. If only more medical scientists could do the same, but alas the lure of money is probably too much for many people to overcome. I guess they’d rather give up (or change) their ethics instead.

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