The Failure of Scientific Research

There is a fascinating article in the November edition of The Atlantic magazine about the work of Dr. John Ioannidis. His research was originally published PLoS Medicine in 2005 (I'm surprised I haven't run across it sooner). The title of the current article about his work should give you an idea of what it's about: Lies, Damned Lies and Medical Research.

The bottom line? Dr. Ioannidis's research and analysis found that 80% of the most common type of medical research, the non-randomized trial, turns out to be wrong. The so-called gold standard of research, randomized trials, are in error up to 25% of the time. Even large, randomized trials (often called the platinum standard of medical research) was found to be wrong up to 10% of the time.

What was especially interesting was how many years incorrect medical information continued to be accepted by doctors as normal medical treatment, frequently a dozen years or more.

And doctors wonder why patients are confused? Is anyone surprised that medical research involving prescription drugs was the worst for credibility? Is it any wonder that patients are more interested in therapies that have been used for decades, hundreds or even thousands of years instead of the best of "modern" medicine?

Here's a link to: Lies, Damned Lies and Medical Research.

Surgical Errors Reported

A survey commissioned by the American College of Surgeons and published in the Annals of Surgery finds that 9% of surgeons admit to a “major medical error” in the past three months. So let's see, that means in a year's time there could be more than 1/3 of all surgeons making major medical mistakes? Or is it just the same 9% making errors all year long?

Is it any wonder that more than 100,000 people are killed each year in hospitals due to medical errors and failures? Obviously the culture of medicine has flaws that are literally killing people and need to be fixed for the benefit of both doctor and patient.

Medical Mistakes Take, Ruin Lives

Ten years ago the Institute of Medicine (IOM) estimated that 98,000 people die each year needlessly because of preventable medical mistakes including hospital infections. Estimates are that preventable medical mistakes still account for more than 100,000 deaths each year. In other words 1,000,000 lives have been lost over the past decade, not to mention those hurt or maimed by mistakes.

There is going to be a forum later this month by Consumer's Union Safe Patient Project called To Err Is Human, To Delay Is Deadly to review this situation and search for improvements. It will be webcast so anyone who is interested may listen and watch the proceedings on November 17, 2009 from 10am-3:30pm EST.

Can you imagine if any one of the 300+ therapies listed in my book killed 100,000 people every year? The media would be all over us but the medical systems' status quo doesn't even rate a paragraph in the back of the paper today.

Congress's Sting Catches Colorado Company

A congressional sting operation has caught Coast IRB. The company approves clinical-trial designs and patient-safety guidelines but it appears their first concern is profit, not patient safety. Their work involves oversight of patient safety during clinical trials and they will now voluntarily halt many of their review operations at the request of the Food and Drug Administration according to the FDA. The action could affect 300 trials involving more than 3,000 researchers and includes work for several major pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical-device companies.

It's about time somebody stepped up and started looking out for us!

FDA Works For ?

You've probably heard that those wonderful folks who brought you Thalidomide, Vioxx and other wonderful drugs, the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), have now decided that a little melamine is safe for babies. The deaths of children in China apparently has taught them nothing about the situation.

"This FDA, this Bush administration, instead of protecting the public health, is protecting industry," said Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), who chairs the Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the FDA budget. In an interview, DeLauro said she wants the agency to disclose its findings and to develop a plan to remove melamine from formula. "We're talking about babies, about the most vulnerable. This really makes me angry."

'Nuff said.

More Dangerous Drugs

The current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association features a study warning against a new generation of "biological" drugs. Nearly 1/4th produce serious side effects that lead to safety warnings soon after they went on the market.

Many thought since these drugs to treat common diseases were made from biological sources they'd be more safe than traditional artificial drugs but that is turning out not to be the case. Side effects include brain infections and cancer.

As more and more evidence piles up is anyone really surprised anymore?

Perhaps it's useful to put it all in historical perspective. It was a little more than 100 years ago that mainstream medicine was treating patients with mercury and other heavy metals as the correct medical treatment of the day. Today we know they were killing people. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Consumers Will Make Better Choices

Consumers Union is starting a new hospital rating service to offer an unbiased review. You may know them better as the folks behind Consumer Reports, the popular magazine with valuable information about cars, appliances and other consumer products. They were already offering reviews of health insurance plans, drugs and some medical treatments so this new service is just a new step down the path. They will report on about 3,000 facilities.

The index is based on the research of the Dartmouth Atlas Project which has shown that more intense (and expensive) medical care doesn't necessarily correlate with better results. (For more information please read Shannon Brownlee's book OVERTREATED.)

While consumers need to know more about the quality and cost of care the question is whether they will care.

A Little Sunshine

The dark and mysterious world of mainstream medicine is getting a little more sunshine thanks to a new government website. Now Medicare and Medicaid customer satisfaction and performance information is available at www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov so you can learn about the hospitals in your area and make an informed choice.

The data is the result of a 27-question survey that more than 2,500 hospitals around the country gave to patients between Oct. 2006 and June 2007. Hospitals were required to survey at least 300 patients but many questioned many more.

It's a small step towards consumer education, but a good one!

Medical Risks

How often have we heard 20-20 medical hindsight after deaths raise an issue to a headline story? The latest example of "those risks were completely unanticipated" comes from the first follow-up study of hormone use after menopause. While heart problems linked to the pills appear to fade after stopping the medication new cancer risks appear.

You may remember this study was halted six years ago due to heart risks and breast cancer. Now we find out years later that lung tumors and other cancers become a problem. Those who'd taken hormones but stopped were 24% more likely to develop any kind of cancer.

As usual doctors are trying to play down the problem saying it only affects 3 women out of 1,000 on the hormone pills. Try telling the 3 women with cancer that it isn't a big deal. Better yet, try BEING one of the 3 women with cancer and see how you feel.

Another Day, Another Drug Problem

How can I not say something about the latest problem drugs? This time it's Vytorin and Zetia, the ones you see on TV every night. Research shows that they're no more effective at slowing heart disease than older, cheaper drugs. Generics cost about $1 per pill while these two superstar drugs cost about $3 per dose.

The fact that the study was released nearly two years ago is another issue. Why and how did the FDA approve these drugs in the first place? Zetia was approved in 2002 and Vytorin in 2004. In 2006 doctors wrote about 18 million prescriptions for Vytorin and about 14 million for Zetia.

As usual, all we have to do is follow the money to learn how modern medicine works in America today.

And this is the industry that questions the safety and effectiveness of complementary and alternative medicine? Therapies that have been used successfully for decades if not hundreds or thousands of years? If there was more money to be made with CAM than drugs then that's what you'd see on TV every night.

The Standards of Doctors

Interesting study done by Massachusetts General Hospital recently about the ethics of doctors. It seems 45% of those responding admitted they hadn't always reported impaired or incompetent colleagues or significant medical mistakes. And these are the same folks complaining about the safety of complementary and alternative medicine?

1/3 admitted they'd order an unnecessary and expensive MRI scan just to get rid of a complaining patient while 25% said they'd refer patients to an imaging center in which they had a direct financial interest ... and not bother informing the patient of the conflict of interest. Ethics, anyone?

America Has The Best Health Care?

How can anyone believe that America has the best health care in the world when pregnancy kills 1 in 4,800 American women? Our country ranks #41 in motherhood mortality, and this isn't a case of a small difference. Ireland has only 1 death in 47,600 pregnancies. Italy has only 1 in 25,900. Germany 1 in 19,200. Sweden 1 in 17,400. Spain 1 in 16,400.

America has 1 pregnancy death in every 4,800. We're tied with the East European country of Belarus.

The report was issued by the World Health Organization.

I continue to bring up the state of health care in America to open your eyes to the world of CAM, complementary and alterantive medicine. American doctors don't walk on water and health care in our country is not the best in the world even though we spend more on health care than any other nation on the planet. It's time to consider other options, to think about changes.

The Safety of Health

The first question I'm often asked is "How safe are these complementary and alternative therapies?" My first response is that none of them kill 100,000 people every year but that's how many people die from hospital infections.

Today I have a better answer because according to the New England Journal of Medicine report most children don't receive proper care. While 68% receive proper care for acute medical problems only 53% receive the correct care for chronic health problems and just 41% get the right treatment for preventative care.

In radio interviews I often tell the story/joke about the two fishermen saving drowning people and how they represent mainstream medicine. Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) looks for the source of the problem, the maniac on the bridge upstream throwing innocent pedestrians into the river. The latest report demonstrates that the story isn't far from the truth.

Medicine in America does a great job of treating acute problems but fails at preventative care. It's almost like the medical system doesn't want to lose any customers, isn't it? More and more doctors are becoming specialists to treat the acute problems leaving America with 1/3 fewer general practitioners than other industrialized countries to offer preventative care.

Every news report about failures in the current medical system should open the eyes of every person in the country to other, often better, options called complementary and alternative therapies.