A wonderful look at the recent controversy over mammography for women in the 40-50 age range is in the Feb 19 issue of Science (remember myVPN connection to UBC network). A great discussion of the intersection of evidence with the wonderful spectrum of humanity.
Archive for the ‘Ethics’ Category
More Avandia
Posted by rbrands on February 28, 2010
From the “you’ve got to be kidding me” file, here is an article from the New York Times, about how GlaxoSmith-Kline attempted to co-opt Dr. Steven Nissen (Cleveland Clinic) when they found out about his upcoming study about the risks of Avandia. Highlights: a scientist who is reviewing Dr. Nissen’s manuscript sends a copy to GSK, GSK then starts lying, and just can’t stop once they start. Dr. Nissen tapes his meeting (legally) with GSK. The lies can’t be denied.
How does medical science move forward if this is how things work?
Posted in Ethics, Therapy | Tagged: Ethics, Therapy | Comments Off
Publish or perish (in China)
Posted by rbrands on January 19, 2010
Nature (2010-Jan-14) has a couple of articles about what happens when real humans (and these are scientists) are rewarded in certain ways. Humans are humans everywhere, and misconduct happens. This article has a discussion of the amount and importance of activities like ghostwriting, bypassing peer review, and forgery. In China there are 800+ websites involved in such activity, with 210,000 hits per day. “There is a massive production chain for the entire publishing process.”
Later in this issue, you can read about a new journal that took articles from existing journals and just replaced all the previous branding. They were otherwise happy with the original electronic typesetting!
Remember to connect to the UBC Library via MyVPN to view these links!
Our very own scandal, again!
Posted by rbrands on January 8, 2010
In case you can’t get to the Medical Post article mentioned previously, here is a link to a story in the Montreal Gazette about our very own academic leader who apparently published (as single author), an article she didn’t write. Fortunately the contents of the article (about estrogen) are all true, and can guide us when we think about estrogen as a therapy.
Posted in Ethics, Therapy | Tagged: Ethics, Therapy | Comments Off
We (Canada) botched mammography!
Posted by rbrands on January 8, 2010
Referring to the CNBSS trial at the Radiologists Society of North America annual meeting recently, Dr. Dan Kopans, a prominent American radiologist states the study was “botched”, although he apparently didn’t give any supporting statements. In response, Dr. Steven Narod, a Toronto epidemiologist and leader in breast cancer research, called Dr. Kopans remarks “scientific misconduct.” Dr. Narod also is quoted in the Medical Post article here as stating that “I think he knows absolutely nothing about epidemiology.”
Why do we need to know epidemiology anyway?
PS: YOU MIGHT NEED TO NOW ENROLL IN “www.CanadianHealthcareNetwork.ca” TO GET ACCESS TO MEDICAL POST CONTENT. SORRY ABOUT THE INCOVENIENCE.
Posted in Diagnosis, Ethics | Tagged: Diagnosis, Ethics | Comments Off
Renowned Canadian researcher puts name on paper she did not write, stands by results!
Posted by rbrands on November 23, 2009
Take a look at the Medical Post (www.medicalpost.com) for an interesting article. You need to register (it’s easy), then go to http://www.medicalpost.com/news/article.jsp?content=20090910_130117_13308. This is an ongoing story with many interesting aspects. You might get there also by Googling “Researcher ensnared by ghostwriting scandal stands by her estrogen work”. Personally, eminence counts for a lot when I read a paper! And “Canada Research Chair” makes my eyes open that much wider.
