Now this article is extremely relevant and necessary to these times! A very hot issue, or should be, especially with Science has recently been claimed as "Set", by those using it to manipulate the media and population, even though there have long been studies showing that who funds a study can determine whether or not it becomes part of the body of knowledge, if not the actual framework or parameters, and there for out come of the study. Thanks!
Thanks. There are two parts to the problem, scientific and public health. In the science end, the ground rules are that you have to consider that the authors published in good faith. You have to consider that the sponsor had no influence on the outcome -- however much you may suspect otherwise -- because there's no science once there are outside influences. So I can only bring out the faults in the science and ideally show how it should be done right, that is, how we learn something. It's good that we have people who can investigate the politics and economics. On Substack, NIna Teicholz, Gary Taubes and Mayanne Demasi have presented well the corporate and academic influences. So I am constrained to bringing out the errors in the science itself and can't accuse the authors. Of course, there is the problem, as in the Yeats poem, "How can we know the dancer from the dance?"
I’m glad to have found your substack! Exciting work with PNC-27 and appreciate your timely discussion of EBM. I had never thought about the overlap with legal rules of evidence, so this is excellent food for thought!
I wanted to state a simple typo/factual error for you to correct: you have the specialities of Drs. Cifu and Mandrola mixed up - Dr. Cifu is the internist and Dr. Mandrola is the cardiologist (specifically cardiac electrophysiologist).
I then wanted to mention the work of Bruce Charlton as an especially good addition to understanding the history and philosophical/methodological problems with EBM. He was one of the initial vociferous critics of the EBM movement. He calls it a “zombie science”: “Zombie science is not driven by the scientific search for truth…it is animated and moved only by the incessant pumping of funds”. His blog reproduces his personal reflection on what happened: https://charltonteaching.blogspot.com/2009/08/zombie-science-of-evidence-based.html
Now this article is extremely relevant and necessary to these times! A very hot issue, or should be, especially with Science has recently been claimed as "Set", by those using it to manipulate the media and population, even though there have long been studies showing that who funds a study can determine whether or not it becomes part of the body of knowledge, if not the actual framework or parameters, and there for out come of the study. Thanks!
Thanks. There are two parts to the problem, scientific and public health. In the science end, the ground rules are that you have to consider that the authors published in good faith. You have to consider that the sponsor had no influence on the outcome -- however much you may suspect otherwise -- because there's no science once there are outside influences. So I can only bring out the faults in the science and ideally show how it should be done right, that is, how we learn something. It's good that we have people who can investigate the politics and economics. On Substack, NIna Teicholz, Gary Taubes and Mayanne Demasi have presented well the corporate and academic influences. So I am constrained to bringing out the errors in the science itself and can't accuse the authors. Of course, there is the problem, as in the Yeats poem, "How can we know the dancer from the dance?"
I’m glad to have found your substack! Exciting work with PNC-27 and appreciate your timely discussion of EBM. I had never thought about the overlap with legal rules of evidence, so this is excellent food for thought!
I wanted to state a simple typo/factual error for you to correct: you have the specialities of Drs. Cifu and Mandrola mixed up - Dr. Cifu is the internist and Dr. Mandrola is the cardiologist (specifically cardiac electrophysiologist).
I then wanted to mention the work of Bruce Charlton as an especially good addition to understanding the history and philosophical/methodological problems with EBM. He was one of the initial vociferous critics of the EBM movement. He calls it a “zombie science”: “Zombie science is not driven by the scientific search for truth…it is animated and moved only by the incessant pumping of funds”. His blog reproduces his personal reflection on what happened: https://charltonteaching.blogspot.com/2009/08/zombie-science-of-evidence-based.html