Ben Goldacre on Bad Pharma
Ben Goldacre is one of my favourite authors. A sensible degree of cynicism mixed with a cynical degree of sensibility. If you enjoyed his early works such as – Bad Science and Bad Pharma…then the next installment will be right up your alley – Do Statins Work?
In this TED talk, Goldacre talks about the publication bias in favour of positive trials – such that ‘only freaks get published’. Highlighting examples such as reboxetine and oseltamivir (tamiflu) he shows that publication bias is a cancer eating at the heart of evidence-based medicine. Goldacre asks all to call for the mandatory publication of all drug trials ever performed to fix this disastrous situation.
References:
- Bad Science – the website
- Bad Science: Quacks, Hacks, and Big Pharma Flacks
- Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients
- I Think You’ll Find It’s a Bit More Complicated Than That
- Do Statins Work?: The Battle for Perfect Evidence-Based Medicine
Chris is an Intensivist and ECMO specialist at The Alfred ICU, where he is Deputy Director (Education). He is a Clinical Adjunct Associate Professor at Monash University, the Lead for the Clinician Educator Incubator programme, and a CICM First Part Examiner.
He is an internationally recognised Clinician Educator with a passion for helping clinicians learn and for improving the clinical performance of individuals and collectives. He was one of the founders of the FOAM movement (Free Open-Access Medical education) has been recognised for his contributions to education with awards from ANZICS, ANZAHPE, and ACEM.
His one great achievement is being the father of three amazing children.
On Bluesky, he is @precordialthump.bsky.social and on the site that Elon has screwed up, he is @precordialthump.
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