Greek academic finds that between a third and a half of the most acclaimed research in medicine may be untrustworthy

Dr John Ioaniddes / Atlantic / Robyn Twomey/Redux

With much of the debate over stem cells centring
on the success of treatments, can peer-reviewed studies which report success be
trusted?

A feature in the latest issue of Atlantic
highlights the work of a Greek academic who is a world leader in the study of
the credibility of medical research. Dr John Ioannidis, of the University of
Ioannina, has found that between a
third and a half of the most acclaimed research in medicine may be
untrustworthy.

Dr Ioannidis was struck by how many studies
have been disproved by subsequent studies – even randomised controlled trials,
the gold standard of research.

“Baffled, he
started looking for the specific ways in which studies were going wrong. And
before long he discovered that the range of errors being committed was
astonishing: from what questions researchers posed, to how they set up the
studies, to which patients they recruited for the studies, to which
measurements they took, to how they analyzed the data, to how they presented
their results, to how particular studies came to be published in medical
journals.”

“At
every step in the process, there is room to distort results, a way to make a
stronger claim or to select what is going to be concluded,” says Ioannidis.
“There is an intellectual conflict of interest that pressures researchers to
find whatever it is that is most likely to get them funded.”

In a famous article in the open access
journal PLoS Medicine he contended that scientists were frequently manipulating
data analyses, advancing their careers rather than science, and even manipulating
the peer-review process to suppress opposing views.

Ioannides
is by no means anti-science, he tells Atlantic. “The
scientific enterprise is probably the most fantastic achievement in human
history, but that doesn’t mean we have a right to overstate what we’re
accomplishing… Science is a noble endeavor, but it’s also a low-yield endeavor.
I’m not sure that more than a very small percentage of medical research is ever
likely to lead to major improvements in clinical outcomes and quality of life.
We should be very comfortable with that fact.” ~ Atlantic,
November

Michael Cook
medical statistics
research

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Michael Cook

Michael Cook edits BioEdge, a bioethics newsletter, and MercatorNet, an on-line magazine whose focus is human dignity. He writes from Sydney, Australia.

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