Putting Medical Science Under the Microscope, Part 1

These aren’t the only reports on this topic. Look here, and here, and here, and here for more. Non Reproducibility occurs in all types of medical research — in the lab with test tubes and cell cultures, and in living people. The evidence is overwhelming: somewhere north of 50% of medical research can’t be replicated.

Science is supposed to be a logical, organized method of reaching conclusive, universally-applicable results. Reproducibility is a hallmark of science. If the results of a experiment can’t be replicated, is it science? Or is it guessing?

Let me be clear, I like science. I believe in science. I have spent my adult life applying scientific principles and discoveries in an effort to help and cure. But when I read the data, I’m beginning to lose faith. I’m starting to wonder if all of us are being led astray.

We are in the age of genomic medicine, an age of scientific miracles, where disease can be detected with DNA probes and treatments can be tailored to target individual genes. Medicine will become more and more precise. Or at least that’s the promise.

But the scientific truth is, the science underlying these promises is shaky. Over the next few posts, I’ll discuss the dark side of miracle drugs and what happens when we rely on medical research which isn’t as sure as we think it is.  

It’s time for science to put itself under the microscope. Our health is riding on it.