Two Very Different Cases Where Seeing the Data Makes a Difference

For your consideration;

1) The NIH announced last week that they were ending a multi-year study on blood pressure years early due to overwhelming evidence (see here in the NY Times). This has raised some criticism however, as without more information doctors cannot act on the findings. Physicians Eric Topol and Harlan Krumholtz called for medicine to move at a faster speed in a NY Times op-ed Don’t Delay News of Medical Breakthroughs on the NIH blood pressure study. The Incidental Economist Aaron Carrol expresses similar concerns here in a bit of a rant. Sarah Hedgecock gives an explanation and some examples from Twitter here on Forbes.

2) In the Chronicle of Higher Education,  Landmark analysis of an Infamous Medical Study Points out the Challenges of Research Oversight, co-authors of the recent re-analysis and the re-evaluation of Paxil as ineffective and unsafe for adolescents emphasize their work as a step toward creating a framework for similar reviews going forward. They believe that this requires access to patient level data from clinical trials.