It's Great! Oops, No It Isn't ― Why Clinical Research Can't Guarantee the Right Medical Answers

This book dissects medical research methodology and through a penetrating inquiry into its triumphs and tragedies explains why correct answers are so hard to achieve. What emerges from this inquiry is the unexpected and stunning conclusion that medical researchers can never be sure that they’ve ended up with a truthful answer. In It’s Great! readers learn why the quest for knowledge through clinical trials is fraught with problems that even the best researchers cannot overcome.A fascinating gallery of cases illustrates the perils investigators face. Particular emphasis is given to the “clinical trial”, the so-called gold standard for medical research, and its seven fatal flaws show succinctly why getting the right research answer is so problematic. In example after example, the author challenges the notion that medical research is too complex for the average citizen to comprehend. Understanding the imperfect world of clinical research allows the reader to step up and begin to ask his or her own questions, to challenge conclusions, to have doubts and not be afraid to raise them. People who care about their health and the health of others should not be innocent bystanders; they have a right, maybe even an obligation to become involved. After all, it’s their health that is at stake.