28 MAY 2013 by ideonexus
Actuarial Escape Velocity
actuarial escape velocity is defined as occurring when a year of medical research adds more than a year’s worth of longevity to the total population. Nothing even close to this has ever been achieved, and emerging signs of an asymptotic curve in progress suggest this velocity may neverA medical concept, when medical research extends lifespans at a rate of more than one year per one year of research.
18 JAN 2013 by ideonexus
Why Do Journals Get It Wrong?
Why do studies end up with wrong findings? In fact, there are so many distorting forces baked into the process of testing the accuracy of a medical theory, that it’s harder to explain how researchers manage to produce valid findings, aside from sheer luck. To cite just a few of these problems: Mismeasurement To test the safety and efficacy of a drug, for example, what researchers really want to know is how thousands of people will fare long-term when taking the drug. But it would be unet...Why do journals publish so many papers with wrong results (2/3rds wrong by some estimates)?