“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.” There is much truth in this quotation of uncertain provenance. We see this phenomenon regularly in the medical profession. We see it in medical journals when statistics are presented in a manner that exaggerates the benefit of a treatment or a diagnostic test. Massaging numbers is raised to an art form by the pharmaceutical companies who will engage in numerical gymnastics to shine a favorable light on their product. It’s massaging, not outright mendacity. The promotional material that pharmaceutical representatives present to doctors is riddled with soft deception. A favorite from their bag of tricks is to rely upon relative value rather than absolute value. Here’s how this works in this hypothetical example. A drug named Profitsoar is tested to determine if it can reduce the risk of a heart attack. Two thousand patients are participating in the study. Each patients receives either Profitsoar or a
MD Whistleblower presents vignettes and commentaries on the medical profession. We peek 'behind the medical curtain' and deliver candor and controversy in every post.