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There seems to be a strong trend in medical research, (at least in mainstream medicine), to publish only positive results, and to only publish results which agree with the current thinking. Obviously, this stifles creative thinking, and suppresses new innovations.
There can be a tendency for medical and scientific journals to preferentially publish positive studies. In other words, studies that are in line with current thinking are more likely to make their way into the scientific literature than negative ones. In this way, existing dogma can essentially go unchallenged – something that is inherently unscientific.
The red emphasis is mine, of course, and those quotes come from a recent Blog by Dr. Briffa, titled, Scientific evidence appears to be becoming steadily more unreliable.Recently, researchers from the University of Edinburgh in the UK published an analysis of 4,600 research papers from a wide range of disciplines including clinical medicine, psychology, psychiatry and pharmacology. The research was published from 1990 to 2007. What the researchers noted was a steady decline in the proportion of negative studies over thie time period. In 1990, some 30 per cent of studies were negative, but by 2007 this figure had dwindled to just 14 per cent.
There is evidence, therefore, of an increasing tendency for the scientific community to churn out ‘more of the same’. The pressures on researchers and scientists to produce ‘meaningful’ results can ultimately lead to us getting a very biased view on reality. On the outside, an increasing consistency of positive results can look like the evidence is becoming ever more reliable. In reality, though, the evidence may in fact be getting steadily less reliable.
This is just one example why science is not always to be trusted implicitly, and why those who stick slavishly to it are usually not to be trusted either.
http://www.drbriffa.com/2011/09/16/scie ... nreliable/
In view of that, is it any wonder that Dr. Fine is unable to get publication approval for his radically different innovations in diagnosing and treating gluten-sensitivity and other food-sensitivities?
Apparently I'm not the only one who believes that the "Good Old Boys Club" atmosphere that seems to prevail in medical research, is a powerful deterrent to innovation, and improved methods.
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