There is hope for medical research yet

I have been accused of going over board in my rants about meta-analysis that are often contradicted by randomized clinical and meta-analysis (MAs) that are critically dependent of the choice of the summary statistics and the choice of studies to include trials and are contradicted by other MAs, and observational studies that link everything to everything else only to be contradicted by other observational trials that fail to do so.

But from time to time my cynicism of the medicine business ( I remember when it was a profession) fades away at the sight of a thing of beauty - a mind boggling piece of clinical research that I can appreciate all the more after years of grueling study and practice . Here is reference to a project that demonstrated that nursing home patients who have trouble seeing do better when they get glasses that help them see. Who would have thought?

And- in the same week, we are treated to a research paper that demonstrated that when clinical trials are done and/or sponsored by a drug company, sometimes the materials is presented in such a way as to put the drug in question in a favorable light. Here is a review of that publication.

The shocking revelations continue.We are also informed that (see here for a review of the research involved) that college students engage in binge drinking, participate in sex that is often unprotected, spend much time on the computer not doing homework and often stay up late. A likely future project is rumored to be investigating if college students call home for money.