How to kill the scientific method and still get it right.
You know what?
Science is sometimes not scientific.
I think you already know that, but I’ll remind you.
The fact at the p value has to be less than 0.05 is not scientific.
The fact that research is carried out on spinal muscular atrophy type IV and not on malaria is not scientific.
And I say it quietly, I whisper it to you, because it has to remain between us.
Because if you say it out loud and someone without scientific training hears it, one of those on the internet, we will only feed the psychotic universe of flat-earthers, antivaccine and reiki followers.
So, here, in private…
Science falls on the side of the research groups with more power.
And publishing on the NEJM sometimes depends on how much you twist the data.
But that’s not the most serious thing.
Can I tell you what I think is the most serious thing?
The fact that clinical trials are what rule.
Because sometimes clinical trials play a very dirty game.
Which is to include the minimum possible number of variables.
Not one more.
This is done because the fewer the variables, the cheaper.
But also because we exclude the variables that we believe are not going to be in our favor.
Don’t tell me that this is not a violation of the scientific method.
It’s done every day.
And those who try to fight it with Real World Data are punished, vilified and demanded twenty times more.
But it is inevitable that it will come.
It has already arrived, actually.
And since getting a lot of data in a short time is expensive and slow, machines and big data are suddenly becoming important.
Who would have thought it. In one of the most technologically abused worlds.
Well, here it is.
And if you want to do a project using machine learning techniques to bring up the whole clinical reality, not a fragment, it’s here.
But beware… If what you want is to get the innovative project of the year award, you’d better not call. You can do it with one of those technology companies that are eager to get into medicine and don’t know how, the poor things. If you’re already eating at the senior table, here.