Science has authority not because of white coats or titles, but because of precision and transparency: you explain your theory, set out your evidence, and reference the studies that support your case.
BEN GOLDACREThere is this peculiar blind spot in the culture of academic medicine around whether withholding trial results is research misconduct. People who work in any industry can reinforce each others’ ideas about what is okay.
More Ben Goldacre Quotes
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But as we will see, even these things are hard to do on your own, and in reality require wholesale social and political changes.
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Teaching needs an ecosystem that supports evidence-based practice. It will need better systems to disseminate the results of research more widely, but also a better understanding of research, so that teachers can be critical consumers of evidence.
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You are a placebo responder. Your body plays tricks on your mind. You cannot be trusted.
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Doctors and patients need as much data as possible to make an informed decision about what treatment is best.
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I write about misuses of evidence in plenty of different spheres: scaremongering journalists, obvious quacks and naturopaths, and flaws in the way that evidence is used in mainstream academia, medicine and in (government) policy.
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Positive findings are around twice as likely to be published as negative findings. This is a cancer at the core of evidence-based medicine.
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I spend a lot of time talking to people who disagree with me – I would go so far as to say that it’s my favourite leisure activity.
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I hope that you will be asked to participate in a trial at some stage in your disease
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I think you’ll find it’s a bit more complicated than that.
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As it is a major component of blood, water is vital for transporting oxygen to the brain. Heaven forbid that your blood should dry out.
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There are many differences between medicine and teaching, but they have much in common. Both involve craft and personal expertise, learned through experience; but both can be informed by the experience of others.
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These corporations run our culture, and they riddle it with bullshit.
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The plural of anecdotes is not data
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Just just because there are flaws in aircraft design that doesn’t mean flying carpets exist.
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You cannot reason people out of a position that they did not reason themselves into.
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