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 I have enormous respect for the scientific method, and I believe, when properly applied, it can provide us with profound and valid truths that can guide and direct our treatment strategies.

 But what many people fail to appreciate is that much of the research published has been deeply influenced and severely tainted by tremendous conflicts of interest and profit-driven motives.

 Shockingly, according to a British poll from last year, more than one in 10 scientists and doctors claimed to have witnessed colleagues deliberately fabricating data in order to get their research published.

 Needless to say, this kind of medical and scientific fraud has profound implications for patients. After all, published research is used to devise medical recommendations for patients across the country, if not the world.

 Other hallmarks of the American health care system are gross overcharges, billing fraud, and the routine use of tests and treatments that have little or no benefit-or worse, do more harm than good.

Fraudulent Data May Have Led to Use of Risky Treatment in ICUs

 One of the latest examples of scientific fraud endangering patients is that of a type of starch (hydroxyethyl), which is used intravenously to replace lost blood volume in critically ill patients. A recent report by MedicineNet.com reveals that this practice turns out to be based on studies “loaded with fraudulent data,” and actually does more harm than good:

    
“‘According to a new review article in the Feb. 20 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, the starchy solution may instead boost their risk of death or kidney failure,’ the featured article says.

     ‘Almost certainly, what is happening is that some of the starch molecules leak out of blood vessels into the kidney itself so the kidney doesn’t work as efficiently,’ said Dr. David Taylor, chairman of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Ochsner Health System in New Orleans. He was not involved in the new review.”

 The issue was initially uncovered in 2011, when investigators discovered that a majority of the research conducted by Dr. Joachim Boldt, a German anesthesiologist, contained fraudulent data. Several of his studies were subsequently retracted. When Dr. Boldt’s research was excluded from the pool of available research on the treatment, hydroxyethyl starch was found to be associated with an
increased risk of death, kidney failure, and need for dialysis.