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>I feel like current research models have seriously underperformed in recent years... The research models have performed as they always have, if not better. T
by searine 11y ago
>I feel like current research models have seriously underperformed in recent years...
The research models have performed as they always have, if not better.
The only thing that's changed is the introduction of know-it-all Silicon Valley VCs who think bio is the same as software.
- drcode 11y ago> The research models have performed as they always have, if not better. I'm not an expert on the history of progress in medical research... however, I do have a medical degree. Bottom line, I have higher standards and think we could be doing a lot better. Regardless, without counterfactual data it's really a very subjective question.
- sndean 11y agoIf you haven't seen it, this a pretty interesting and controversial paper: Increasing disparities between resource inputs and outcomes, as measured by certain health deliverables, in biomedical research http://www.pnas.org/content/112/36/11335.full http://www.pnas.org/content/112/36/11335.full Basically, increased funding of biomedical research hasn't resulted in better output, and that we do, indeed, need to change the model. The current model is really inefficient.
- Someone 11y agoI don't think that paper clearly shows that. It could also be that the low hanging fruit has been taken, and that, as we reach for ever more hard to reach fruits, the effort needed per unit of health improvement necessarily increases. Another explanation could be that the money givers haven't gotten as much health improvements as they would want because they haven't directly asked for them, as this paper acknowledges: "A recent focus on productivity has dominated the competitive evaluation of scientists, creating incentives to maximize publication numbers, citation counts, and publications in high-impact journals. [...] The efficiency of society’s investments in biomedical research, in terms of improved health outcomes, has not been studied." Computer programmers do not produce more profitable programs if you pay programmers by lines of code, either.
- sndean 11y agoAh, maybe "better output" should have been "health improvement." And yeah, I heard Casadevall speak at a conference and "used up low hanging fruit" was one of the theories. It's less likely that there'll be another penicillin moment. It's all pretty depressing, and very true that it's all driven by Science/Nature/Cell publications, not by discoveries.
- drumdance 11y agoIt's certainly not a recent phenomenon. Genentech was founded in the seventies, and Kleiner Perkins was one of the original investors.