3 ms·
> But here’s the thing: he has no idea why vertebroplasty works. So a few years ago, he decided to test it against a placebo. Kallmes found that pretending to p
by golemotron 8y ago
> But here’s the thing: he has no idea why vertebroplasty works. So a few years ago, he decided to test it against a placebo. Kallmes found that pretending to perform vertebroplasty – making it seem like he was injecting a needle into the spine but without the cement – had similar effects. About 40 percent of both groups experienced immediate relief from pain after the surgery. He published his results in the New England Journal of Medicine.
How did he manage not to be sued into oblivion?
- jschwartzi 8y agoProbably because he was making an effort to understand the efficacy of his own treatment which any reasonable person would understand to be the opposite of negligent.
- golemotron 8y agoIf you were a patient who paid for something and didn't get it.. this is malpractice. There's a chance that if you were in the 60% that had no positive effect, you might've had the effect if you had the treatment. A reasonable person would sue, and a reasonable jury would compensate.
- darpa_escapee 8y agoIt reads as if he conducted a study in which he got informed consent from its participants. As is, they were told that they'd either receive an injection with the cement or a placebo injection, and they agreed to participate under those terms.
- golemotron 8y agoHopefully that was the case.
- darpa_escapee 8y agoI'd like to believe the journal he submitted his findings to has a rule about publishing papers that used unethical means to obtain data.