Flaws in the Medical Literature: Who’s to Blame?

Abstract

Jerome P. Kassirer, MD, is Distinguished Professor and Senior Assistant to the Dean at Tufts University School of Medicine and Visiting Professor at Stanford University. In editorials in the New England Journal of Medicine, and in multiple publications elsewhere, he has promoted professionalism, ethical scientific conduct, patient involvement in decision making, appropriate use of firearms, reliable assessment of the quality of healthcare, and rational approaches to medical diagnosis and decision-making. He was been critical of for-profit medicine, the abuses of managed care, political intrusions into medical decisions, and financial conflicts of interest. His 2004 book, on financial conflict of interest in medicine, ‘‘On The Take: How Medicine’s Complicity With Big Business Endangers Your Health,’’ was published by Oxford University Press and his 2009 book, ‘‘Learning Clinical Reasoning’’ was published by Lippincott. Dr. Kassirer served as Editor-in-Chief of the New England Journal of Medicine (1991–1999), on the American College of Physicians’ Board of Governors and Board of Regents, chaired the National Library of Medicine’s Board of Scientific Counselors, and is a past Chairman of the American Board of Internal Medicine. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Committee for Quality Assurance and Open Medicine. He has been elected to the Association of American Physicians, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.