Qi Spot

Sweet Mother of God.  How can anyone have the gall to accuse Traditional Chinese Medicine of having little or no “evidence” to back it up when the “evidence” for some western medicine is even more immaterial than how these skeptics perceive qi.  Qi is hardly immaterial, by the way.

Doc Accused of Faking Celebrex Study from nbcconnecticut.com states that a physician was able to publish a clinical study saying that the drug had post surgical benefits…with NO patients enrolled in the study.

All of a sudden “evidence based” and “peer review” lose their luster.

These skeptics say Chinese medicine relies more on anecdotal evidence or small sample size.  Right now I’ll take small sample size over NO sample size.

Here’s the article:

A Massachusetts doc, who is also a former member of Pfizer Inc.’s speakers’ bureau, is accused of launching what is being called “one of the biggest research frauds in medical history,” according to The Day of New London.  And he has agreed to plead guilty, according to a Massachusetts newspaper.

Dr. Scott Reuben, who is accused of faking medical research studies, including some that were published in medical journals, was charged with health care fraud Thursday in federal court in Boston, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

He’s accused of accepting a $75,000 grant from Pfizer to research the effectiveness of the pain medication Celebrex for a 2005 study, the Day reports.

His research, which the Day reports was pioneering at the the time, indicated that there are post-surgery benefits from painkillers. But no patients were actually enrolled in the study, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release.

Health care fraud.  $75,000 grant.  For the nth time, I recall a famous comment by “some guy who knows some guy”… I’ve quoted that comment in the post previous to this one so forgive me if I’m too tired of copying and pasting it.

The Wall Street Journal reports that he also falsified information about Pfizer’s Bextra and on Merck’s Vioxx.

“Anesthesia & Analgesia” had to retract 10 papers Reuben wrote and medical experts say at least 21 journal articles by the anesthesiologist appear to be fabricated, the Day reports.

Reuben was the chief of acute pain at Baystate Medical Center inSpringfield, Massachusetts, and The Day reports that the hospital let him go last March, after an audit revealed he had been inventing data for as many as 13 years.

Reuben has reached an agreement in which he will plead guilty and prosecutors will recommend a more lenient sentence…

He would also have to forfeit assets of at least $50,000 he got from allegedly fake research, the Journal reports.

The Republican, of Springfield, Massachusetts, reports that Reuben has signed a plea agreement and must return $420,000 to pharmaceutical companies.

Here’s how I see it.  We can say that this guy is just ONE bad apple and should not be used as a basis to judge western medicine as a whole.  In that case we can also say that cases of Chinese medicine causing problems are also due to isolated bad apples.  On the other hand if we are to accept these events as being representative of the pharmaceutical industry in general, then such industry has no right to accuse Chinese medicine for being wanting of evidence.  Either way, the truth is somewhere in the middle: be critical, be wary.  Caveat Emptor, it is said.