How to Interpret New Data

Abstract

A physician tries a new bone active agent in his practice; his patients seem to improve and he is enthusiastic. Another, trying the same agent, sees little patient improvement, but notes serious drug side effects, and becomes convinced that the drug is more trouble than it is worth. Both are wrong, as the Hippocratic maxim suggests. It is impossible to say how much of the difference between the two experiences is due to placebo effects, to variations in the biological makeup of the patients concerned, or simply to random chance.

“... experience is misleading, and judgement is difficult. ” — Hippocrates