Saturday 2 April 2011

Petikan Minggu Ini - personal testimony

PERSONAL testimony is not permitted in scientific articles or other approved evaluations of drugs or medical procedures, as it is a practice open to bias and abuse.

It would be all too easy to round up satisfied patients who offer positive reports about a chosen treatment or procedure in letters or interviews.

'Quacks' may not go in for presenting research evidence for efficacy, but they love to give a simple cure rate, which is frequently given at around 80 per cent - not too high to be thoroughly unbelievable, but high enough for the needy to find irresistible.

Source: as mentioned by Shapiro, R. (2009). Suckers: How Alternative Medicine Makes Fools of Us All. London: Vintage Books. (check it out HERE)

Note: 

- The Oxford English Dictionary defines a 'quack' as someone who is an 'impostor in medicine' or 'one who professes a knowledge or skill concerning subjects of which he is ignorant'. 

- The word is derived from the Dutch 'kwakzalver': one who prattles or boasts about their supposedly healing salves.

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