Sunday, December 6th: 1:30 – 3:30 pm
The Royal Society's motto “Nullius in verba” has been taken to mean “take nobody's word for it”. In essence, withstand the domination of authority and verify all statements with scientific facts.
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the processes for reliable data acquisition, analysis, and dissemination. Chaos is threatening to replace evidence-based scientific paradigms. We have seen off-label use of medications without proof of benefit, and a push to change the rules of evidence for drug approvals in order to rush vaccines to market. There has been a decline in the role of, and trust in, some of our most respected scientific institutions including our disease control agencies, scientific journals, and our frontline caregivers. How can we restore public trust in the scientific process, and the basic concept of “evidence”?
The goal of this session is to construct a new paradigm to address these challenges, which will be facilitated by our co-chairs, Prof. Joao Ferreira from the University of Lorraine and Nancy Hospital in France and Dr. Murray Epstein from the University Of Miami Miller School Of Medicine in Miami, FL, USA.
We will look at the role of the scientific community, medical journals, regulatory agencies, and industry in improving the accurate reporting, and dissemination of scientific information. The session will solicit input and recommendations for developing a template to return the scientific focus to randomized controlled clinical trials, and discuss strategies to promote accurate scientific reporting, and deal with social media-propagated “news”.
Presenters and participants in the moderated multi-stake holders’ debate will include trialists (Robert Califf, Durham, USA, and Mandeep Mehra, Boston, USA), editors of print (Joseph Alpert, Am J Med, Tucson, USA, Robert Golub, JAMA, Washington, USA, John Jarcho, NEJM, Boston, USA, and Stuart Spencer, The Lancet, London, GBR), and online media sites (Larry Husten, CVCTCardioBrief, New York, USA), and regulatory personnel (Ellis Unger, US FDA). This should be one of the most highly attended forum session, set an alarm, block your calendar, and be sure to log on for this one.