Posted on 11/25/2008 9:04:03 PM PST by neverdem
Sylvia Syvenky went for a routine dental appointment in early October, expecting to have two caps on her teeth replaced. But something went terribly wrong.
“I felt like I was choking,” Mrs. Syvenky said. “I couldn’t take a breath. All sorts of gurgly sounds were coming out of me.”
She was rushed by ambulance to University Hospital near her home in Edmonton, Alberta, where doctors placed a mask on her face and forced air into her lungs. They told her she had heart failure. After her condition improved, they asked her to sign up for a study of a new drug to help with breathing.
Mrs. Syvenky is like many with heart failure who arrive at hospitals, unable to breathe. Yet she is the last person who would normally be asked to join a research study. At age 70, she was much older than typical study participants and her symptoms were too complex.
But now there is a growing movement to gather a new kind of evidence, the kind that will fill some of the biggest gaps in medical science: What treatment is best for typical patients with complex symptoms, like Mrs. Syvenky? Many are elderly with several chronic conditions and taking several unrelated medications. And what are the long-term effects of a treatment — death rates, side effects, progression of the disease?
A group of advocates, including medical researchers, medical societies and insurers, is lobbying Congress to pay for an Institute for Comparative Effectiveness Research that would assess treatments and identify gaps in evidence. When there are gaps, the institute would initiate what are being called “real world,” or “pragmatic,” clinical research trials to gather the evidence.
Some leading...
--snip--
“There has been a 90-degree turn” in thinking, said Dr. Eugene Braunwald, an eminent cardiologist at Harvard Medical School...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Harvard is sitting on $37 billion in endowments. How about private educational institutions pick up the tab for a change instead of the taxpayer?
At this point, since we are one with big world government (see China), does anyone really care about the elderly any longer? I thought the marixist thought was to euthanize all the "uselss" people.
University cancels cystic fibrosis fundraiser because disease only affects white men That's wrong. The article is very short.
FDA Finds Traces of Melamine in US infant Formula
Did NBC Risk Employees Lives in a Green Agenda Stunt? You'll laugh at these fools!
FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.
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