title: Trials with errors--preserving the integrity of clinical trials.
abstract: The crucial final test of medical research is the clinical trial, which determines whether a drug or discovery really is an effective therapy. All people who participate in clinical trials--researchers, sponsors, volunteers, analysts, reviewers, overseers, others--have opportunities to strengthen or weaken the integrity of the trial system by their behavior. Medical research is now officially married to business, and "profitable" connotes something different to each partner. Only if research and business can profit in parallel will the alliance succeed. Every person who is involved in the medical research business faces temptations and must choose how to react. Each has power and must choose how to wield it. Several centuries before this marriage, the Englishman Izaak Walton noted that "Health is...a blessing that money cannot buy."
authors.forename: R L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Guyer
mesh_terms: D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D016265:Conflict of Interest; D004345:Drug Industry; D028744:Ethics Committees, Research; D006801:Humans; D033281:Nontherapeutic Human Experimentation; D010919:Placebos; D024382:Professional Role; D011643:Publishing; D012108:Research Personnel; D035842:Research Subjects; D012941:Social Responsibility
chemical_list: D010919:Placebos