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Clinical trials

To catch a crook, you might try statistics

Nature Reviews Neurology volume 13, pages 9–10 (2017)Cite this article

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A new systematic review detected strong evidence of unreliable results via use of statistical and logical analyses of 33 randomized clinical trials. Our outrage at these rare occurrences of potential fraud could be rooted in our disdain at our failures in peer review, given that this special effort was required to detect long-running potential fraud.

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biostatistics, Gary R. Cutter is at the UAB School of Public Health, 1667 University Boulevard, Ryals Building Room 410b, Birmingham, Alabama 35243, USA.,

    Gary R. Cutter

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  1. Gary R. Cutter
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Correspondence to Gary R. Cutter.

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Competing interests

The author is on Data and Safety Monitoring Boards for AMO Pharma Apotek, Gilead Pharmaceuticals, Horizon Pharmaceuticals, Modigenetech/Prolor, Merck, Merck/Pfizer, Neuren, Opko Biologics, Reata Pharmaceuticals, Receptos/Celgene, Sanofi-Aventis, Teva pharmaceuticals, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (Protocol Review Committee), National Institute of Child Health and Development (OPRU oversight committee). He runs MS Patient Registry, which receives a grant from Consortium of MS Centers. Moreover, he is on Consulting or Advisory Boards for Cerespir, Genzyme, Genentech, Innate Therapeutics, Jannsen Pharmaceuticals, Klein-Buendel Incorporated, Medimmune, Medday, Nivalis, Novartis, Opexa Therapeutics, Roche, Savara, Somahlution, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Transparency Life Sciences, and TG Therapeutics. He is President of Pythagoras, a private consulting company located in Birmingham, Alabama, USA.

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Cutter, G. To catch a crook, you might try statistics. Nat Rev Neurol 13, 9–10 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrneurol.2016.194

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