The Tobacco Industry and Research

Here's a rather provocative report in the Lancet (a very important British medical journal) on the potential influence of the tobacco industry and medical research. It just makes it all the more difficult for healthcare practitioners to make important decisions on behalf of our patients.

Research data can be skewed and distorted in so many ways that I just can't emphasize the importance of unbiased, unsullied research and researchers. As low a regard as I have for the legal profession, I hold those who would obstruct the acquisition of high quality, useful data in even less.

The impact of second-hand smoke on the health of those exposed could well be the next big explosion in product liability litigation.

I now offer the following (semi-) rhetorical question: how many people believe that merely disclosing funding sources insures that research results won't be biased?