Thursday, January 03, 2008

Painfully Distorted Medical News

Lies, damned lies, and statistics or how to use accurate data for inaccurate conclusions. In short, how to use numbers to lie.

Free drug samples go to wealthy and insured

Insured patients go to doctors while the uninsured go to clinics and the emergency room. Pharma reps usually don't hang out at clinics and emergency rooms. Coincidence? I think not.

As for the wealthy, I guess if you use the liberal definition of wealthy, then yes, the wealthy get most of the samples if being wealthy is defined as those with a job.

Read the story and pay close attention to the cherry-picked stats. This story is a classic.