We were giving the weekly reading to our
athletes. It is an article written by a
physician regarding what is happening in Oncology. Of course, this is happening in Medicine in
general, because we are ruled by pharmaceuticals and we have plenty of doctors
that functioned as buffoons or cheerleaders.
A new class
of physician has emerged in the era of social media. I call them "Twitter
cheerleaders." A Twitter cheerleader is someone who bestows lavish praise
on a new cancer drug, paper, trial, or test, while an objective and impartial
look at the data may suggest caution or, at a minimum, less exuberant language.
Cheerleaders uncritically parrot drug company marketing. How can readers
recognize cheerleaders? Here are some of my tips…
1. Cheerleaders
celebrate press releases that don't contain information on the magnitude of
benefit.
2.
Cheerleaders celebrate a paper without
reading it.
3.
Cheerleaders call a drug that does not
improve overall survival "miraculous."
4.
Cheerleaders think any drug, no matter
how marginal or ineffective, will be useful and it is just a matter of patient
selection or some yet-to-be-discovered combination.
5.
Cheerleaders re-tweet cost-effectiveness
analyses sponsored by the maker of the cancer drug that show favorable results.
6.
Cheerleaders make frequent, lavish, hyperbolic
claims about the future.
7.
Cheerleaders point to improvements in
5-year survival statistics as a measure of how good cancer drugs have become.
Instead of
cheerleaders, what we desperately need from physicians are realistic appraisals
of what has been accomplished. Clear statements of future cancer goals. Cancer
research funding policies that are driven by evidence, and greater honesty
daily in the examination room and on the wards. Take off the rose-tinted
sunglasses with the Pharma logo, and see the world with your own eyes. We would
all be better off with fewer cheerleaders and more true scientists.
Hey, we are not talking about Trump. This is something to be aware of Medicine in
the USA. This was present when I
practiced there, but now they have megaphones (twitter) to do so.
Some Federations and related governing bodies practice
marketing the same way the drug companies do.
They buy buffoons or cheerleaders to do the dirty job for them. It is a matter of taking a look at our own environment
and the way they twit or the way they do not twit. Depending on the way of marketing we have the
triathletes we deserve. We do not twit
at all.
