Why Most Clinical Research Is Not Useful

John P A Ioannidis

doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1002049

Why Most Clinical Research Is Not Useful

PLoS Med. 2016 Jun 21;13(6):e1002049. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1002049. eCollection 2016 Jun.

Author

John P A Ioannidis^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Stanford Prevention Research Center, Department of Medicine and Department of Health Research and Policy, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, California, United States of America.
² Meta-Research Innovation Center at Stanford (METRICS), Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, United States of America.

Abstract

John Ioannidis argues that problem base, context placement, information gain, pragmatism, patient centeredness, value for money, feasibility, and transparency define useful clinical research. He suggests most clinical research is not useful and reform is overdue.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Biomedical Research / classification
Biomedical Research / organization & administration
Biomedical Research / standards*
Humans

Grants and funding

The Meta-Research Innovation Center at Stanford (METRICS) is funded by a grant from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation (http://www.arnoldfoundation.org). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.