I find it unfortunate having to inform reader James Reichmann, (Letters, April 1) who prefers his physician to recommend only treatments proven in the "synthesized medical literature," that the very literature on which he wishes his life to depend may be tainted.
As Dr. Roy Poses points out on the Healthcare Renewal Blog, numerous factors common in today's culture can and do corrupt the literature.
The factors include but are not limited to: rampant commercialization of medicine, research universities with lax conflict of interest policies, faculty as de facto employees of industry through grants, academics paid to be "key opinion leaders" to stealth-market drugs and devices, control of clinical research given to commercial sponsors, conflicts of interest allowing manipulation and suppression of clinical research, academics taking credit for articles written by commercially paid industry "ghost writers," whistleblowing discouraged, leadership of academic medical centers by business people and medical school leaders becoming stewards (as members of boards of directors) of for-profit health-care corporations.
As for me, until the medical literature can be freed of these contaminants, I'd rather trust a well-trained personal physician's good judgment in my own medical care.
Scot Silverstein, M.D.
Drexel University
Philadelphia
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 