”Better evidence for better health”

Physicians and patients understand the need to base their decisions on the best research evidence. But too often the evidence itself is flawed. Poorly designed, badly done, and inadequately reported research, bedevilled by financial and academic vested interest, error and fraud. 

Fiona Godlee will argue that the fault lies in the current system of funding for research, regulation of new drugs and devices, and publication in journals. Together these allow or even encourage "optimism" bias, by which the benefits of treatments are overstated and the harms understated. As a result, the research evidence has become an important driver of overdiagnosis and overtreatment, which causes avoidable harm and increases the costs of healthcare. 

Using stories from her 27 years' experience as a journal editor, she will call for a change to our systems and culture, in order to create evidence that better serves patients and the public.