Here's a weak effort to discredit my argument through misdirection and personal attacks. Only my kids can do that with any success.
http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2007/09/over-top-denunciation-of-comparative.html
I have posted my response below in case HCR doesn't see fit to publish it.
If you are going to attack me you had better have your facts right. Not even close.
1. You treat congestive heart failure with anti-hypertension drugs. Ask any doctor.
2. At the risk of being deliberately misconstrued again, I will refer you to the A-HeFT study and it's design which included BiDIl with OTHER anti-hypertensives to prolong survival from congestive heart failure.
3. As for the ALLHAT study, nice of you to ignore step 1. Let me quote Dr. Michael Weber who was an investigator in ALLHAT on the design of the study and it's impact on blacks..."it was poorly designed, the interpretations were disingenuous, it violated appropriate scientific reporting, and most frightening, it did something that was so unethical that if a pharmaceutical company had done it or any of us as individual academics had done it, we would not only be thrown out of our jobs, we would be pilloried and maybe even be facing criminal charges: And one thing that did show up in favor of diuretics, the fact that they cause fewer strokes than one of the other drug classes, was driven entirely by a 40% excess stroke rate in black patients that was predictable before the study began. "
Like I said Avorn attacked BiDil for being a lousy study but peddles his academic detailing plan and uses ALLHAT as a dispensing model.
You can try to sling mud about the fact that CMPI accepts grant from drug companies -- and we do so proudly because they actually invent things that help people -- but get your freakin facts right. If you don't know that hypertension drugs are used to treat heart failure don't talk about them. And I know a lot more about the ALLHAT situation then you ever will. What's nonsense is you trying apologize for a movement that places the cost of drugs over the quality of human life. As for the rest of the post, I am still waiting to see evidence that people are less interesting in hating drug companies than in helping people live. Most of the post are biased in that they believe drugs are part of the apparatus by which corporate capitalism maintains inequalities that harm society and the health care system. Keep drugs off the market and strike a blow for economic justice and health equity. If people die in the process so what? The end justifies the means. That is what drives the comparative effectiveness movement.
http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2007/09/over-top-denunciation-of-comparative.html
I have posted my response below in case HCR doesn't see fit to publish it.
If you are going to attack me you had better have your facts right. Not even close.
1. You treat congestive heart failure with anti-hypertension drugs. Ask any doctor.
2. At the risk of being deliberately misconstrued again, I will refer you to the A-HeFT study and it's design which included BiDIl with OTHER anti-hypertensives to prolong survival from congestive heart failure.
3. As for the ALLHAT study, nice of you to ignore step 1. Let me quote Dr. Michael Weber who was an investigator in ALLHAT on the design of the study and it's impact on blacks..."it was poorly designed, the interpretations were disingenuous, it violated appropriate scientific reporting, and most frightening, it did something that was so unethical that if a pharmaceutical company had done it or any of us as individual academics had done it, we would not only be thrown out of our jobs, we would be pilloried and maybe even be facing criminal charges: And one thing that did show up in favor of diuretics, the fact that they cause fewer strokes than one of the other drug classes, was driven entirely by a 40% excess stroke rate in black patients that was predictable before the study began. "
Like I said Avorn attacked BiDil for being a lousy study but peddles his academic detailing plan and uses ALLHAT as a dispensing model.
You can try to sling mud about the fact that CMPI accepts grant from drug companies -- and we do so proudly because they actually invent things that help people -- but get your freakin facts right. If you don't know that hypertension drugs are used to treat heart failure don't talk about them. And I know a lot more about the ALLHAT situation then you ever will. What's nonsense is you trying apologize for a movement that places the cost of drugs over the quality of human life. As for the rest of the post, I am still waiting to see evidence that people are less interesting in hating drug companies than in helping people live. Most of the post are biased in that they believe drugs are part of the apparatus by which corporate capitalism maintains inequalities that harm society and the health care system. Keep drugs off the market and strike a blow for economic justice and health equity. If people die in the process so what? The end justifies the means. That is what drives the comparative effectiveness movement.
